Fitbit HR has me eating to many calories?

[Chris-326]

I have searched and read other post in regards to this matter but this is more of a general health question. I am 6'1" about 294 lbs, 37 years old / Male. I walk on a tread mill for an hour a day 5 days a week with a 3.2 walking speed with an 5"-8" incline and do some light weightlifting 3-4 days a week as well. According to a lot of the online DMR calorie calculators it has me listed at eating around 3100 calories a day with 3-5 days of moderate exercise. My FitBit wants me to be eating between 3800-4500 calories a day depending on level of activity on that given day. I have it set to lose 2lbs per week. I have been averaging 2700-2800 calories eaten per day and these are all healthy calories (Which when eating healthier foods it is harder to get up there). It just seemed excessive to me but I wanted to get some opinions on it as I want to make sure I am losing weight the healthy way as I want to keep it off permanetly WHEN I reach my goal or do I need to be trying to reach the goal that Fitbit gives me. I know that if I do not eat enough calories I will burn muscle instead of the fat I want to lose.

Thank you in advance

[sugarmagnolia]

@Chris-326 welcome to the community! 

You are taking the right approach around food and exercise. You are making healthy food choices, working out several days per week and monitoring your caloric intake vs output. Fitbit might not be 100% accurate at measuring exact calories and tracking, but it is an excellent tool to help you monitor progress and stay on track. There is always a bit of trial and error in listening to your body to determine your specific needs. As you mentioned, you are building a new lifestyle of healthier living to keep the weight off permanently.

In order to lose weight, you want to have a calorie deficit so you are eating fewer calories than you are burning off. The greater the deficit, the faster you will burn the weight. The deficit is also something you want to make realistic in order to maintain it over time. With a goal of 2 lbs per week, fitbit will give you a daily calorie goal in relation to the number you of calories you are burning. I don't see anything in your post in regards to number of calories burned. This is going to help you determine how many calories you want to eat.

If you want to create a larger calorie deficit than fitbit recommends to lose weight faster, that's fine, just pay attention to your body. If you are always feeling hungry and exhausted during or after exercise, consider increasing your calorie load. Also consider when and what types of foods you are eating 90 minutes prior to exercise and 45 minutes after. Providing the body with a proper mix of protein, healthy carbs and fat in these windows will help prevent you from burning muscle instead of fat.

I hope this helps! 🙂

[Chris-326]

I avg 4306 calories burned per day. While taking in on avg 2700-2800. 60-90 minutes before workout I tend to eat a Protein Bar with an Apple and 30 minutes after I will have a protein shake with Almond Milk. I am not trying to drink all my calories during the day by the way. I eat lot of egg whites, chicken, fish, turkey, nuts, seeds, oats, single serving cheese and greek yogurt.  Mixed with Fruits and Veggies through out the day. I never feel exahusted after work outs just a little sore as I should be. Pretty much my only issue is trying to keep up with what Fitbit says but so far I have chose to listen to my body and not stuff myself with food even if they are healthy. Sometime you just need a little confirmation from someone more knowledgable than oneself  that you are on the right track and not creating a bad habit only to fail down the line.

Thanks

[sugarmagnolia]

Absolutely. You are on the right track. Keep up the excellent job!

[Raviv]

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@Chris-326 wrote:

I avg 4306 calories burned per day. While taking in on avg 2700-2800. 60-90 minutes before workout I tend to eat a Protein Bar with an Apple and 30 minutes after I will have a protein shake with Almond Milk. I am not trying to drink all my calories during the day by the way. I eat lot of egg whites, chicken, fish, turkey, nuts, seeds, oats, single serving cheese and greek yogurt.  Mixed with Fruits and Veggies through out the day. I never feel exahusted after work outs just a little sore as I should be. Pretty much my only issue is trying to keep up with what Fitbit says but so far I have chose to listen to my body and not stuff myself with food even if they are healthy. Sometime you just need a little confirmation from someone more knowledgable than oneself  that you are on the right track and not creating a bad habit only to fail down the line.

