Underbudget but also Overbudget

[galaga6846]

For 3 days in a row I've been showing Overbudget, even thought I'm clearly under budget. I will post a picture...

[galaga6846]

I can't get the picture to post... but basically it will say 

2600 calories burned

1701 in/2600 out
(you are under budget)

654 calories over

[Debra3817]

Same problem here 1977 in 1992 out 570 over budget. I also have had this problem for about 4 days now.What a motivator! Every update brings a new issue. Fitbit please fix this.

[MariamV]

@Debra3817 & @galaga6846 thanks for your questions! I'll do my best to answer them. Hey just out of curiosity, are you guys logging your food with any third party app such as MFP? If that's the case, then that could be the discrepancy right there. I suggest taking a look at this post explaining your Food Plan and why could it be saying that you're over budget when clearly you guys aren't.

Also, keep an eye to your calorie deficit; for example, let's say you're a short lady like I am. Your BMR might be something like 1250 calories/day but, if you want a deficit of 500 calories per day to lose weight means you need to burn at least 500 more calories than you consume.

Your budget is a "live" assessment of whether you are meeting your deficit. So lets say you've burned 1900 throughout the day so far, and you've consumed 1600. You are over budget because 1900 - 1600 = 300. 300 is less than your goal of a 500 calorie deficit, so you are over budget. But you're still allowed to eat a certain number of calories today (let's say about 130) because by the end of the day, given your BMR, you will have burned say 200 more calories just by living and breathing. Hope this info makes sense guys!

Let me know how it goes!

[Debra3817]

Yes I am logging through my fitness pal for my food intake . I have done so for 2 years and I have been on fitbit for 18 months. I am at my goal weight so mvp has not been updated or modified for calorie consumption in a year. My problem must be with fitbit as this just started with the last update. I have done nothing different in the last 18 months. So based on the time using both apps I understand how things are calculated or supposed to be.

Thanks for the assistance.


Sent via the Samsung GALAXY S®4, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

[MariamV]

@Debra3817 thanks for the update! That's a little odd. Also, verify that your activities aren't logged twice and verify the following:

1. Log in to your Fitbit dashboard and click Log > Activities. 
2. Verify that the activity was not logged twice. 
3. Go to your Account Settings (found under your profile picture), and scroll down to Preferences. Disable Calorie Estimation. 
4. Turn off Personalized Meal Plans in your Fitbit account. 
5. Wear your Fitbit for all activities. 
6. Log your cardio exercise on the MyFitnessPal site. 

Keep an eye to your calorie allotment and keep me posted with the outcome! 

[galaga6846]

I'm not using a 3rd party app. I use all fitbit apps. I'm also fairly tall, I regularly burn 2600 + calories a day. I have the fitbit set to "sedentary" and have a 500 calorie deficit to lose 1 lb a week.

[galaga6846]

[Debra3817]

If my activities were being counted twice my calories would not be showing me over budget, it would show even more of a deficit. I do not log any activity in MVP l, all activity syncs through fitbit and I already where my tracker all the time with the exception of charging it.

I'll buy a garmin for true and accurate information. Fitbit has too many bugs and I'm done with the agrevation


Sent via the Samsung GALAXY S®4, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

[Laud]

Yesterday my calorie intake was about 1000 calories less than the calories out and my plan is to have 750 calories in deficiency. The bar is yellow and shows that I am under budget but the calories section below it shows that I have 165 calories over my plan. This data is from yesterday so it is not going to change anymore. Can someone explain to me how that's posible?

[galaga6846]

Fitbit, you're drunk.

[HelenaFitbit]

Hope you're having a great week so far @galaga6846 and @Debra3817! I'd like to provide some information about this to complement @MariamV's response so we're all on the same page. 

Let's begin with some basics: 

@galaga6846 Are you using a food plan that is adequate to the weightloss you're aiming? As an example, if you need to lose 25-40 pounds; then a calorie adjustment of 500 calories is adequate because you'd be dropping 1 pound per week. But if you have less than 15 pounds to lose, a half a pound goal per week (250 calories deficit) is the best option. 

In @Debra3817's case, please know that MyFitnessPal recommends adjusting your Food Plan for every 10 pounds lost (or prorrated in accordance to the percentage of lost weight). This will prevent a plateau and give your food plan a chance to 'reset' and adjust to your new activity levels. 

Let's move on to something more advanced: 

@Debra3817 We did have a bug from MyFitnessPal that left calorie adjustments not reflecting on the daily budgets and this is still being worked on. However; the Fitbit Platform does not recognize a 'mantaining' food plan when you've reached your goal weight goal from the Fitbit ecosystem. You'll still need to reset it and even then, it will still give a calorie deficit to follow. The best option (when mantaining) is to disable Fitbit's Food Plan and use the 'Mantain' option from MyFitnessPal.

@galaga6846 While it is friday, I can assure you that Fitbit isn't drunk.  I will certainly pass along the information both of you have provided so we can check if our latest Android update created something wonky when working on your Food Plans. 

Last but not least: 

One of the main concerns you are both having is that your In vs Out Gauge and your Food Plan tiles are showing different information. I know it may look buggy or unreliable; but (bear with me) it is meant to be different. 

