Why are my "Calories Left" so low?

[KEJ86]

I'm new to FitBit and am using my wristband + dashboard for the first time today. I'm a young, active woman who just wants to lose a few pounds and tone up (I'm 5'11", 150 pounds so my weight is well within the healthy range). I'm curious as to why FitBit is recommending only 1,100 calories for me per day? I set my weight loss goal to "Medium" because I'm not looking for anything fast or extreme. I expected my calorie intake goal to be 1,500-1,700 as it has been with other tools I've used.

1,100 calories seems very unhealthly, especially because I'm working out 5-6 days a week... I don't want to damage my metabolism. Has anyone else noticed these extreme goals? Am I not understanding how the number is calculated?

[SteveH]

It does sound low. I seem to remember that a medium plan aims to lose 1 pound per week which equates to a daily calorie deficit of 500.

Fitbit calculates your BMR based on your profile settings and deducts the plan deficit to come up with your allowance. It might be worth double checking your profile settings to make sure age, height and weight are correct.

[slysam]

It just does the math. If you are set to medium, it wants you to eat 500 calories less than you burn in a day. So if in a 24 hour day, you burn 2000 calories your allowance will end up at 1500. If you burned 1800 calories than your allowance would be 1300, etc. Now, this is for a day when all 24 hours are factored in. At the start of the day, Fitbit doesn't know what you will burn so it starts with an estimate then subtracts your requested deficit from that amount. The estimate it starts with varies by your stats (height, weight, age and gender) and whether you chose the option "personalized" or "sedentary" in your food plan set up. If you chose sedentary, it starts with what someone like you (height, weight, age and gender) would likely burn at a sedentary activity level. In your case, if the 1100 is where it starts it is assuming you would burn 1600 calories sedentary. That is similar to where mine would start if set to sedentary (actually yours is a little higher). There have been days where I only burned 1600 calories in a day according to Fitbit (very possible on days when I only have about 5,000 or so). On such a day, I usually do not meet my allowance as I usually have trouble eating less than about 1400 calories. But if this were a habit, my loss would be less than 1/2 pound a week or I might even just maintain my weight. Oh, if set to personalized, it takes an average calorie burn for you over the past several days as the starting estimate. I use this because I don't like seeing the very low allowance "sedentary" gives me and "personalized" starts closer to where it ends up most of the time so is easier to use for planning. I should note, the personalized setting may take a few days to get a good working average so may start with assuming a sedentary level (that is what would make sense anyway without actual activity data). Either way, your allowance will adjust up or down according to your actual activity as you sync throughout the day. If you want an allowance of over 1500 calories and also want to lose one pound a week, you will need to burn at least 2000 calories a day. Since it is your first day, it is hard to predict, but that is where you should be ending up if you review today's stats after you sync your fitbit tommorrow morning (to make sure all 24 hours are included). If you are not overweight, you might want the easier 1/2 pound a week loss (250 calories a day deficit).

[JenniLacey]

Do you have your food plan set to "sedentary"? That option starts low and allows you to earn calories throughout the day based on how active you are.

If it's on "personalized". I'm not completely sure but perhaps because you're a new user it's basing it on your past activity and because you have little past activity it is giving you a low calorie goal.

I do think "medium" is too aggressive for someone who is already a healthy weight. There are quite a few reasons why this plan could be far more detrimental toward you goals if you'd like me to go into detail...

You'd probably be better to do the -250 cal plan if you want to increase your chances of not putting the weight back on after you lose it and if your goal is to be more "toned".