Lost on Calories

[Brentsgurl62]

I put my stats in to my profile and it's telling me that I can only eat 862 calories a day?  I know that is way to low and I'm so confused.  I put in that i wanted a deficit of 500 a day.  Can someone help me to fix this?  I must have my settings wrong but i have looked and everything seems okay to me.  Thanks 🙂

[OCDOC]

This may not help the way you want....

I got fed up with the Fitbit calorie thing and synced to Myfitnesspal instead..works like a charm, including target etc.

All you have to do is click the fitbit link unders the 'Apps' dropdown on MFP.

Rob

[DominicJ]

Its probably telling you that you can eat 862 calories SO FAR today, but its hard to be sure with seeing what you are looking at

[JohnRi]

Unless you are like 5' nothing, and 90 lbs.  Something sounds odd.  Make sure your height, and weight are correct.  Now keep in mind the number of calories you can eat change through the day.  In the morning it will be lower, than say 11:00PM at night.  Exercise and physical activity increase how many calories you can eat in a day.  My app will say I can only eat 1400 calories today.  But after I exercise it will say I can eat 3000 calories.

[Brentsgurl62]

My issue is that my project calorie burn for the full day is only 1445. My BMR is 1340. So according to Fitbit im barely alive. It's tracking almost 7000 steps a day. Im not a exercise guru but I'm def not bed ridden either lol

[DominicJ]

Age, height, weight, gender, and what time is it

With that we should be able to let you know whats going on

[BWright1175]

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@JohnRi wrote:

Now keep in mind the number of calories you can eat change through the day.  In the morning it will be lower, than say 11:00PM at night.  Exercise and physical activity increase how many calories you can eat in a day.  My app will say I can only eat 1400 calories today.  But after I exercise it will say I can eat 3000 calories.

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This.

For example, my fitbit says that I should be burning 3068 calories per day to hit my goal, and I currently have it set to lose 1.5 lbs per week, so it's set for a 750 calories per day deficit.

So this morning, I got up, showered, and while eating breakfast I put together my lunch and snacks for the day to take to work.  I then entered all that food into my food log for the day.  So for breakfast, lunch, a morning snack and an afternoon snack, that put me at 1115 calories, and it showed that I had 35 calories left to eat.  So first thing in the morning, it's basically telling me I have 1150 calories available for the day.  But it's not taking into consideration the calories that I will burn throughout the day... it's only taking into consideration the calories that it thinks I've burned so far.

Fast forward to now... it's 3:40pm, and it's been a fairly inactive day for me.. lots of meetings and teleconferences.  Normally by this time, I've taken a few walks and would be up around 6000 steps or so... but today, I'm at 3200.

And even though I'm "inactive" compared to what I usually do, fitbit has still been adding the average calories that I should burn throughout the day, and it now shows that I have 493 calories left to eat.  So it's basically added another 500 calories, just because I'm awake and moving around (a little).  Throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening, it'll add a few hundred more... and when I exercise when I get home, that'll add another few hundred.

At the end of the day, I'll have eaten around 1600 to 1800 calories, and will probably have a couple hundred or so calories left over, in addition to the 750 calorie deficit.

Basically, you have to look at the entire day... not just what it shows first thing in the morning.  But if at the end of the day is when it's showing that you had 862 calories in your budget for the entire day?  Then yes, I'd say something's not right.

[Tave]

As some of the others have mentioned, we need a little bit more information about you, if you are comfortable providing it,  to try to help see if the settings may be off.

It could be that the number it is showing you is at that moment without considering the exercise and movement you will do throughout the day.  But we can't be sure without more info.

[Stackz]

That number that you are seeing is the number that you have left to eat without having done anything and not having burned any calroires off. As you go through your day that number will increase until you log food. I think it works well. I have be able to lose weight using the tracking feature that they use and it has worked well for me. 

My FitnessPal is also a good one if you want a bit more of in depth tracking for that department. 

[Brentsgurl62]

37/f. 5'2" 154.

[Tave]

After calculating your estimated BMR online, I got 1337 calories per day.  500 from that would come close to the number of calories you gave in your first post.  That would be if you did absolutely nothing during the day though.  

