Calorie deficit

[Amelia89]

Hi! I'm new to Fitbit and just received my blaze. I'm personalizing all my settings but I'm a little confused on the whole calorie deficit and cals in and out. So I have it set for lose 1.5 lbs/which is 750 cal deficit. Now does that mean I need to just subtract 750 cals from my overall calories? I eat 1200 cals, so I subtract 750 cals leaving me with eating 450 a day?? That obviously can't be right. Can someone please explain this to me. I'm soo lost! Thank you so much in advance!

[SunsetRunner]

Hi, no it means you need a 750 deficit over what you burn. So your daily calorie burn, through activity and "just living", needs to be higher than your daily calorie consumption, by 750.

[AngelaMa]

@Amelia89 welcome to the Fitbit Community!  @SunsetRunner thanks for your amazing explanation about the food plan. @Amelia89 I wold recommend to visit this thread for more information about the Food Plan. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

[Alyusha]

First you need to find your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) . You can find this here https://tdeecalculator.net/ . Fitbit does take this all into account though, but just so maybe this will help you understand better.

Once you fill out the info and get a number, you’ll know how many calories you need to eat each day just maintain your current weight based upon your actives and how much many calories your body needs just be alive. For me that is 3,000 calories a day. Now If I wanted to cut 750 calories a day like you, I would then only eat 2,250 which in theory would take away the 1.5 lbs a week. But you will be different, so you need to figure out your own numbers. Fitbit will calculate all this for you and even change it daily based upon your activity!

So if you lay in bed all day on Sunday, Fitbit will tell you to eat less than it would have said to eat on Friday when you ran 15 miles.

By the way, I am not a medical doctor, but 1,200 calories is on the boarder of sending your body into starvation mode. Many doctors believe you should stay above 1,000 - 1,200 per day. So I WOULD NOT go below 1,200 calories a day for too many days in a row. 

Hope this helps.

[wtksk8r]

Fitbit tries to estimate your calorie expenditure based on your activity level. It provides a real time look at how much you have burned to help you decide what or how much you should consume.  The two tiles showing calories in/out and calories left to eat are based on these estimates but be careful as they come at the calories from different directions.  My explantion of the numbers the tiles show are in this link:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Flex/New-to-Fitbit/m-p/702490#M95240

[AngelaMa]

Hello @Alyusha and @wtksk8r, what an amazing explanation about the calorie intake and the food plan, I'm so happy you are sharing your knowledge 🙂 I really hope to see you around more often 

Happy stepping!