Fitbit says I should be consuming around 4 to 5000 calories a day?

[Boba_fettling]

I'm a 25 year old male, 5'9 at 257 lbs. My fit bit says I burn about 5000 to 6000 calories a day and that I should be consuming 4000 + to match it at a 1000 calorie deficit. This just seems insanely high to me? I want to lose weight as quickly and healthily as possible but I feel like constantly eating is just going to put me back to my starting weight. Am I reading this wrong? 

[GershonSurge]

@Boba_fettling,

The number of calories you should consume is quite dependent on how much activity you do. The easiest way to determine this number is to wear the Fitbit for a week or so and see how many calories the Fitbit says you consume. Then start with a 750-1000 calorie deficit from this number and see what happens. Do not go below your Basal Metabolic Rate as restricting calories too much can cause health problems.

In order to maintain a calorie deficit, it's necessary to count every calorie. The Fitbit food log works well for this. It does take some time to learn the program. This means you will need a postal scale that measures weight in grams.

There are many approaches that work, and you will need to experiment to see which one works for you. In my opinion, all that's really needed is to get 500-1000 activity calories a day. These are the calories above your BMR. 

In order to answer this type of question fully, it helps to change your privacy settings so your calorie input and burn  is visible and your daily steps are visible. You can do that here.

If you can afford one, I recommend getting an Aria scale that will automatically track your weight on Fitbit. At least log your weigh-ins if you use a different type of scale. There are a couple other models people may jump in and recommend. These weigh-ins will help you adjust the amount of food you eat. Don't panic about daily changes. They can be a few pounds.

Most people have some difficulty losing weight at first. That's normal and not a cause for concern. Keep experimenting until you find something that works for you.

[Mukluk4]

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@Boba_fettling wrote:

I'm a 25 year old male, 5'9 at 257 lbs. My fit bit says I burn about 5000 to 6000 calories a day and that I should be consuming 4000 + to match it at a 1000 calorie deficit. This just seems insanely high to me? I want to lose weight as quickly and healthily as possible but I feel like constantly eating is just going to put me back to my starting weight. Am I reading this wrong? 

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You are a pretty big dude like myself.  Your BMR alone is probably 2100, so if you are a pretty active guy it's easy to break the 4K+ barrier.  I'm also under the assumption that you are using a HR tracker and those can be a bit high on the calorie counter.  

Your calorie intake is going to be dependent upon what types of activities you are doing, but I would start out targeting 3K intake a day for a month or so then reevaluate.

[Boba_fettling]

3000 calories of what though. I'm having a crazy hard time eating enough. I
get full on like 400 calories and then it's like. No way dude eat 1000
more. I feel lost to be honest.

[Boba_fettling]

I made it public, the weigh in fluxuations don't worry me I just want to make sure I'm being healthy. I lost 30 lbs in a month in a rather unhealthy way, so from now on I want to do it right.

[Sgiahatch]

I've got a similar problem.  I've been at it almost 3 weeks and I have been gradually losing weight going by averages (with fluctuations here and there).  As I started learning how the Fitbit (Blaze) application accounts for all activity throughout the day, I was surprised to see how much energy I use up.  On workdays I jog a mile to the gym in the morning, 20-30 minutes of weight training, run (HiiT, 30 sec sprint 1 min jog) back home  and finish up with another 4-5 sets with pushups, ab rollers, russian twists, and basic crunches.  Then later I walk a mile for work, then another mile during lunch, then walk back home.  So on those days it isn't difficult to burn around 3500 calories.  

Thing is I'm not used to eating much more than ~300-400 calories either.  I've started adjusting my macronutrient composition to put more of a focus on protein (aiming for around ~150g), which is surprisingly hard.

Point is I have to put in significant effort to eat more than ~1400-1500 calories in a day, yet I've been burning twice that.  Aside from somewhat longer recovery periods from some of my workouts, could I be over doing it and possibly freaking out my body into some sort of starvation mode?  I'm aware that the calorie tracker for activity isn't necessarily that accurate and one can only be so accurate with calorie counting on foods (even with a digital weight scale for food), so maybe I'm not doing as much damage as I think?  

[emili]

So I am 5'7 and 135 pounds. I eat 400 calories for three of the four meals and 300 for the fourth. I can honestly say I feel satisfied after each meal, but not full. I am kind of shocked you do. I think the answer to "what" would be dependent on what activity are you doing. Are you all cardio, then I would eat a bit more good carbs. If you are weight training, I would eat more protein. You can also include healthy fats, that will increase your calorie intake, give energy and not fill you up. But like someone else mentioned, you have to weigh and measure to ensure you are eating what you think you are. Let us know how it goes.

