Am I a Furnace or a Flop?

[galaga6846]

I'm not sure which forum to post this question in, so I'm here.

I am 5'9", 175 lbs and 40 year old. I'm also not the most active person lately. It's winter, I'm a tired mom, I am somewhat active with around 7000 steps a day on average. But, my calories burned is ridiculous!  I decided to ask someone I was FB friends about it because she's a nutritionist and fitness guru. I'm sorry I did. I just got a lot of "your Fitbit doesn't know how many calories you burn. You don't burn 2800 calories a day by walking 3-4 miles." I tried to explain that the daily calorie burn is your total calorie burn, but she just got upset and told me to stop wasting her time. I deleted her, (which is fine because I don't generally like following people who are fitness gurus because I don't find it inspiring, I find it more discouraging actually.) 

So, here I am, trying to figure out why I'm such a furnace, I feel like this is kind of freakish. Do I just have a good metabolism? Or...is my former FB friend right, I'm not actually burning these many calories in a day?  Thanks.

[WendyB]

She is right you dont burn that many calories by walking 3-4 miles. What she needs to know is 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...

See this thread as well @Colinm39

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Fitbit-com-Dashboard/How-do-you-find-your-BMR/m-p/2516869#M77958

[Dominique]

You can double-check your numbers using an online calculator such as this one. Based on your step count, I’d estimate your activity somewhere between "light" and "moderate". This would put your total energy expenditure somewhere between 2101 and 2369. So it’s quite possible your Fitbit overestimates your calories. If you logged your intake carefully for a while and were eating 2800 calories, you’d probably gain weight rather than maintain it. If you were looking to lose weight, you’d probably need to eat about 2000 calories, with your current activity level.

[galaga6846]

I tried explaining this to her, and she said my Fitbit was still wrong.

[galaga6846]

Everything is set up correctly 🙂

Another factor may be that my heart rate is always in Fat Burn or in peak, even if I'm doing light housework, or taking care of children. Even sitting at the table my heart rate is in "Fat Burn."
Could that add to the calorie burn?

[GershonSurge]

In my opinion, that's in the normal range. The Fitbit's don't count calories perfectly. They seem to have a constant calibration error you can calculate if you like. Sum the total calories you burn for 25 days straight. Meticulously log your calories and sum those. It takes a 3,500 calorie deficit to lose a pound. If it takes you more, then the Fitbit is reading high or your metabolism is different.

There is a simpler way. Start with a 750 calorie deficit. If you don't lose weight in three weeks, it means the calibration is of, so increase the deficit to 1,000 calories. Don't go below your Basic Metabolic Rate. 

Being in the fat burn zone most of the time is fine. It will just take a bit longer to get results, but not as much as people think.

Good luck

[galaga6846]

@GershonSurge You said "Being in the fat burn zone most of the time is fine. It will just take a bit longer to get results, but not as much as people think."

I thought that would mean the opposite. You may have to explain this to me.

[GershonSurge]

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@galaga6846wrote:

You said "Being in the fat burn zone most of the time is fine. It will just take a bit longer to get results, but not as much as people think."

I thought that would mean the opposite. You may have to explain this to me.

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At 180 a heart rate of minus a person's age (this number is almost perfect for most people) and below, the body burns 70% fat and 30% carbs. Very quickly at rates above, it converts to 70% carbs and 30% fat. The body's appetite is driven by the amount of carb reserve, so it may make a person less hungry. A person also has more energy when they have a good reserve of carbs, so they may be more active.

Because of this, the fat that's burned may be more likely to stay gone as long as a person doesn't ever eat a surplus of calories. One treat day may ruin a week's gain.

It's important not to focus on minor differences like this one as the researcher's findings seldom describe what really happens. Keep focused on the calorie deficit, and you will head the right direction.

[WavyDavey]

If you're in the fat burn zone a significant amount of time without exercising, then the underlying fitness level needs improving. 

Active minutes are something you should be paying attention to. On the screenshot posted, there are no active minutes, so the heart isn't getting the workout it needs. It needs some time in the cardio zone while exercising. Just relying on a lot of time in the fat burn zone isn't going to be a long-term recipe for success.

