Can i trust calorie intake?

[xSpecialK88x]

Hello

I'm on day 2 of having my charge 2 and I'm worried at how many calories it says I've burned.  I fully understand it shows BMR however I feel like the other calories I have burned are excessive and I am worried to eat them back if that makes sense.

So the previous history thinks my BMR is 1600. And today the dashboard thinks I've burned 3322 cals (20k steps, 7.7miles) 

I have set a 1000 cal defecit so I can still eat over just over 2000 cals. 

This just doesn't seem right. Have I misunderstood or is the cals burned just overdone. Should I use just maybe use half of them? What have other people experienced...?

Thanks in advance 

Karen 

[A_Lurker]

@xSpecialK88x - HR trackers can be a little high (I suspect sometimes fitness levels may make it better or worse).  I found the longer I tracked weight loss compared to deficit the closer it came to 10% off for me.  Anyway, let's take a couple of numbers:

15% too high - actually 2889 calories

10% too high - actually 3020 calories

You said you've seen your BMR at 1600.  How much weight (roughly) do you have to lose?  If it's a lot, then try eating 2889-1000 = 1889 for 4-6 weeks and see how it goes.  If you don't have a lot to lose, then try eating 3020-1000=2020 for the same period of time.  In the end it's probably somewhere in between.  There's really not a lot of difference between the two actually.  About a large apple really. 

When I get to my last 20-30 pounds I'm going to reset my weight to where I want to be and eat at maintenance levels (ie. all the calories I burn) as I've seen it suggested but I still have too much weight to lose to try it.

[xSpecialK88x]

Thanks for quick reply. I'm looking to lose 2 stone to start with. And possibly 1 more to reach target weight. 

So would you say if I take a quarter of calories burned off I will be safe to eat the rest? It almost seems to good to be true....

I suppose the real test will be on days where I've not been so active. 

Do you use the 15% rule? Is it pretty accurate with weight losses? 

[A_Lurker]

All numbers are an average, and nobody is going to match exactly.  I always think that its a good idea just to pick a strategy and go with it for at least a month and then adjust.  In my case I did something very different because I had a lot to lose.  However, when counting calories I ended up about 15% under.  It worked very well for me.  Now I'm in a much slower phase of my weight loss (on purpose) and I don't log my food, although I do still mentally add stuff up from time to time.