[Boba_fettling]

I work in a high volume kitchen where I run back and forth constantly and am moving constantly for at least 9 of 10 hours a day. I also do 5 sets of 15 pushups a day totaling 75. I eat mostly scrambled eggs with coconut oil, broccoli, mushrooms, red peppers, and some fish and shrimp when necessary. Fruits vary on what I can get but usually an apple and orange a day. Truth be told I never really ate a lot per see, just had a bad habit of drinking only soda while eating mostly fast food when I did eat. So idk I guess going from 2 cheeseburgers and some coke a day to 6 heads of broccoli is just sort of difficult lol

[Esya]

Sounds like you are looking for some healthy foods that are high in calories. Think about oil: avocado, nuts, seeds, olive oil etc. Just 6 heads of broccoli is difficult for a reason lol.

[Boba_fettling]

That was a little humor. I'm not actually trying to eat six heads of broccoli but the 4 cups I did eat, and the two chicken breasts and two avocados and wheat toast and 2 cups of walnuts etc. It's just too much to stack into my stomach and I still can't seem to hit my mark. Some days it's telling me to have an intake of 5000 cals, Which I understand while eating the right things 5000 isn't so bad for you, but I'll be **ahem**ed if it isn't hard to eat 5000 cals of veggies a day.

[Mukluk4]

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@Boba_fettling wrote:

I made it public, the weigh in fluxuations don't worry me I just want to make sure I'm being healthy. I lost 30 lbs in a month in a rather unhealthy way, so from now on I want to do it right.

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Well it looks like you are pretty new to fitbit, so it's hard to judge what is right and/or wrong for your body based on the limited data.

Just because the graph doesn't display it (funny how that works) what is your goal weight?  How did you arrive at that #?  What is your current BF%?  Why do you want to lose weight?

For men, that weight # can be very misleading and it's really better to track BF%.  The Rock is 6'5/260 (obese), Vin Diesel is 5'9 and 225 (overweight),  Fight Club Brad Pitt was 6' 150ish which is probably completely unsustainable and underweight, and I'll wager that very few women would kick any of them out of bed.

[Boba_fettling]

I originally weighed 287 at 40% body fat.

In one month I am down to 253.2 at 36% body fat. 

By the end of this I'd like to be between 170 and 190. 

I don't want to have a heart attack in my mid thirties because I couldn't stop eating cheeseburgers and chugging soda. Haha

Now I have had a charge HR before and when I did track previously, even though I didn't change my eating habits, I was burning between 4.5-7k calories a day. I rarely get hungry, and when I do I don't get hungry for more than a couple chicken breasts and some broccoli. I'm thinking of adding a protein supplement perhaps? 

[IMchika]

Maybe add some fats? 

If you were someone who said you were eating all the time and never filling up, I'd tell you that fats can help keep you fuller throughout the day.  Fat can help you absorb some vitamins better, and it provides good longer-term energy.  Plant fats are a great way of adding healthy fat into your diet @emili mentioned them above, and I second her suggestion, especially in the form of avocado - yum!

[Mukluk4]

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@Boba_fettling wrote:

I originally weighed 287 at 40% body fat.

In one month I am down to 253.2 at 36% body fat. 

By the end of this I'd like to be between 170 and 190. 

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Ok, I'm confused.  Your original post says you keep jumping back to your original weight, but here you are 30+ lbs down.  Which is it?.

It also looks like you are losing some significant muscle mass while losing this huge amount of weight (I am currently 260/34%) which is probably causing your huge jumps in weight.  You may want to slow down, up the calories and start some Clanging & Banging.  There is a difference between fat-skinny (heavy but strong and athletic) and skinny-fat (skinny and a wet noodle)

[IMchika]

@Mukluk4

Maybe I should know this, but I don't - what's Clanging and Banging?

[Boba_fettling]

No I said I'm worried I'll end up back at my original weight if I eat the way the fit bit is directing me. As of yesterday I've started a 1000 calorie a meal vegetarian diet and a gym membership. So I'll be clanging and banging as you recommended here shortly!

Also, You sound like a much more muscular guy than me, I've never been very muscular, just fat. But I'm working on that asap

[Boba_fettling]

I eat one large avocado a day with 4 eggs scrambled no salt and cooked with coconut oil. It's not that I'm hu gry always and don't know what to eat, it's that I never get hungry and I have to force down 4000 cals a day. 1700 to 2000 no prob, but more than that, without eating junk food? How?

[IMchika]

So I don't like Fitbit's recommended intake, it feels too high for me too.  I try to keep my cals in around 2200 (which is still probably a little high) compared to 2800-3000 that the app recommends I consume in a day (and more on a very active day).  I think if you're not hungry, don't eat, do what you feel is reasonable.  On my cals in vs cals out graph, I have a lot of days that it thinks I'm under - but I'm slowly losing weight (and size), and so I'm pretty sure I'm doing the right thing.  Sorry, no scientific research to back it up, just my personal experience.

[Mukluk4]

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@IMchika wrote:

@Mukluk4

Maybe I should know this, but I don't - what's Clanging and Banging?

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Weight Training

[Daves_Not_Here]

Something is not adding up for me.  If you burn 6000 calories yet struggle to eat more than 2000, how did you get to be overweight in the first place?

And the weight is falling off you at 30 lbs a month.  Why not maintain your activity level, eat non-junk food until satiated, and be done with it?

I feel like I'm missing an essential element of the story.