Weird huh? What happens is that your In vs Out gauge is a real-time calculation of your calorie deficit and shows whether you're in the goal zone set by your Food Plan. This means that your plan's deficit is being pro-rated over the entire day. (here's when having your plan set in Sedentary comes in handy @galaga6846). Now, it differs from your Daily Calorie Estimate tile because the latter is an estimate of your total calories for the day (including BMR, activities, history, deficit and type of plan) and the In vs Out gauge is counting up to that time of the day.

If you wish to get all the details about your Food Plan; this 4 part post series from @SebringDon is the best thing you'll ever read about it. 

Let me know if you have any questions, have a great weekend!

[galaga6846]

I checked all of my settings to make sure everything is right. It is.

@galaga6846 Are you using a food plan that is adequate to the weightloss you're aiming? As an example, if you need to lose 25-40 pounds; then a calorie adjustment of 500 calories is adequate because you'd be dropping 1 pound per week. But if you have less than 15 pounds to lose, a half a pound goal per week (250 calories deficit) is the best option.

I have it set to 500, because I need to lose about 30 lbs. Let me give you an example...  

612 calories over?!??! But, I was 801 under budget!

@galaga6846 While it is friday, I can assure you that Fitbit isn't drunk. Smiley Wink I will certainly pass along the information both of you have provided so we can check if our latest Android update created something wonky when working on your Food Plans.

This actually coincides with the update. It's not that way on my mom's fitbit app. Her's is accurate. 

[galaga6846]

I'm also set to sedentary, even though I definitely am not. 🙂

[Debra3817]

I want to plateau. That's what maintenance is. As far as MFP goes my settings haven't changed for over a year and half. I have not reset fitbit ever. This problem is ridiculous. If fitbit isn't drunk, they are not smarter than a 5th grader. This is simple math. Thursday 1267 in 1892 out and shows 419 remaining not 629 calorie as is the case. Wednesday 1367 in 1750 out remaining shows 318 not 383. Tuesday 1525 in 1789 out shows 160 remains but should be 264. Now for the big KICKER Monday 1676 in 1323 out and it shows 9 remain when actually I was 353 over. These are today's numbers tomorrow they will be completely different. Part of maintenance is to have freedom to go over a few days and cut back to STAY at goal. What good is this tracker if I need to do the old fashion way of writing everything down. Just unbelievable that EVERY UPDATE IS ANOTHER DISASTER


Sent via the Samsung GALAXY S®4, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

[galaga6846]

@HelenaFitbit @MariamV

I'm going to post two pictures of screen shots, same date.

1. September 9th, shown on September 9th

September 9th, shown on September 10th:

There is NO WAY with the calories I burnt and the calories I've eaten that I am 684 calories over budget. This is ridiculous, and this is the reason for me posting this in the first place. I am not on maintience, I am not plateauing. I am still actively trying to get fit.  Please help. 

[Debra3817]

Message failed so re-sending.


Sent via the Samsung GALAXY S®4, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone


-------- Original message --------
From: DEBRA 

Date:09/10/2016 8:55 AM (GMT-06:00)
To: xmnuz23762.prod|4e880e04|6c450227-7142-4f2e-b3f1-f45cd45b0940@reply01.lithium.com
Cc:
Subject: Re: Underbudget but also Overbudget

Remember those numbers I sent yesterday? Compare them to now. Thursday now shows 146 remain and it showed 419 last night when actually it's 629 remain. REAL data 1267 in 1896 out (note the in & out numbers don't change). I won't bore you with all but like I stated in my last post every day shows different totals. What has happened in the past SHOULD NOT CHANGE. After all no data was changed so why is everything recalculating? Friday's new report is 1441 in 1641 out and it shows 28 over when actually it's 200 remaining. Which numbers are accurate? Who runs a business like this? It may come as a complete surprise to fitbit that people who invest their money and their time logging every day are completely committed to their health and well-being. They should be able to have confidence in the product. Lately that is not the case


Sent via the Samsung GALAXY S®4, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

Moderator edit: removed personal info

[amjet12]

Hello, 

After spending quite a bit of time trying to figure out the Calories in/Calories out counter on personalized I finally just put it in sedentary mode to earn back calories throughout the day.  This had me at 300 calories over budget around 9pm last night after eating 1700 calories with a goal of losing 2lbs per week.  I understand that with my activity level yesterday fitbit calculated I should have eated around 1400.  The over budget was slowly decreasing as time went on whereas the personalized side had my calories over budget increasing without eating (this I don't understand).  Anyway it was going down fine syncing between android and computer when i made the change last night.  This morning I checked it and my phone now says im 1285 calories over budget last night without eating anything whereas my dashboard online says im -747 calories from burning throughout the night.  Why are the two not saying the same thing? I've tried restarting the app on my phone but it still says different to the online dashboard. 

Thanks for the help.  

[RodrigoFitbit]

Hello @Laud welcome to the Fitbit Community. Can you please provide me a screenshot of this so that I can see your calorie intake? In the meantime I'm going to phrase what I found in the article How do I track my food with Fitbit?

"The Calories In vs Calories Out meter gives you a look at where you are for the current time of day. This will continually update (assuming your tracker syncs regularly) depending on the food logged and your activity level. Your activity level is determined by the steps you take, any exercises recorded by your tracker, and any activities you log manually. As you walk and exercise through the day, your caloric allowance will adjust to let you know how much more you can eat while staying within your goal zone."

[Laud]

These are two different days from last week:

Laudan Moghadam