Thanks

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Are you sure about the calories burned?  That seems really excessive given an hour on the treadmill at a little more than 3 mph and some weightlifting.  Admittedly, you're working on an incline and I don't, but it still seems like a lot.

I would try underestimating the activity level, like if you were at a desk job and then a couch potato when you get home. then manually add in the actual time and calories for my exercies.

I'm not you, so our numbers are going to be different, but for an example - a couple of weeks ago was a very active day.  I walked 4.5 miles before I even left work because I was hustling to get someone all over the place between 3 different buildings, then walked across the street to get some lunch.  I was moving.  Then I went to the gym and walked/ran another two miles after lifting weights for about half an hour.  I endedup with almost 7 miles of walkng and running, but I still burned less than 3,000 calories.

Again, we're two very different people, but 4300 calories seems like an awful lot to be burning.  I have a feeling that might be where the glitch is.

[Chris-326]

I am not burning those calories with just the workout. Those calories are everything burned in a 24 period. Most of the calories you burn in a day are just the calories you burn living and being. Everything burns calories. Sleeping, Digestion, etc etc. I think I am only burning about 750-1000 calories during the workout. I know I burn a lot more calories than my wife doing the same exercises due to my size.

Those are the numbers Fitbit is providing to me. I agree that it does seem high but according to most calorie calculators I am around 3000 calories needed (as that is what I burn just to function) without exercise. 

I am new to this healthy part of living and welcome any education I can get. So if I am mistaken on anything please enlighten me. For reference here is my weekly summary. This was last weeks I have broke 5000 calories burned ( according to fitbit) every day so far.

30143 Calories Burned

18603 Calories eaten

Avg Steps 12106 steps

Avg Miles 5.36 miles

[Raviv]

Yeah, that was my total burn for the whole day too, but like you said, mine are going to be different.

I have to say, your food and your activity levels all seem really good.  If you're sure you have the numbers correct in the system, then maybe try following along for a week or two and see what happens.  If it doesn't work, then you can try making some changes.

Maybe someone else will come along and see something we're missing too.

[Chris-326]

Agreed. If it is working and I am not noticing any negative I will just keep doing what I'm doing until it isn't working anymore.

Thanks all for your input. Any other advise is welcome.

[Heybales]

I'd suggest NOT waiting until it is NOT working anymore.

The first 3 weeks you aren't losing 3-4 lbs weekly - or whatever the deficit says should be about right, then be concerned your body is starting to adapt and burn less, and start eating more and getting that deficit back to a reasonable 1000 calories.

You may luck out genetically and with a good workout routine, and as a male you have better odds - but once you go past that line of screwing up your body - it's a hard road back to getting it healthy again to lose the fat weight as easily.

Usually once it starts slowing down - it's a fast drop to max suppression.

Then you gotta decide do you really attempt to eat even that much less, or get a healthy body back.

Guess which one leads to more failures trying to maintain goal weight.

[Kykaree]

I don't trust the Fitbit calorie allowance. Everything I have read and been advised by my medical team makes me think it really over estimates BMR. I am a fat woman and it thinks on a day when I do 20 000 steps I can have over 3000 calories and I just don't think that's true. My body wants about 1800 so that's what I'm doing. I am actually playing around this week and having closer to what Fitbit says just to see what happens. I've lost 2lbs per week consistently this year so one week where I have a gain won't matter. If I lose then I'll assume fitbit is correct and up my calories. 

[Rickm86]

How long have you had your fitbit?

When i first bought mine it would over estimate quite alot but it got better after 6 weeks.

I still believe it over estimates my cals burned so i usually knock 500 off the total amount it gives.

[DominicJ]

Do as your fitbit tells you, is the simple answer

You bought it for a reason.

