how do i set the calories to a certain amount for my diet

[Becky01]

How do I set my fitbit to 1400 cal. a day.  The more I work out the more calories it adds.  I dont want to eat anymore then a certain amount per day.  I need to lose some weight.  Any help would be greatful.  Thanks Becky

[CarolS]

I haven't found a way to do that.  What I have done is to set my goal at 1500 or whatever I want, and then ignore the message that says I still have so many calories to eat in a given day.  If you hover over that tile, it should say that you have eaten xx out of xx calories today.  Or, you can look at your log to see how many you've eaten.

I probably didn't answer your question, but hope that helps a little.

[JenniLacey]

If you want to eat 1400 cals, why not just eat that amount? Ignore what your fitbit suggests. I don't think there's any way to get a steady calorie range. You'd still lose weight eating what it suggests. It bases your calorie goals on the deficit you have your plan set to.

For example if you set your food plan is set to "sedentary" with a goal to -500 cals/day (or a 1 lb loss/week) and you burn 2000 cals, it should suggest you eat 1500 cals. If you have a lazy day and only burn around 1700 cals, it would suggest you eat 1200 cals. The amount of calories you can eat will slowly increase over the day depending on how active you are.

"Personalized" I believe is suppose to base your calorie goal on your overall average activity from previous days. So if you've been using your Fitbit for a month and on average you burn 2000 cals over the course of that month it should start out saying you can eat around 1500 cals but it may change throughout the day depending on how active you are. That's what I gather at least.

But really, it's unnecessary to eat the exact same number calories every day to lose weight. What matters is that you're consistently eating less than your total calorie expenditure. You may burn a lot of calories one day, 2500 cals and eat 2000 cals and you'd still be getting that -500 cal deficit. Or you may not burn many calories one day, 1800 cals and you eat 1300 cals and still get that -500 cal deficit.

Personally, I find if I create too big of a calorie deficit after burning a lot of calories... it just catches up with me and I wind up starving a day or two later and overeat to compensate. Best to beat your hunger to the punch.

[slysam]

You can set a custom allowance which is not connected to your activity. It is in the food plan set up, there is some fine print that says "set custom allowance". I think it is on the same screen as where you choose your daily deficit.

[Glickstar]

I too find that if I create too large a deficit I compensate later on.  I wish Fitbit would allow you to manually set your own deficit instead of offering the 4 choices of 250, 500, and so on.  I am older (slower metabolism), small, and close to my goal weight, so 500 is impossible for me most days (my calorie budget would be 1000 or less!)), but 250 isn't quite enough.

I'd like to be able to choose a deficit goal of 300, or 350, and then I would still be able to take advantage of the moving calorie estimates given by Fitbit depending on my activity and intake.  Choosing a fixed calorie amount disables Fitbit's moving estimates, which is too bad. So I've just gone with the "easy" 250 deficit setting but tried to manually increase it by 100 calories or so whenever I can, through exercise or eliminating an after dinner snack.

 I'm finding this successful, and lost 4.5 pounds in my first month of really staying with the program. I should reach my goal in another two months or so, probably losing about 3 pounds a month. I have found that I'm getting used to the amount I can eat with a fairly modest but steady deficit, I don't feel deprived, I don't get the urge to binge, and I've given up the urgent feeling that I have to lose a certain amount of weight by a certain date.  I know I will lose it slowly but surely, so now it is more of a process than a race to the goal. I think this is a good mindset and will serve me well when it's time for maintenance.

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@JenniLacey wrote:

If you want to eat 1400 cals, why not just eat that amount? Ignore what your fitbit suggests. I don't think there's any way to get a steady calorie range. You'd still lose weight eating what it suggests. It bases your calorie goals on the deficit you have your plan set to.

But really, it's unnecessary to eat the exact same number calories every day to lose weight. What matters is that you're consistently eating less than your total calorie expenditure. You may burn a lot of calories one day, 2500 cals and eat 2000 cals and you'd still be getting that -500 cal deficit. Or you may not burn many calories one day, 1800 cals and you eat 1300 cals and still get that -500 cal deficit.

Personally, I find if I create too big of a calorie deficit after burning a lot of calories... it just catches up with me and I wind up starving a day or two later and overeat to compensate. Best to beat your hunger to the punch.

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[Heybales]

Or going by a % deficit rather than fixed amount.

Say 20%. Bigger burn day, bigger deficit, smaller burn day, smaller deficit as far as calories.

Ya, it wouldn't take much work to add those options, but few have them, because people are set to think they must see some even number weight loss goal - never mind the fact that rarely works out in practice week after week.

Plus it would be difficult to give an ending date estimate of reaching GW using % deficit method, it would be floating all over the place.