So if you are doing exercise during the day that will increase the amount of calories you can consume overall.  Even something as simple as walking will burn calories, so you would be able to eat more than 862 calories.

Remember that if you look at the Fitbit dashboard first thing in the morning, it will only give you an estimated calorie burn/what's left to consume at that point.  If you check it later in the day after syncing, it will reflect the new (increased) amount of recommended calories to consume taking your activity into account.

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@Brentsgurl62 wrote:
37/f. 5'2" 154.

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I put my stats in to my profile and it's telling me that I can only eat 862 calories a day?  I know that is way to low and I'm so confused.  I put in that i wanted a deficit of 500 a day.  Can someone help me to fix this?  I must have my settings wrong but i have looked and everything seems okay to me.  Thanks

[Tave]

I put my stats in to my profile and it's telling me that I can only eat 862 calories a day?  I know that is way to low and I'm so confused.  I put in that i wanted a deficit of 500 a day.  Can someone help me to fix this?  I must have my settings wrong but i have looked and everything seems okay to me.  Thanks

[DominicJ]

Ok, that gets you a Base Metabolic Rate of 1450 Calories per day, ish

Those are the calories your body burns to not die, put bluntly.

If you have said you want to lose 1lb per week, you need a deficit of 500 per day, so yes, you can eat 950calories, BUT those are your calories if you never get out of bed.

Once you get up and start walking about, your get a lot more

A half hour walk will get you another 250

[alid92]

what everyone saying is pretty accurate. on school days i normally burn around 3500 - i wake up before school and run. but on the weekends i exersise ( a little extreme) and burn close to 5000. where as when i wake up in the morning my " calories left" is like 1160 or so

[bcalvanese]

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@OCDOC wrote:

This may not help the way you want....

I got fed up with the Fitbit calorie thing and synced to Myfitnesspal instead..works like a charm, including target etc.

All you have to do is click the fitbit link unders the 'Apps' dropdown on MFP.

Rob

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I am the oposite. I got fed up with MyFitnessPal, and I love being able to do everything in one app. You just have to remember that your calories grow as your day goes on (I think it gives you so many per hour just for being alive plus any active calories you burn based on your heart rate and activities) which is actually more accurate.

And don't even get me started on the MyFitnessPal forums. It is over run with idiots that act like they know everything, yet don't even know the basics. And if you don't agree with them, they attack you like a lynch mob. And if you try to stand up for yourself the moderators (part of the lynch mob) will ban you from posting for 2 weeks.

My advice is NOT to take any advice from most people on that forum.

[jamivers]

I am convinced this FITBIT HR is a piece of JUNK.  It does not work.  How can they legitamitly sell these for over $100 and know they have so many problems.  They should recall them, fix them all or refund the money to everyone.  They DON'T WORK. 

I would love to hear from a moderator on how they recommend I get mine to work.

Given up

[DominicJ]

Moderators delete inappropraite posts, nothing more.

What exactly is your problem?
What have you done, what is your fitbit doing?

[Dominique]

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@jamivers wrote:

I am convinced this FITBIT HR is a piece of JUNK.  It does not work.

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We don’t even know what exact model you have (there is no such product as "FITBIT HR"). We’ll have to assume it’s one of the several trackers that include a heart rate monitor (Charge HR, Surge, Blaze). Likewise, we don’t know in what way "it does not work".

Also: you could have started a new topic in the appropriate help forum, rather than piggybacking on a totally unrelated discussion.

[jamivers]

CHARGE HR
 Alice Ivers
The City of Happiness is in the State of Mind.P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

[HelenaFitbit]

Thank you for reaching out @jamivers and thank you for your help on this @Dominique!

As you've mentioned on this post; you've been experiencing Syncing Issues. In this case I recommend to follow the steps on this guide to help you get back on track. If the problem persists, please let our Customer Support team know about this. I'm sure they'll be glad to help you get back on track. 

@DominicJ Please see the tasks of the Fitbit Moderators on this page.

Let me know if you have any questions, take care!