Burning over 5000 calories?

[Jaytay1054]

Hey, just so I’m not crazy but I’ve been burning over 5000 calories just about every day and of course I eat a lot but my highest was close to 6000 and I want to reassure that that’s normal right?!

[Heybales]

That is an impossible question to answer without you actually giving some basic info.

That is well above average sedentary - but are you average and sedentary?

Is that estimate from Fitbit I'm assuming?

What is your daily job, afterwork activities, and exercise type and time?

What is your gender, age, height, weight?

Or you get your Mifflin BMR if you don't want to provide that for someone else to get.

[Jaytay1054]

Well I’m basically a ranch hand and I still workout too. Depending on the day I’ll aim for 500 sit-ups and 500 push ups/pull ups/squats. 

I’m 25 year  old male, 5’10 and I’m 211lbs. 
This is all recorded from my Fitbit but even on my slow days it’s around 2800 calories. I’ve been used to it but when I show my reports it shocks people. 

[SunsetRunner]

hello  i burned same calories u do my job stocking groceries 

[fimugomi]

@Jaytay1054

how do you burn them ?!

[Jaytay1054]

Nice, at least it’s not just me. I stock bales of hay and livestock food but it’s basically the same thing

[Heybales]

Since that is far from average usage the Fitbit was designed for - you are very easily getting inflated calorie burns reported.

No, in reality I doubt greatly you are burning that much.

You could prove or disprove it by very accurately logging by weight everything you eat, and eat exactly what it says you burn, and you should not gain or lose weight.

I think you'd gain.

How much do you think you are eating (if accurately logged), and are you losing weight?

Here's why - I'll bet anything the Fitbit is slipping into HR-based calorie burn based on seeing enough steps, and a high HR from the interval nature of your work.

Problem is the calculations for calorie burn from HR are ONLY valid (and even reasons for that to be off like heat or dehydrated) for aerobic steady-state exercise, where HR stays the same for 4-5 min at a time.

Your workouts for sure are inflated as that is not aerobic exercise, and HR is all over the place.

And your daily work probably has your HR all over the place, but mainly at the bottom of the aerobic exercise zone probably - which has the least accuracy in those calculations anyway.

So just be aware - if you are eating say 1000 less than your stated calorie burn, and are not losing 2 lbs weekly - that's why.

Your life is a bad fit for the device to have a good estimate.

But great daily work to keep strong, nice program to get stronger.

[Mamoru · Accepted solution]

Humm, interesting. At 300lbs and 6'9". I require a lot more calories than normal just to maintain weight. Breathing calories is around 3k from what the apps say, and what I've learned in fitness class years ago. When I do the math it averages out. (https://www.my-calorie-counter.com/calorie-calculator/)  I tend to burn around 5k a day on a avg day at work, working retail, according to the Fitbit Charge 4.

I have looked at calories consumed. and looked at my weight loss. So I eat about 1.5k calories in food and lose a 1 pound for my effort. So the avg = out. Like an earlier post, you need to keep an eye on what your eating, vs. what the Fitbit claims.

[SunsetRunner]

i burn calories doing nothing lol

[YojanaFitbit]

Hey guys! Did you know that when you're not moving you keep burning calories (including breathing, blood circulation, and heartbeat)? On your Fitbit Dashboard you can see this information, as well as your total calories burned for the day. You can check your Fitbit.com Dashboard on your computer to have a bigger picture on each day. If your personal data on our profile is correct, you should be getting the correct amount of calories burned. In my case, I like to confirm what activities my Fitbit records everyday so I can be really sure about the number that I'm getting. 😉

[SunsetRunner]

I HAVE  4 thousand steps and burned 2 thousand calories 

[Heybales]

---

@Mamoru wrote:

Humm, interesting. At 300lbs and 6'9". I require a lot more calories than normal just to maintain weight. Breathing calories is around 3k from what the apps say, and what I've learned in fitness class years ago. When I do the math it averages out. (https://www.my-calorie-counter.com/calorie-calculator/)  I tend to burn around 5k a day on a avg day at work, working retail, according to the Fitbit Charge 4.

I have looked at calories consumed. and looked at my weight loss. So I eat about 1.5k calories in food and lose a 1 pound for my effort. So the avg = out. Like an earlier post, you need to keep an eye on what your eating, vs. what the Fitbit claims.

---

Now those are the kind of stat's where I could see a reported 5000 calories daily and it being pretty real.

Of course as you point out with your example - if eating accuracy is really 1500 daily (which is minimum daily recommended for sedentary avg male of which you are not - I'd be concerned) and losing on avg 1 lb weekly - you are only burning 2000 daily.

I'm going with your food logging is way off, and you are probably eating more, and burning more, by some inaccuracy amount.

Or you've been in a diet for a while, an extreme diet, and your body has adapted and you are burning way less than you potentially could.

[Mamoru]

m going with your food logging is way off, and you are probably eating more, and burning more, by some inaccuracy amount.

Or you've been in a diet for a while, an extreme diet, and your body has adapted and you are burning way less than you potentially could.

----------------------

More like a Doctor ordered extreme diet. (Not that he is a dilation. )  I went through a fitness class over 15 years ago for college credit, so I have a firm grasp of where the numbers Fitbit and other apps come from. My 1500 is going to be off, but not by much. My and calorie burn is reported by Fitbit, and is fairly consistent with what I already know to be true. I know 2 lbs a week is more ideal than 7 to 10. Cardio Exercise is out of the question due to a medicine combo due to my High Blood Pressure. My BP drops like a rock when I do cardio, to the point of fainting. It doesn't help that I don't have excess to gyms. Its also difficult to find exercise equipment due to my size. So right now, all I have is diet. I have to be mindful of the yoyo bounce back. I've did once, I won't do it again.

[JuanJoFitbit]

Hi everyone! As a side note, I'd like to share this help article, which explains how Fitbit devices track calories burned.

I hope you guys are keeping yourselves safe and achieving your goals! 😀

[YojanaFitbit]

@JuanJoFitbit Thanks for adding the help article, I forgot to add it before! 

@Mamoru  I think that is a possibility, in that case you can personalized your food plan and change your daily calorie estimate setting. I uses your past activity history to estimate your calorie burn for the day and increases or decreases if you're more or less active than usual. In that way you eat specifically what you need to keep working out. It might work with this type of diet.

[SunsetRunner]

im to lazy to add food  for calories 

[YojanaFitbit]

That's a good point @SunsetRunner, in that case you just need to check what exercises help you to burn more calories to keep doing your best to get that number of calories burned. Or change your goals depending on what you need to achieve. See you around. 😊

[SunsetRunner]

if u dont log calories u dont know how many calories u really burning 

[YojanaFitbit]

You have good point there @SunsetRunner. 🤔

[Jaytay1054]

But I do everyday lol and I know know but that’s when I was ranch hand. Now I’m barely hitting about 3800-4000. Daily