 Also, can post where you are in your weight loss? There's no mention of whether you're losing or gaining weight?

[galaga6846]

I can't seem to GET active minutes. I went on a brisk 25 minutes walk on Tuesday... no active minutes. My mom goes to the mall, 80 active minutes. 

I don't know what's up with that.

[WavyDavey]

If you post a screenshot of your 24 hour daily heart rate chart, it would help. My gut says it's still an issue of fitness. You need to get and stay in the top end of the fat burn zone to get active minutes. Sometimes we get our heart rate up but it's not consistently sustained.

Basically, if you are in the fat burn zone much of the time, you need to get in the cardio zone some of the time. The fat burn zone doesn't burn enough calories to be super effective for weight loss or for heart health by itself.

This is all assuming there are no underlying medical issues that are causing an elevated heart rate or trouble sustaining cardio zone.

[Daves_Not_Here]

Hi @galaga6846 - you're a furnace 'cause you're so HOT!

Just kidding!  Comments like that will soon result in incarceration, so I just needed to pop off while I can.

Seriously, the question, "does Fitbit accurately measure my calorie burn?" is frequently asked and discussed here.  The correct answers are yes, no, maybe, possibly, God only knows, used to but doesn't now, didn't previously but now does, and 42.   For me, the question is, "how wrong is the calorie burn estimate today?"

Agreeing with @GershonSurge 's approach -- consider the Fitbit calorie burn estimate as an initial starting assumption to be validated and iterated against your actual results.

By the way, this discussion thread has been occurring in the abstract -- what are you trying to accomplish by using your Fitbit - lose weight, increase fitness, or both? 

[WavyDavey]

@Daves_Not_Here, in previous threads, the OP has described being a smoker and having a high heart rate even while sitting at a table. Because of these prior posts, I'm putting an emphasis on fitness. I believe it doesn't matter how many calories you burn, if you're getting 0 active minutes then I would be focusing on fitness first.

[Daves_Not_Here]

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@WavyDaveywrote:

@Daves_Not_Here, in previous threads, the OP has described being a smoker and having a high heart rate even while sitting at a table. Because of these prior posts, I'm putting an emphasis on fitness. I believe it doesn't matter how many calories you burn, if you're getting 0 active minutes then I would be focusing on fitness first.

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Ah, @WavyDavey  so she's is a smoking hot furnace!  @galaga6846 , do you think it's possible with a higher heart-rate and lower cardio fitness, you burn relatively more calories during exercise and maybe 2,800 calories is not out of the question?

In my case, I used to regularly burn 2,000+ calories on a 4 hour bike ride.  Now that I'm in better shape, the same ride is under 1,000 calories even though I'm faster. 

[Veteq83 · Accepted solution]

My FitBit is absolutely wrong, consistently. On average, according to my fitbit I burn about 4,500 calories a day. Now I am fairly active: daily weights (1 hour), daily cardio (30 mins) and twice daily dog walks (30 mins each). 

But... based on how much I eat, which is meticulously tracked: 2000 - 2200 calories a day; I can say that I'm not losing the calculated 4-5 lbs a week. I am losing, in fact, a respectable 2.3 lbs a week on average. Based upon actual results and data I can control,  my fitbit is off by 20-25%.  Yours might be too.

When I do the BMR/RMR/TDEE calculators online I get numbers around 3500, which would fall in line with the results I'm seeing.

[galaga6846]

I'm still burning a ton of calories! (Or am I?) I haven't lost weight.

Another weird thing is it never counts active minutes. Yesterday I played a game for about a half hour, broke quite a sweat, heartbeat up. Nothing. No active minutes .

This happened with sussequent Fitbits I've owned as well. My mom gives someone a haircut, 25 active minutes. She doesn't get it either. 

[galaga6846]

No, I'm not a smoker. Not at all. 

[galaga6846]

Again, I'm not a smoker. 

Yeah, my fitness level is s***. I know that, but I have more stamina than a lot of other people I know.

My heart is always racing. I am an intense  high strung person. I'm always on edge. I think that has a lot to do with the heart rate  possibly the calorie burn? 

[galaga6846]

I want to apologize 

I have a hard time following replies on message boards.