Setting and monitoring against a goal deficit

[Kishlette]

Hi All

I'm new to Fitbit, having just ordered a Charge 2 that will hopefully arrive in a few days. Yay! In the meantime, I've downloaded the Fitbit app on my android phone and have been playing around to get used to it. My plan is to use FatSecret to log my food intake (using Fitmess to sync that to Fitbit) and then use the Fitbit app for everything else - i.e. exercise logging, weight logging, water intake, etc.

I don't really have an exercise goal or a calorie intake goal per se, just a deficit goal each day. I create a daily deficit of 200 Cal (roughly), which I 'bank' to allow 1-2 largely unmonitored drinks/dinners out with friends each week...I find that evens out nicely over the course of a week to keep me at a steady weight. If I don't exercise as much as usual, it's fine - I eat less; if I exercise more, I eat more to end up with the same deficit each day.

I find the FatSecret app to be great to help me monitor and modulate my food and exercise during the day. The app automatically adds my RMR (based on 8 hours sleep and 16 hours resting) at the start of the day - for me, it's 1120 Cal. I can add to that calorie burn by logging exercise (i.e. replacing some of that 16 hours of rest with other activities). As I add food, I can easily see how much in deficit I will be for that day. It is very easy to get a snapshot of exactly where I will be at the end of the day at any point throughout that day.

So, as a very simple example, if I haven't done any activity throughout the day and eaten 500 Cal by lunch, I can easily see that I can allow 420 Cal for dinner. If I want to eat more than that, I know that I would have to get some activity in at some point before I go to bed. Usually I've done some exercise though so the maths isn't that easy and the app is essential for me to understand where I'm at.

So getting to the point of this post...

I'm finding the Fitbit app really unhelpful to help me monitor and modulate during a day.

While I know my BMR is 1120 Cal, because it gets added progressively across the day, the only time I get a proper snapshot is after midnight...which is pretty unhelpful as it doesn't help me modulate my food or activity during that day to achieve my goal of a 200 Cal deficit. Once I add exercise, it's really impossible to judge unless I want to figure out how many hours are left in the day multiply that by 1120 divided by 24 and add the product to my current calorie burn...no thank you. I don't eat progressively across the 24 hours and I go to bed at 10pm so I never get a really good picture of what the day will look like. The 'calories left', while I understand where it comes from, is really unhelpful...I mean it's not a true picture, is it?! It's based on an arbitrary calorie goal that doesn't take into account the full day.

And even after midnight, I have to do my own maths from the 'Cals in vs. out' graph under the food to see my deficit for a prior day (if I haven't set a nutritional goal, it seems that the 'calories left' is the deficit).

Surely I'm not the only one who is finding this to be unhelpful... Does anyone know a fix for this? Like, instead of my RMR being added progressively, can I have it show at the start of the day? I can work with that...

How do you use the app to monitor yourself throughout a day? I've got used to the way I look at my day but I'm happy to change if someone can offer a new way of looking at it that achieves the same thing!

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

[Dominique]

@Kishlette: although I understand you have been using FatSecret for a while and are now used to the way it works, have you considered using Fitbit’s own Food Plan? You may want to have a look at Fitbit’s Food Plan Demystified, a very detailed article by a community member that explains how the plan works.

I’ll also comment on your deficit: 200 calories is a fine deficit for someone who wants to lose at a very moderate pace (as they say: slow and steady wins the race). However, you may find it’s within the margin of error of the energy expenditure estimated by your Charge 2 and/or your own estimate of your intake. Not saying it can’t be done, but it may require some adjustments along the way, if – for instance – you notice your Charge 2 overestimates your energy expenditure.

The Charge 2 is a great tracker, I’m sure you’ll love it!

[Kishlette]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I saw that post but it doesn't help with the fact that Fitbit seems to add your calories across the course of the day meaning that it's really hard to monitor your deficit and adjust food and activity partway through the day... Fitbit seems to, on the dashboard, estimates 'calories left' based on historical energy use and, in the food menu, the same metric seems to be calculated based on what's been used so far that day (i.e. portion of the day rather than the full day).

I'm not trying to lose weight, just maintain, and I agree, I'm sure I'll need to adjust when I start using Fitbit to estimate by energy burn. I use the 200 calorie daily deficit as a buffer/bank so I can eat out 1-2 times per week without putting on weight - it's been working well for me for a while now.

I like FatSecret in terms of its food database, use of kilojoules (which a lot of the food is labelled with where I live), ability to add different portion sizes more easily, better metrics in terms of nutritional information and general ease of use.

But whatever database I use, I don't know if it has a bearing on how I can monitor my deficit and adjust food and activity partway through the day... My goal isn't to set a calorie goal or an activity goal, but rather maintain a small deficit. There are days where I won't exercise as much or I'll eat more and some days I will exercise more or eat less and I want to be able to adjust during the day so, at the end of the day, I'll end up with a small deficit. Does that make sense? But I can't do it unless I know what my expected burn is for the day and I don't know how to get around FitBit's progressive adding of calories burned. Is there a different way of seeing your estimated deficit for the day without having to do the maths yourself? It's very possible I'm missing something!

[Kishlette]

OK, I think I wrote too much and it all got confusing...so I have thought of a practical scenario that may help...

SCENARIO

It's 7pm and I'm about to choose what to have for dinner.

I have eaten 1074 calories so far today.

My Fitbit is telling me I've burned 1486 calories and I don't plan to do any more exercise today.

How can I use the Fitbit app to figure out how many calories I should eat at dinner to end up with a deficit of 200 calories for the day?

PROBLEM

The 'calories left' readouts on the app don't seem right. On the dashboard it seems like calories left is an estimate based on my historical activity levels. In the food menu, calories left is based only on what I've burned so far that day without regard for the fact that I will burn more (i.e. at my resting metabolic rate).

I must be doing something wrong...surely there's a way to easily figure this out without having to do my own sums... If someone can point out what I'm missing, I would be incredibly grateful!!!

[rachiti · Accepted solution]

I basically ignore the calorie deficit "feature" as, for me at least, it's really inaccurate.  I'm very active but I have a super low metabolism.  According to how it calculates, I should be losing 5 pounds each week but I'm lucky if I lose 2 pounds per month.  

As for how to switch it's tracking feature for calorie deficit - you can't.  The Fitbit software isn't flexible.  You either do what the software developers want you to do or you ignore half of the "features".  For me, for example, it's pointless anyway for calorie deficit because my bedtime is 6AM and my wake time is 1PM so its automatic assumption is that I somehow drop into sleep before midnight spreads out my activity and calories over two days so there's absolutely zero way to accurately track each day independently.

[Kishlette]

Yeah, I've played around but couldn't nail it. The closest I got was setting my activity level to 'sedentary' (which I finally managed to do through my computer as you can't do that via the app)...that got me the closest. It's still not really the same and it is still harder to plan but it's an improvement.

@rachiti I, too, have an impaired metabolism due to a medical condition but, through a lot of trial and error over the years, I've figured out how to adjust for myself. Using FatSecret, I found I used around 300 calories less per day than it expected. I was hoping Fitbit might be more accurate but I think it's looking like the same so I'll be heading for a 500 calorie deficit per day and that gives me some leeway over a week.

I do think that deficit calculation in Fitbit needs to be improved. There's no clear read out (particularly if you set a goal deficit) and using the term 'calories left' in two different places, but calculated in different ways, is just unnecessarily confusing.