Allow users to enter a customized BMR or RMR

[BarbieAS]

Hi!

For a very long time, I couldn't understand why I wasn't losing weight even though I was eating at the calorie level dictated by my Fitbit - when I say "long time," I mean over a few years (I've been a Fitbit user since May of 2012).  Finally, last year I had my resting metabolic rate tested by my doctor, and found it to be about 25% lower than what it appears Fitbit was using as a baseline for my daily calorie burns.  This made the total daily burns given to me by Fitbit almost useless.

Through a lot of research and trial and error I was able to work something out where I adjusted my age and height as well as switched from a Charge HR to an Alta and I think I've finally gotten my daily burns where they should be.  However: (1) my distance walked each day is incorrect due to not being able to appropriately adjust my stride, (2) my expensive Charge HR is now useless to me (as the change in my age has lowered the HR range for exercise zones for me and significantly over-inflates calories burned), (3) the body fat percentage feature on my expensive Aria scale is now useless to me (it won't even calculate anymore, I assume due to the age I entered since that's when it stopped), and, possibly most importantly, (4) not everyone who runs into this issue is going to have the time and knowledge to figure something like this out.

It's an accepted fact that BMR calculations based on general statistics can be off by a wide margin - they are based on estimates and averages only, and while they're "good enough" for most people they're still going to be grossly incorrect for a lot of Fitbit users.  Being able to take those estimates and averages and replace them with a personalized number based on actual medical testing would be a huge step in making the Fitbit experience infinitely more accurate and useful for those users who need that capability and are armed with the knowledge to address it appropriately.

PLEASE incorporate this feature!!

[Wimbs65]

I would really like a feature allowing for manual adjustment of calories burned (rather than going off of fitbit's approximation based on estimated BMR). Maybe an option to reduce calories burned / step taken or something along these lines?<br><br>My fitbit estimate is often several hundred calories too high, which can mess up MyFitnessPal's calories in vs. out and therefore mess up my intake goals. Ideally I'd love to be able to adjust sensitivity to movement, thereby reducing calories burned projections to be more accurate while still being able to use my fitbit to monitor activity. Currently I have to manually input calories which weren't actually consumed to offset fitbit's estimate by 50% in an effort for more accuracy relative to net calorie goals.

[jkstorm75]

I have a lower BMR than the average person (proven through many years of data collection). Not having the ability to adjust BMR I think is a critical bug. Some people just run cold. I often can't help but laugh whenever I get my vitals taken before a doctor's appointment, and the nurse always takes it more than once to be sure. If it gets below 72 degrees and I'm in a resting state, my fingers start to hurt from being too cold (no, it's not Raynaud's syndrome/phenomenon; no, it's not hypothyroidism). I am a 6'1" 190 lb male at 38 years old. There is no way I burn 2,000 calories a day unless I'm exercising for an extended period... it's just the way I'm built. Today so far I've only had 585 calories, and at 2:50pm, I'm not even hungry for dinner yet.

Moderator Edit: Added Labels

Correcting this bug should be EASY. Please consider it for the people with unusual metabolisms. A simple temperature input as the variable should suffice, or maybe a delta to the BMR, or maybe just the ability to offset the total estimated calorie burn per day at rest.

Thanks

[MacWade]

I agree, my Fitbit pretty close but I would like it to be 100% accurate.  My actual resting BMR is  1771 and the Fitbit has it around 1900.  It would be nice in settings if there was a BMR field and I could just put in 1771 so it would calculate everything else more accurately.

[MaryBfromMD]

I recently had my BMR tested and my actual number is less than 1/2 of what my fitbit calculates. I had to change my height to 2 feet and my weight to 50 pounds to get the correct calorie burn. In doing so I can no longer track my weight loss on fitbit.

Please add a feature that you can input your own BMR. I think this would benefit a lot of users who are not average!

[jkstorm75]

My brother was telling me that the Fitbit will automatically adjust your BMR over time if you can keep accurate records of both your weight and calorie intake. He also said that he was able to directly enter is BMR calorie burn when he set his up... I don't recall ever having this option. It would be nice if someone who knows more could chime in.

[V-Silly]

I would like to see a setting in the user panel that would allow me to adjust calorie burn calculation down by a percentage determined by the end-user. I have read that fitbit over estimates calorie burn by about 10%, I would say from my experience that that is true. After using it a while you come to understand how many calories a day you are burning versus what fitbit calculates, it would be nice to be able to make an adjustment so that the numbers I am seeing are more accurate.
When following the 250 cal plan diet I actually can be gaining weight because I do not burn as much as fitbit is telling me I do

[AmritaFitbit]

Thanks for your feedback about customizable BMR feature! We'll be sure to pass this along to our team. 

