Same old Calories burned question

[LOCUS]

So the ration between burned and taken in is way off,

I work night shift retail, and well the charge 3 is reporting that I'm burning between

3-4 thousand each day.

However

My intake is roughly 700-1000.  

[Julia_G]

@LOCUS , for most people the overwhelming number of calories burned will be BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) calories.  These are calories your body burns simply keeping all processes going and are calculated based on your height, weight, age and sex.  Fitbit uses a standard calculator for this and will show calories burned based on your profile information in the app even if you never wear your Fitbit.

When you are wearing the Fitbit it will add to the BMR calories extra calories based on steps detected, and (for Fitbits with HR sensors) detected heartrate.  If, for some reason, it is overestimating your steps (you are playing the piano, not taking a five mile hike) or your heartrate, it may overestimate calories burned.

Calories consumed must be entered manually - Fitbit has no idea what you are eating unless you tell it.

I am not entirely certain about your question.  Are you saying that your calories burned is overestimated?  Have you checked that the info in your profile is correct (including units -  make sure if you have entered, for example, 160 lbs, Fitbit doesn’t think you have entered 160 kilos...)

Does your Fitbit seem to be over estimating your steps, giving you too much calorie burned?  Is it overestimating your heartrate, giving too much calorie burned?

[LOCUS]

Unfortunately I realized I put in too little information in my post, and found no edit button.  It was bedtime so I figured I would wait.

I'm a small guy 5"3 at 126 LBS I'm maintaining that weight at 700-1000 caloric intake below BMR.  I walk a lot, so I'm not worried about Fit bit overestimating steps, at least I never thought it did.  Same thing for heart rate it never crossed my mind that either would cause overestimation.  My main concern is the discrepancy between calories consumed and burned, Fit bit says I'm burning ROUGHLY 3-4 thousand a day.  That's a very big ratio difference.  I do have a charge 3.  I do have all information entered appropriately.  If overestimation  is the problem I would love to know how to fix that.

[Dominique]

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@LOCUS wrote:

Unfortunately I realized I put in too little information in my post

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We would still need your age and your average step count (as a rough proxy for your activity level), but even without knowing these, it’s fair to say 3000-4000 calories is way over the actual number.

[LOCUS]

29, and according to fitbit I average 20,450 since the middle of December to now.

[Dominique]

For a 29-yo male, 5’3", 126 lbs, calculated BMR would be 1432 and TDEE at "high" activity level (2nd highest on a scale of 5) would be 2470 (source: this online calculator). If Fitbit reports 3000-4000, it’s definitely too high. However, 700-1000 as intake is definitely too low for you (given your activity level), even for weightloss (if it’s your goal).

But what’s your actual problem? Are you saying that you’re seeing no weightloss eating less than 1000 and clocking in 20k+ steps everyday?! You would have a most strange metabolism if that were the case.

[LOCUS]

Forgive me I posted irrelevant data originally.

Getting the fitbit to count burned calories even semi correctly is my main goal in coming to these forums.

[Dominique]

I see, the quest for the elusive six-pack...

Quite a few boxes to check, compared to "normal" weightloss. What comes to mind is the Cost of getting lean infographics, by Precision Nutrition. If you deem it worth the effort/the trade-offs, then go for it. If you’ve been spinning your wheels trying to do it on your own, have you considered hiring a coach familiar with contest preps for bodybuilders and other physique athletes?

[Julia_G]

@LOCUS , re your unusual calorie burn: are you sure you have not entered 126 kg rather than 126 lbs?  (I made that mistake once, when I was testing out two different fitbits wearing at the same time, and couldn’t understand why one Fitbit was so much stingier than the other when it came to calories...)

If you haven’t had a fitbit for very long, try scrolling back on your app to a date before you owned your Fitbit.  As soon as you set up a profile it will calculate calories entirely based on your BMR (calories you burn keeping body processes going, without any activity).  That will show you what Fitbit is calculating for your BMR.  If you have owned Fitbit tracker for a while, so that it is tedious to scroll back, try not wearing it for 24 hours, from at least midnight to midnight.  Then check that day’s calorie burn.  When you don’t wear it, it will show only the BMR calories.  Then you can at least confirm whether the BMR is wrong.  If not, it must be either overcounting steps, or HR (which will affect calorie burn).

As for 12% fat: you cannot (nor would you want to!) lose all fat!  It is neither possible, nor safe.  Here is a brief Wikipedia extract, just as a rough guide:

In males, mean percentage body fat ranged from 22.9% at age 16–19 years to 30.9% at age 60–79 years. In females, mean percentage body fat ranged from 32.0% at age 8–11 years to 42.4% at age 60–79 years.[2]

The table below from the American Council on Exercise shows how average percentages differ according to the specified groups and categories:[3]

Description Women Men

Essential fat	10–14%	3–5%
Athletes	14–21%	6–14%
Fitness	21–25%	14–18%
Average	25–32%	18–25%
Obese	32%+	25%+

Essential fat is the level at which physical and physiological health would be negatively affected, and below which death is certain. Controversy exists as to whether a particular body fat percentage is better for one's health; athletic performance may also be affected.

And I would say even those numbers in the chart look low to me, depending on age.

[Julia_G]

Ah, @LOCUS , I see you edited your post while I was replying.  In your original post you said you were measuring 12% fat and wanted to lose that.  I was responding to that information that you had 12% body fat and wanted to lose that.

If that information is incorrect, please ignore my response.

[Dominique]

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@LOCUS wrote:

Getting the fitbit to count burned calories even semi correctly is my main goal

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Calories burned reported by your Fitbit is an estimate / an educated guess. You can’t teach it to "count burned calories correctly". What you can do, hower, is assess by how much it’s off from the actual value. You can do so if you log your intake and monitor your weight, by comparing predicted weight changes to actual changes on the scale. But will you be better off knowing that?

[LOCUS]

I may  not have gotten the solution I wanted, But I got answers I needed.  Despite having my foot in my mouth, to both of you Thank You.

[mcastrigno]

The values for calorie burning are way off   

I cannot set them or change my weight goal to get it to go above 2803. 

My ultimate goal is to get the device to stop vibrations when I am not interacting with it. 

The calorie burning vibrations is the only thing I have not been able to delete

If I could find the product management that refuses to disable vibrations I would vibrate their face.  It make me soooo angry.