Trying to gain weight but Charge 3 calories burnt seems off.

[AdamQ96]

Hi, 

I'm 6'1, 10s 3lb. 22 years old. 

I got myself a Fitbit Charge 3 recently to give myself an estimate on the number of calories I burn when I'm working. I'm on my feet for around 8 hours all day, some work is physical and does get my heart rate up moderately.

I have tried to gain weight (muscle) in the past but can't seem to find the sweet spot between enough and not enough calories. I thought the fitbit would help me find out how many calories I'm burning being on my feet all day but it seems way off. 

Including my BMR on average I'm supposedly burning around 4.5k cals while at work according to my fitbit. This is surely not possible? In the past I have eaten rather little when working, probably less than 2000 a day and I don't shed weight like I theoretically should be. Am I really burning this many calories? If so I'm gonna need to eat alot to gain anything!! 

Should I plan my diet like when I didn't have a fitbit to gain weight like I have before? Seems abit of waste if my activity tracker doesn't actually properly track my activity lol. 

Cheers in advance 

[Dominique]

Estimating energy expenditure ("calories burned") with a fitness tracker isn’t exact science. It’s quite likely your Charge 3 overestimates your energy expenditure: using this online calculator with your numbers, you would "only" burn 3235 calories at the highest ("Extreme") activity level.

Even if your Charge 3 is off in absolute terms, it’s still a useful indicator of your overall activity level. If you have been tracking your intake and weighing yourself on a regular basis, you should have a rather good idea of the discrepancy in your calories out.

If your aim is to gain weight, but you can’t seem to make it happen, just make incremental changes (eat more, or move less) until the number on the scale moves in the right direction and at the desired pace. All you may need are a few extra spoons of peanut butter in order to get the calories needed for your weight gain.

[WavyDavey]

Regardless of the numbers you're getting from an online calculator or from Fitbit, you'll want to calibrate it to you. Add 100 calories per day each week, until you maintain a constant weight. Then start adding calories until you gain some weight.

In short, stuff your face.

[Bill_k]

You say you want to gain it in muscle. That's a whole different ball game i think. You likely have to eat more but concentrate on certain nutrients and do some specific exercises.

[emili]

@AdamQ96.. hey there. As @Bill_k mentioned.. you need to be more specific about what you want to gain, muscle or fat. If you want to gain fat.. you have to eat more. Of anything you want, until you see the scale go up. If you want to gain muscle, that is different. That is not just eating a specific way, it is also lifting- strength training. You won't gain muscle being on your feet for 8 hours a day and eating more.. 

[WavyDavey]

I don't understand those numbers at the beginning: "I'm 6'1, 10s 3lb. 22 years old. "

Isn't that 143 pounds? At over 6 feet?

[Dominique]

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@WavyDavey wrote:

I don't understand those numbers at the beginning: "I'm 6'1, 10s 3lb. 22 years old. "

Isn't that 143 pounds? At over 6 feet?

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That translates into BMI 18.9, which is why one could understand he wishes to put some extra meat on these bones ...

[AdamQ96]

Yeah I meant in terms of building muscle by weight training. Sorry for the poorly written description. 

My question was basically that if im on my feet all day do I really burn that many calories as the fitbit suggests? 

If so, I can imagine if I eat more than the calories burnt as said on the fitibit while training and working, I'm going to put on majority fat over muscle? My body doesn't seem to lose any current body fat regardless of my diet if I eat around my BMR each day.

Should I probably try and work it out for myself and see what calorie intake works best for me over the next few weeks while watching my weight? 

Thanks in advance! 

[WavyDavey]

Get thee to a gym, or purchase thine own equipment, and push ye olde barbells and dubmbells 3-5 days a week. Drink milk if it pleases thee, and peanut butter is good also.

[Dominique]

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@AdamQ96 wrote:

If so, I can imagine if I eat more than the calories burnt as said on the fitibit while training and working, I'm going to put on majority fat over muscle? 

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Yes, being in a caloric surplus provides the optimal environment for building muscle, as long of course as you’re also providing the necessary stimulus via resistance training. If you want to optimize body composition (have your gains come from muscle rather than fat), you must find the sweet spot in terms of the pace at which you’re gaining weight: if you gain too fast, a larger portion will come from fat (there’s only so much muscle you can build in a short period of time, so excess calories will be stored as fat); if you gain too slow, you may not be sending your body a clear enough signal calories are abundant so there’s no need to save energy / store fat. I think that sweet spot is somewhere between 0.25 and 0.50 kg per week. For you, it may be closer to the higher end, as you’re male and young, i.e. have the most potential for building muscle.

There’s also the fact that the longer you stay in a surplus, the more the ratio of lean vs. fat gets tilted towards fat. Therefore you probably don’t want to stay in an ininterrupted surplus for very long periods of time (e.g. 9-12 months or more).

[Dominique]

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@AdamQ96 wrote:

My question was basically that if im on my feet all day do I really burn that many calories as the fitbit suggests? 

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One thing you could do is get a "second opinion" about calories burned by using an online calculator such as this one. Your activity level is probably somewhere between "high" and "extreme", given the description of your typical daily schedule. That would put TDEE between 2937 and 3235. How does that compare with what your Fitbit is telling you?

However, in the end, the scale will be telling you whether you’re eating enough (to gain weight) or not. Weigh yourself regularly, look at averages over time (TrendWeight is great for that, see link in my signature) and adjust your intake accordingly so as to gain at the desired pace (e.g. 0.5 to 1.0 lb per week, see my other reply).