[chaseme]

I feel compelled to add my voice to these others regarding the projected calorie burn estimate calculated by my FitBit Charge (which shows up as a calorie adjustment on MyFitnessPal).  SO inaccurate it is useless to pair it with MyFitnessPal. I never burn the number of calories it projects so if I were to eat additional calories based on the projection, I would continually GAIN weight!

A real solution would be great...

[Pjnipper]

As we all know depending on our fitness level our BMR will change which will effect the calorie burn calculation.

I am 5.9 ft and weigh over 14st, but according to bmi I am obese and this will change my BMR calculation, but I am more of a weights person and I am very fit. My bone density and muscle is far higher than average and way off the bmi and bmr charts. They just don't related to me and my body type.

It should be easy enough to add a fitness category to our fitbit profile, for example I.e. Weight lifter, athletic, above average fitness, average fitness, etc.

With advanced option of being able to add your BMR if you know it.

That way our approximate calorie calculation should be more realistic to our fitness levels.

[kkbrennan]

I too would find a manual option to set BMR useful.  I've had a number of body scans that place my BMR about 100 cals lower than the Fitbit algorithm does, so I have to account for when reviewing data (deficit, burn, etc)

[spatula]

Based on my tendency to gain weight even when I'm biking and running every day, I strongly suspect my BMR is much lower than the calculated estimate.  If I ate as many calories as my Fitbit estimates I'm burning in a day, I'd add weight like crazy.

Being able to manually override the calculation would be a much cleaner option than setting my age to 110 in order to cause the calculation to come out with a more reasonable value.

[Tooraj]

I have been using Fitbit for nearly 3 years and I can say it over-estimates my calories burned and certainly is way off with my BMR.

If I go by my dashboard, I am told I burn 7 calories every 5 minutes, i.e. a BMR of 2016 (7x12x24). That is just simply way too high for me!

According to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator, my BMR is estimated to be 1,339, which is more realistic.

I have been told Fitbit uses the same logic as MyFitnessPal's BMR Calculator above, which could mean I am hitting a bug somehow.

Nevertheless, allowsing a customisable BMR seems to be an essential functionality.

[kratos]

So i see the 'customizable BMR' issue was brought up over a year ago and still nothing has been done about it, it's a pretty major issue and could probably be fixed rather easily and would make me and a lot of others much happier with our fitbits, all other functions seem to work pretty well, there also needs to be a system in place for bodybuilders who want to gain lean mass because currently it only lets you maintain or lose weght.

[Tooraj]

I think changing one's height will get around this. What do you think?

Will it also affect the calories burned?

[MattRecknagel]

 This is a conversation I had with the Support Staff, and seeing as a thread for this request has already started thought I would also contribute my input!

An adjustable BMR is a must! I have 9% body fat and much more muscle which in turns burns more calories than your average male of 15-20% body fat at the same weight as me.

Please add this feature as an electable override for the FitBit Charge HR!!

Thanks 😄

Matt

[Tooraj]

Surely, this a must have feature and I am disappointed that it only has 20 votes.  Most Fitbit users wouldn't know what BMR is.

Compared to others with hundreds of votes, we have no chance of ever seeing this come up to the top.

How do we get more vote for this feature?

[Tooraj]

Please see and vote for this feature request:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Requests/Customizable-BMR-or-resting-calorie-burn/idc-p/9537...

[stemloop]

We could try posting it to reddit or other weight loss/ fitness forums...

[ddn1981]

Yup, I seem to have this problem too. I'm overweight - 80 lbs of fat on me. And my BMR from fitbit seems too high. I combine the fitbit app with myfitnesspal which I try to eat and stay under 1800-1900 calories to lose weight generally speaking. I've seen my fitbit add 500-1000 calories depending on what I've done during the day - I don't necessarily want myfitnesspal to 'adjust' and tell me that I can eat a ton more calories. To a point it's working as intended, but the other thing is that most places I calcualte my BMR and it's around 3100-3200 in the day and fitbit somehow gives me 3500-3600. I'm just not to crazy about the numbers I see pop up here and there. I'd like my fitbit to adjust for the calories I burn from exercise - not from a hidden BMR calculated. If I listen and eat what my fitbit and myfitnesspal tells me to - I'd be gaining weight, instead of maintaing and losing it. I think being able to adjust the BMR would solve this.

[richkrt]

PLEASE give us the ability to account for different BMR.

