Do I really burn 3500 calories a day by doing nothing???

[Martynas]

Hello,

Just brought this thing. It's shows some crazy calories burning levels. It looks like I burn 3500 calories per day average witch is can't be true. I eat only 2300 calories a day. Is no way somebody could eat 3500. Just don't know what to do. Today I was doing nothing. Sit at home, was in shop for few hours, and is still shows I'm burning calories like I would do running. Some stupidity. Don't know why I brought this thing. If I'm 1200 calories short every day, I must end up being with 0 weight. Is anyone experience same problems as me?

Sorry for my English, it's my third language I speak.

Martynas

Moderator edit: format

[WendyB]

The calories burned are BMR calories. Your fitbit also calculates calories burned for your BMR. You burn calories just by being alive! Even Sleeping. Fitbit includes these burned calories in it's calorie calculations, so even if you did not wear the fitbit, you'll still burn these calories.

Read this

http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/How-does-Fitbit-know-how-many-calories-I-ve-burne...

[BAMb00zl3r]

I would search up a Calorie Maintanence Calculator online and plug your specifics into it just to cross reference your fitbit info.  If it matches up no problem, if its off by a lot then I would suggest you check your fitbit settings and see if its not adding in something it shouldn't.

[Martynas]

I just checked my BMR and all other things. So My BMR rate is 1650 calories if I'm sleeping all day. If I'm doing really hard works or sports I should burn about 3200 and it's maximum. But, doing nothing all today, just siting on computer and shopping for 4 hours, burned 3500 calories??? This thing shows nonsense. I eat 2400 calories today, like I usually do. It's no way I'm going to eat 3500. How to eat that much? How many lazanias is that???? And one day it show 4300 calories I burned. Did somebody on Earth eat this much??? How people get fat anyway if you can burn 3500 calories by playing games on computer and I play slow games, witch I not use a lot of energy with. I have this thing for 10 days now. So far, it's some kind of joke.

[Martynas]

Checked my body weight change for last 2 weeks. I lost 1,1 Kg and also 0,4 BF. This is not so good as I'm already in healthy weight range. I probably need to quit all my sport activities and try not to burn as much calories as I do now, because I simple can not eat 3500 calories a day. It's impossible. To do that I have to trow out table salt to the bin. I simple not imagine healthy 3500 calories diet. So this is the story.

[betpchem]

Which kind of fitbit do you have? I think the fitbit calculates your calories based on information you told it, such as height and weight. Check to make sure those settings are ok. 

Try this thread: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Flex/Why-have-I-burned-1640-calories-doing-nothing/m-p/75923/highlig...

It appears to have some good information. One of the things it says is that there is a "calorie estimation" setting. Perhaps you want to turn that off? 

[Martynas]

I checked my details many times. All are correct. It's very hard to make mistake, as not many settings in dashboard are. Today burned 2128 calories so far but is another 2 hours to the reset, left. So I will try to keep my self come. Not do anything stupid. I will go for a nap for 30 minutes it must help. Strange thing is, all Europeans trying to loose weight. Me, trying not to. I did today no exercise. Did actually nothing. Well... cleaned my house for 20 minutes, but that's all. It's really hard to stay on low level on calories burning. Just can not imagine how anyone's get fat??? My height 1,75 meters and weight 69kg witch is ideal, sure unless you living in fat fat Ireland, there I do. Loosing another few kilograms will be bad choice for me. So I will stick to healthy life??? No exercise and a lot of calories. Do I sound kind like fun???

[BAMb00zl3r]

I would roughly estimate that your Daily Calorie Maintenance Level (DCML) is around 2300 calories; this is just the amount of calories you will burn just being alive.  If you are trying to gain muscle mass then you will want to do some resistance training which could increase your DCML close to 3000 calories.  You have to consume more than 3000 calories in order to gain mass, which would run pretty close to what fitbit has set for you.

If you are having trouble trying to consume enough calories I would suggest you google for calorie dense food and add them to your diet.  I would recommend adding a cup of trail-mix to your diet (consumed in parts throughout the day) as nuts and dried fruit are high in calories; one cup will add over 750 calories.

[LucyAP]

Hello Fitbitters, Great to see you here! @Martynas Just wanted you to know that I've gone ahead and moved your recent topic "Do I really burn 3500 calories a day by doing nothing???" to the Get Fit board. Hope this helps you to receive a response you're looking for. For your reference, you had originally posted your question in the 'Getting Started in the Fitbit Community board, which is dedicated to discussion around how to use the community and its features.

Thanks for your understanding! 🙂

[Evemariesaint]

I have to do quite a bit to burn 3000 calories. An hour's exercise bike and treadmill and then a mile long dog walk gets me to about 1200, but if I don't do anything else much for the rest of the day, I'll only get to around 2600. The fitbit is very impressed with a  round of golf carrying my clubs though, this apparently burns 12-1400 on its own on top of the normal daily burn and I don't have to do anything else to get to 3000.

[Limahl]

I’m burning 3000 calories a day I have a very active job and weight train 5 days a week if I set my food intake at 2200 calories a day I’m a calorie deficit right? So that would be 5600 calories a week approx 1-2 pounds lost In theory ?am I on the right track?.

[Dominique]

Yes, the usual assumption is a cumulative deficit of 3500 calories results in a loss of one pound of body weight, so 5600 calories =  1.6 pounds. Note the law of diminishing returns applies: as you keep dieting, the same deficit will result in ever smaller weight loss, or you will need to increase the deficit in order to continue losing at the same pace.

[Limahl]

Do you think consuming 2000 calories and burning 3000 is ok and will not slow down my metabolism as I have an active job and weight train 5 days a week or should I eat more just to maybe only have a deficit of around 500 and this gives me room to play with if I plateau?.

Sent from my iPhone

[Dominique]

Being in a caloric deficit will always slow down metabolism, the question is, by how much. The bigger the deficit, and the longer you stay in a deficit, the sharper the fall in metabolism will be. A 1000 calorie deficit is probably sustainable for you, as an active, sizeable male: it will likely result in a weekly weight loss < 1% of your starting weight. But 500 would result in less reduction in metabolism, as well as give you more room to play, as you said.

What is your starting weight, and how much do you want/need to lose?

[Limahl]

Starting weight is 183 pounds I think a stone would probably eliminate the stubborn back and love Handles I’m 5.8.

Sent from my iPhone

[Dominique]

I’m about your height (174cm), though I have a smaller frame. You can see what a difference 10 kg (22 lbs) can make here. Wanting to improve body composition (losing fat while minimising loss of lean mass) makes the case for a smaller rather than a larger deficit IMO.

[Beaumon]

Can someone who knows what they're talking about please point me in the right direction, no one has a BMR of 3500 calories. I wish people would stop saying these reading are right to make themselves feel better. Let's be real, please.  

[Heybales]

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@Beaumon wrote:

Can someone who knows what they're talking about please point me in the right direction, no one has a BMR of 3500 calories. I wish people would stop saying these reading are right to make themselves feel better. Let's be real, please.  

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Point you in the right direction for what exactly?

You are correct that a BMR of 3500 would be rather rare (though possible if say 35 yr old male weighing 260 kg).

But where exactly are you seeing a BMR figure of 3500?