Cant make sense of my calorie burn! Help!

[WhatAboutBen]

Hi there,

I am 23, 191cm and 112kg.

Fitbit keeps telling me im burning on average 3450kcals with only an average of 4500 steps per day.

This is meaning it is telling me to eat around 2500kcals on the -1000 deficit food plan. Safe to say I'm confused as to why this is so high, and I am hitting around 2,200 kcalories and I still am not losing any weight.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Ben

[Shirley21]

Go to the bitbit blog. It has a good description of steps versus calories as well as what the fitbit does and does not do. I don't know if this helps or not. I am finding my fitbit overcalculates my calories burned compared to my workouts at the fitness center; uncertain why this is. But, hang in there... I have lost 15 pounds with my fitbit since starting in early January. The key is to keep moving and watch the kinds of food that you eat. Drink 3-4 glasses of water and/or tea combined. Snack healthy... popcorn, fruit, carrots, etc. You can do this. I reached a plateau a short time ago and felt like quitting, but I did not and my determination paid off. You can do this too.

[Dominique]

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@WhatAboutBen wrote:

I am 23, 191cm and 112kg.

Fitbit keeps telling me im burning on average 3450kcals with only an average of 4500 steps per day.

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Your BMR as per the Mifflin-St Jeor formula (which is more or less what Fitbit is using) is 2204 calories (I used this online calculator). 1200 extra calories on top of that indeed sound a bit high if you're mostly sedentary (which is what a 4500 daily step count suggests).

What does the activity graph of a typical day looks like for you? Here is mine for yesterday (more active than average, with about 3000 calories):

I'm older, shorter and lighter than you (54/174/69), so my BMR is much lower (1513).

Also note the calorie count can vary according to the Fitbit model you're using. For instance, the One gave me 2,998 calories yesterday, the Charge HR 3,088 and the Charge 3,278 (I'm wearing all three at the same time).

[WhatAboutBen]

Hi Dominique, thanks for your reply.

The below graph isn't an average day, as it was a rest day in my gym schedule, and I didnt have the surge on until 8:00 as it was charging overnight. ( i have the surge because I do not like having to log in online, to tell fitbit what the activities were that I did, and can just select what I am doing on the surge)

As you can see, my calories burned per 5 minutes with 0 Steps is 7.7cal which is a BMR of 2217.6. This appears to be very close to the BMR you suggested. but, with only 4.5k steps it has added 1200 calories.

Your graph suggests your 24k steps have gained you approximatelt 1500 calories. I appreciate that a taller and heavier person would burn more calories, but this difference is ridiculous.

If I did this every day, and ate 2,400 calories I would certainly gain weight, I eat less than 2,000 now (generally aim for 1700) and stay at the same weight or sometimes still gain weight.

I have a desk job, which can sometimes be 12 hours a day.

I'm a little lost as to what to do, the data coming out of the fitbit is useless, because at a 1000 deficit i'm not losing weight and gaining weight slightly.

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/e1z2nu6lamjrfeq/Track%20My%20Activities%20on%20Fitbit.png?dl=0

I imagine the difference between your 3 devices will be purely based on the number of steps taken, and the additional HR info on the charge HR?

[Deyadissa]

This issue was a known bug when you enabled MobileTrack, but it should have been fixed about 3 weeks ago (yeah this bug was 8 months old before they fixed it...)

Did you double check to see if the apps had any updates?

[WhatAboutBen]

my app is up to date.

what's mobile track?

I'm not getting any duplication of steps or anything like that.

[Deyadissa]

It wouldn't duplicate the steps, but as soon as you enables mobile track the calorie intake would go up to like 4000 a day. I would contact support

[Heybales]

Your BMR is around 2200.

You would NOT gain weight if you ate 2400 - unless you slept all day - then you'd have a 200 cal about surplus.

17 days you'd gain a lb of fat.

But you aren't in bed all day, so you burn a whole lot more than 2200.

Average sedentary would put you at burning 2700-2800.

In which case eating 2400 would have you losing almost a pound a week.

Depending on how much to lose, like under 30 lbs - that is very reasonable.

Any weight gain you get eating 2400 is water weight fluctuations - probably doing an invalid weigh-in day.

Or you have suppressed your body somewhat, and no longer burn as high as it could.

Or you have dieted before and lost decent muscle mass, again not burning as high as Fitbit thinks.

Or your food logging leaves a lot to be desired for accuracy, do you weigh everything?

[WhatAboutBen]

Hi.

I currently eat less than 2,000 calories daily, I am prudent with the measurements in that I ensure I am over-estimating the calories and never under-estimating. I use barcodes/weigh everything.

I end up with a deficit of between 1000 - 1500 calories per day and still gain weight (slowly).

I weigh daily at the same time every day using a set of tanita scales.I have seen steady gains in weight over the past month, again eating 1500-2000 calories per day. Everything is logged, even down to the number of sweeteners used if I chose to use them in a cup of green tea.

[Deyadissa]

If you're eating a healthy diet and you're still gaining weight, then you are either:

A) Underestimating the caloric intake of your foods and unintentionally going overbudget.

B) You are gaining muscle, but losing fat in its place

C) Have a health issue that should be checked by a doctor.

[Heybales]

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@WhatAboutBen wrote:

Hi.

I currently eat less than 2,000 calories daily, I am prudent with the measurements in that I ensure I am over-estimating the calories and never under-estimating. I use barcodes/weigh everything.

I end up with a deficit of between 1000 - 1500 calories per day and still gain weight (slowly).

I weigh daily at the same time every day using a set of tanita scales.I have seen steady gains in weight over the past month, again eating 1500-2000 calories per day. Everything is logged, even down to the number of sweeteners used if I chose to use them in a cup of green tea.

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Sad to say with that much deficit, you won't be gaining muscle.

Just not possible, and certainly not at the rate you could lose fat at.

I'll agree with other points - food logging leaves a lot to be desired.

Barcodes using what app?

Because makers change the nutritional makeup of their products all the time, and keep the same SKU.

And besides that, you'd need to weigh the package, and how much you really eat of it.

"about 2 servings" could be 2.47 I've seen sometimes. do that several times daily, you've eating 400 more than you think.

Because I'm sure with that aggressive diet, your body no longer burns what Fitbit estimates.

Fitbit is basing it's numbers on an average healthy body - depending on how long you've been doing that big a diet, yours isn't anymore.

Now, while you may indeed be burning 20-25% less than Fitbit estimates, you keep eating less and less and you should start loosing weight though.

But workouts will suck. Body isn't going to make improvements from exercise that require more energy when it's already had to slow down because of undereating.

And adherence is usually bad eating so little, binges turn in to surplus on that day and fat gain.

The little you must eat, along with lots of exercise perhaps, makes sustaining it very difficult.

Main reason slight majority gain weight back, their bodies were slower than they need to be for daily burn, and easier to over eat.

So which is the likely option in your case?