I have known all my life my metabolism is slower than most...and yes, as a result, I need to lose some pounds.  Thought the fitbit was a great gift and excited about it.  However, it is at least a reminder of activity but it is totally worthless for calculating calorie burn.  Accordning to my fitbit, I have a net loss of almost 1000 calories per day over the last three months, yet I have lost a total of 6 pounds in three months.  I have been extremely accurate and judicious about logging every single calorie I put in.  The fitbit simply does not measure my calorie burn accurately.  I have measured my stride, multiple times and know it is accurate.  I know my age, and my weight, but the fitbit simply overestimates my calories burned.  Seems like a simple thing to allow for variance in users' BMR.

I keep hearing how technilogically advanced the fitbit is and they use proprietary algorythums, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.  SO WHAT!  They're Wrong and hence useless.  My wife was the smart one...she returned her fitbit.

If I simply wanted something to count my steps, I could have gotten a much less expensive and less frustrating product.

Fitbit HR, by the way.  And it sucks for counting stairs as well.  I climb the stairs at my work AT LEAST 10 times a day and rarely does the fitbit count more than 3 or 4.

I actually did nothing but climb the stairs up and down 20 times in a row one day and my fitbit accounted for 6 flights. (and no, I'm not counting going DOWN the steps)

I guess I should be grateful it doesn't count stairs - otherwise I would be burning more phantom calories.

[LeshaM]

People have been requesting this for nearly 2 years and this is such a trivial enhancement - why don't you do this?!

I am morbidly obese and it estimates my BMR at 3000 calories a day resting. It reality it's somewhere around 1000. It's not only confusing, but also on days when I exercise a lot (1000+ calories) it simply drowns in the noice of false base burn.

[Blcksnds]

Your caloric expenditures are WAY off. I'm 5'10 and 245lbs so your calculations are expecting me to have a bmr in around 3000, however i actually have a known bmr in the 1900 range. Your app is actually telling me to eat 4000 some odd cals a day to lose weight! This basically renders your app (and thusly your device) useless for me.

Moderator edit: Labels

[CerebralMonkey]

Yes please! According to FitBit's calculations, I should be half dead, listless on the couch for lack of food since my daily calorie consumption is LESS than the stated BMR. Yet, I've spent weeks trying to figure out why my weight loss has stalled since getting Fitbit and can not eat the required calories even with a set 1000 calorie deficit. You either need to add body fat percentage (lean body mass versus body fat) to the basic formula in order to come up with a realistic BMR or allow users to tweak their own numbers.

[Idea15]

Dear Developer Team,

I have a medical condition that lower consistently my BMR. Hence my fitbit BMR calculation is wrong and affect all other statistic. This mean that your product is not that usefull how it could be, and therefore I am considering to return it. Which is a shame since with a quick fix could be the best product I ever bought. Also I was considering to subscribe to Premium, however, same issue, all the amazing stats that premium offer will be totally wrong.

Fitbit BMR calculation do not fit all or customers and according to many of other comments, listed here in fitbit community is far from real. Could you please consider to allow people to enter their own BMR expecially for people with unusual metabolism and health condition? 

Thanks

Moderator edit: Labels

[SunsetRunner]

The Fitbit Team mis-understands a few vitally important mathematical principles and due to this, perpetuates the misperception that they can track your Calorie Burn.
A BMR calculation from Mifflin St-Jeor is not predictions; the value displayed as "your BMR" is actually merely an average from ~250 people. Since Mifflin St-Jeor conducted a scientific process called epidemiology, the only ethical output from this study is a range of values (usually including 95% of the data).
For example: instead of Fitbit App stating that my Resting Calories (RMR) is 1700, it should state clearly: 1490 -1800

Further, one may not take an average and back-calculate to find the n=1 data point for an individual that was not in the study! This is professional negligence!

Fitbit, MyfitnessPal, & SparkPeople, (and many more) are commiting professional negligence in reporting a BMR or RMR from an average population as if it was your metabolic rate. Instead, these companies should only report a "Normal Range"; if a BMR or RMR is displayed, it should:
1) be clearly stated as an estimate

2) be a range that includes 95% of the reference population (Mifflin, Harris-Benedict, etc.)

Analogy of this stupid error by Fitbit:
A 44 year old woman is about to turn 45. She goes online, and looks up the epidemiological data for women in her region of the world, and finds that on average, a woman of 45  from her region is 5' 4" tall.
However, this 44 year old woman is 5' 8" tall.
Given the average and what you know about her: Please predict if she will be 5' 8" in or 5' 4" on her 45th birthday.

It would be Professional negligent for Fitbit to change your height from 5' 8" down to 5' 4" automatically based on epidemiological data. But forget height -- they do it for a FAR MORE IMPORTANT VALUE: your calories burned 😞

Lead the way Fitbit! Be a ChangeMaker, not for the sake of change, but to improve our lives!