Why would Fitbit suggest < than 1,200k/day?

[CMichelle]

I could comb through all the discussions here but for the sake of time, I wanted to throw this question out to get some quick responses.  I've had a Fitbit for 2 years now and bought one for my mother in law last Christmas.  I remember when I first set up my weight loss goal, I would get a warning message from Fitbit saying that it was NOT recommended to eat less than 1,200 calories day.  Well, my poor MIL set hers up and because of her size, activity level and goal of losing 1 pound per week, Fitbit was telling her to eat only 900 calories a day!  Does Fitbit think this is a reasonable suggestion to make to people??

Any health website or fitness research you do will tell you a woman shouldn't eat less than 1,200 a day and a man, less than 1,500 calories a day or you could slow your metabolism down and hinder your fitness goals.  Has anyone else experienced this OR do you genuinely eat less than 1,200 calories a day?  

I have went in and changed her settings to fix this for her but curious if anyone agrees this is something Fitbit should change?  If people take this too literally, they could really be hurting themselves!

[SunsetRunner]

My Wife has the same challenge.  So, we decided to focus on calories burned.  FitBit doesn't seem to have the same low threshold that MyFitnessPal did, when it would warn us, that we aren't eating enough.

Some folks are right on that margin, where a deficit of 500 Calories (One pound a week), really will put them at a challenge.

It would be good if FitBit got it's experts to weigh in.  For it really is a challenge.

[GershonSurge]

I'll take it a step further. I have a family member who had anorexia and is well-versed in the effects of eating too few calories. 

Each day, a person should not eat less than their Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR). There are many calculators to estimate this number. If the person's Fitbit has a heart rate monitor, they can start a workout when they go to bed and stop it if they wake during the night or when they wake in the morning. Divide the calories burned by the minutes to get the calories burned per minute at rest. Multiply this by 1440 (the number if minutes in the day) to get a BMR estimate. In my case, it's a couple hundred higher than the calculators.

My BMR is 1872 calories, so I eat at least that much each day. I have to earn my deficit through exercise. It's probably best to maintain a maximum of a 1,000 calorie deficit, but I've been averaging a 1,500 calorie deficit with no ill effects. Recently, it has been less because a pulled muscle has kept me from running and even walking quiickly.

There are many diets out there, and most of them are deadly. In fact, those recommending them should go to prison. All forms of the Atkins diet, which are low carb, high fat and protein are killers. This includes popular diets like the Paleo Diet, Wheat Belly diet, etc. The person may lose weight if they can last through the extreme hunger, but they make people skinny by making them sick. If you see the word "ketosis," run!

Don't take my word for it. I suggest watching all 12 of these videos by Dr. McDougall. I also suggest reading his book, "The Starch Solution." The way of eating is simple to follow, inexpensive, and eliminates all but normal hunger before meals. It may take a bit for the last as a person loses their addictions to sugars and fats. 

Fitbits are not perfect in estimating calories burned. The clip-ons will likely estimate too few and the ones with heart rate monitors will likely estimate too many. An easy way to avoid the math is to start with a 500 or 750 calorie deficit and play with it from there based on weight changes. 

Oh, on counting calories. @JohnRi and a few others count calories accurately, and it works. It's the only way I can keep from eating too much. I adjust mine based on the number of calories I burn a day. John eats the same number of calories each day and exercises a ton. Either way works. I think John's is simpler.

[HybridHayley]

I had this issue, Fitbit was recommending me to eat 800 Calories a day to loose some fat. I am small framed with a small weight but I am essentially "skinny fat".

I do believe they need to issue out a warning if there goal is coming under there BMR or at least a limit on being able to eating 1000-1200 a day or less. If it does go under then the plan needs to be recalculated to reflect a good health deficit and appropriate calorie burn.

Its quite dangerous to calculate it when some people dont know if this is healthy or unhealthy. As a fitness device which is designed by fitness experts they will trust what the app says.

[JohnRi]

Yeah, I really wish it would not suggest such a low, and unhealthy, number of calories to eat. 

My wife is very active, but she only ate around 800 calories a day.  She lost over 30 lbs, and has a BMI of 26.  But her fat % is a lot higher than a 26 BMI would suggest.  And that is a result of her old diet.  Now that she has increased her diet to 1500-1800 calories, she has lost 30+ lbs. And this is without doing anything else.  She literally eats more, and has lost weight.

A lot of people think that eating below the BMR is bad.  While I think that is true if you are close to your weight loss goal, I don't that is true if you are significantely overweight.  My BMR today is in the 1900's.  When I starrted my BMR was 2600. For 8 months I ate under my BMR.  And I lost 67 lbs.  Only recently when I started to see muscle mass loss did I start to increase my calories eaten, and I'm now eating more than my BMR.  But I'm 31 lbs from my goal, and I was expecting this to happen as I got closer to goal.

Bottomline, if you try to run a deficit and it requires you to eat less than 1200-1300 for women, and 1500-1800 for men, then you have to exercise more every day to meet your deficit. 

I can not make my 750 deficit without daily exercise.  And I exercise 60-120 minutes a day. 

[Doriengreen]

Hiya, my fitbit is suggesting the same to me. It's got me on 1000 calories depending on calories burnt. My BMR is 1250. I also find it doesn't register stairs very well. The other day, I ran up and down stairs 15 times as well as other stairs but it only recorded 8. I did about 20. I'm not able to exercise excessively but I go for a half hour walk for instance to find I've burnt a mere 20 calories. It really doesn't feel very accurate. 

[Doriengreen]

Thanks for that John, it makes a lot of sense and I understand a bit more.