Suggested calorie intake seems very high

[disneybruin]

Hello! I'm kind of new to Fitbit (~ 2 months). I've recently been playing with the settings to try to get the most accurate recommended calorie intake. Right now I have it on sedentary with calorie estimate disabled. I'm trying to lose about 30 pounds (I'm 5'4'' and weigh 155), and Fitbit usually recommends about 1800 calories per day. This seems super high to me! Before Fitbit, I had been aiming for 1200-1400 calories per day. I do walk about 18K to 20K steps per day, but it's not very strenuous (mostly walking around work, to/from car, etc.).

What do you guys think? I'll gladly consume the extra calories as I'm hungry pretty much all the time. 😉 I just don't want to sabotage my weight loss efforts.

[smhermione]

I'd recomend trying their calorie intake for you... 18k to 20k does burn quite a bit of energy and you want to make sure you are giving your body the fuel it needs.  Your body also may be close to starvation mode if you're not getting enough for your activity level.  Try it, if you aren't liking the results you can always go back to what you were doing before.

[gerrymcd]

I'm not sure what you mean..... you say "Right now I have it on sedentary with calorie estimate disabled".  But you are really active and using fitbit's calorie recommendation.  

I've only had one cup of coffee, so I'm not quite up to speed! 

[disneybruin]

I set it to sedentary because I don't like having Fitbit make estimates about calorie burn based on past activity. There were times when, say, at 5:00 p.m., I would be "allowed" to eat 1500 calories. At 10:00 p.m., after eating those calories, I was over my goal because I had sat down to watch TV for the evening. Setting Fitbit to sedentary takes care of that problem and allows me to earn my calories throughout the day. In reality, I am very sedentary! I sit at a desk 10 hours per day.

From what I understand, disabling the "calorie estimate" setting does a similar thing. So, basically, the steps I take during the day are what counts toward my calorie burn. 

https://help.fitbit.com/customer/portal/articles/898903-how-does-fitbit-know-how-many-calories-i-ve-...

[Mary]

Where are you seeing a sedentary setting in the Fitbit software, or do you mean MFP?  

Calorie estimation should only affect what the Fitbit estimates for your calorie burn when you don't wear it for the day.  

[disneybruin]

No, it's a Fitbit setting. I don't use MFP. From the Fitbit website, go to log, then food, and under food plan on the right there is a little gear-shaped icon. You can click on that to  change to sedentary.

[abb123]

@smhermione http://lmgtfy.com/?q=starvation+mode+myth