Online stuff is fine, as a guide, for people who dont have access to *better* information, your fitbit provides you better information

My 28days average is 2800 calories burnt, so I eat on average 1800cals, there have been a couple of days where I have burnt 3500 and so ate 2500

But I'm 165lbs (was 240 at one point), so my day to day walking involves carrying around 80lbs less, its easy to see how you burn 50% more calories when you weigh 50% more 

A calorie is a calorie, there is no such thing as "healthy" calories, under eating them is seriously bad news, I tried it, I added a lot of walking, figured I'd eat two thirds of the extra calories than all of them, a week and a half of that and my knees buckled.

[SpunDreamer]

it's working and your aren't feeling exhausted after a workout, then you are probably about where you need to be for the day, as you lose the weight your body will require less calories to move your weight around, so your deficit will decrease, and the loss will slow. I wish you the best of luck in this journey, it's a tough one. I also notice fitbit gives me more calories than I've been given by previous trackers, but it's only 2-300 calories, I adjusted the weightloss speed to fit my comfortable intake, I'm working on removing highly processed foods from my diet.

[Chris-326]

I've had the fitbit for around 3-4 weeks.

[Raynoszs]

Hey Chris,

Listen to Heybales. He's got a very good point.

If you create a deficiet which is too high, your body will adapt and you will find it much harder to burn.

I had a very similar issue when I started with my fitbit.

I was burning around 3500+ and was only eating about 1500cals. I thought definately, fitbit is wrong, I can't be burning that much but after doing calcuations on mutiple websites, it all came down to the same calories burnt in regards to activity level.

Your size has already determined that you're on a high burn rate just for maintenece. 

Anyways, I listened to the App, actually increased my daily intake by over 1000cals and hey, I'm still losing weight, nothing for me has slowed down, plus I'm putting on more muscel and my strength is increasing.

I'm not sure what would've happened if I carried on the ~2000cal deficit.

Finally, I've been sick for the past week and holy cow, my calories burned has halfed, so that little device on your wrist sure has some accuracy.

[Heybales]

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@Kykaree wrote:

I don't trust the Fitbit calorie allowance. Everything I have read and been advised by my medical team makes me think it really over estimates BMR. I am a fat woman and it thinks on a day when I do 20 000 steps I can have over 3000 calories and I just don't think that's true. My body wants about 1800 so that's what I'm doing. I am actually playing around this week and having closer to what Fitbit says just to see what happens. I've lost 2lbs per week consistently this year so one week where I have a gain won't matter. If I lose then I'll assume fitbit is correct and up my calories. 

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One weeks not enough time.

Fat is not fast, loss or gain.

All you are going to do is top of some semi-depleted glucose stores in the muscles with attached water - and gain water weight, LBM, and increase metabolism.

That fast 1-2 lb increase is what makes everyone seem to think increasing a mere 100-200 calories caused that to be fat gain - when that just can't be the case.

The Mifflin BMR does start getting inflated when getting up to morbidly obese BMI level, but outside medical issues, or undereating causing it to lower, or bad series of yo-yo dieting burning off muscle mass - it's usually within 5-10% for vast majority.

And if you weigh more - it's easily seen you can burn more merely by moving around.

Until people have logged accurately how much they used to eat that got then in to trouble, along with activity level at that time - they generally have no clue how much they were burning, and only concept of calories is the fad extreme 1200 calorie diets with lots of exercise.

Just suggest that the moment that 2lbs isn't happening, but the deficit still appears it should be 1000 daily - then begin to worry and start eating more.

Preventing the body from slowing down is a whole lot easier and faster than trying to get it to speed back up once it's already adapted.

Adaptive thermogenesis, metabolic efficiency, ect.

[Rickm86]

Good post Heybales.

[FatapusW]

This was also the case for me.  My Charge HR was generous on calorie burn.  I countered this by always oversetimating my calorie intake and setting my weight loss goals to the maximum on Fitbit.  This way I could use the tool and still accomplish weight loss around 2.25 - 2.5 lbs per week.

[FittyBitty2017]

That's what mine is saying to me!!! It's only been a few days but I feel fatter than when I started 😩... I'm going to see what the scales say on weigh day Wednesday then if it's not working I'm sticking to my 1900

[BigG1986]

How much do you weigh because that makes alot of difference to the calories you burn.