Too many calories?

[Bopenella67]

Hi, all! I am new to fitbit, started June 24. I am wondering about the allotment of calories it says I can have each day? It is usually around 3000 & this seems entirely too high to me! The first few days i didn't change anything I normally did or ate to establish a baseline, although slightly more active then usual, I dont think it was too off. Since the 28th I have been far more active and the calories they say I can have is around 3000! Honestly, I don't want to eat that much. I generally eat about 2200  on what I consider a bad day, like yesterday (2 hot dogs, french fries, ice cream...) and 1700 on a normal day. I don't feel hungry at the end of the day. I've never been much of a dieter, Just the past few years for various reasons stopped moving as much as i should. that's why the fitbit, to motivate & help to keep aware of what i was eating & doing.

Does anyone feel they are given too many calories?

[Jen10]

I have also had that problem. Not sure what to do about it. Yesterday I tried to keep myself "in the zone" but I couldn't keep up. The final total was 2200 that I was told to eat. I quit at 1700. I know I can't eat that much.

[LisaBeymer]

I'm new to FitBit. I just started this week. I have the exact same concern! I'm anxious to hear the responses to this. 

[Bopenella67]

Glad to know others have this concern, I kept thinking "if I keep up this level of activity, the hunger will come." but I'm finding the opposite happens, the more I'm moving around there's less inclination overeat!

[juliagulia162 · Accepted solution]

What do you have your goal set for? If you have it set for the easisest which is only a 250 deficit- the amount will be higher. If its way to high- make your goal more challenging. Choose a 500 or bigger deficit. Also the more you move the more calories it gives you. It is basing your calories off your behavior. Check our settings and just try to "stay in the green"

[LisaBeymer]

I have mine set at "kinda hard" in attempts to bring down the calorie count. It came down, but still difficult. I'm going to select the next harder one but hope the activity level doesn't increase. I'm about at my max level in activity until I get used to all of this. Thanks for the advise. Still anxious to hear other responses.

[Bopenella67]

Thanks! That did the trick for me. I had it set for a pound a week. when I put it to a pound & a half that was more in line with what I eat. I was just nervous to make the goal so high that I was hungry all the time. Thanks again

[LK1138]

They screwed up the app since the most recent updates.  I have been using the app for almost a year.  I lost all the weight I wanted and am now in maintanance mode.  I only updated on my Iphone but my IPAD is still using old program and workds great.  On my Iphone it will say I can eat 3000 calories a day or more and I can tell you I am very active and on my most active days I only burn about 2400 calories.  I have complained to fitbit twice and keep getting a generic response.  Plus when I input food it will show I am over on my caloires even though the calories burned still shows I have caloires left.  Now I only look at calories burned and do the math myself, which is lame, since it used to be so user friendly.  Once the day is over and I look at the prior days food, then it justifies itself and will tell me accurately whether I have stayed within my limit.  They better get it fixed or I may be tempted to try and new tracker, since there are so many good ones to choose from.

[LewWagner]

Back in late 2013, I was over 300 pounds and diagnosed with Type II Diabetes.  My nutritionist I saw at that time recommended a series of nutritional intake amounts for my 57 year old 5'8" body:

Cals  2,000

Fat         65

Chol     300

Sod   2,400

Carbs   150

Fiber       25

Sugar     90

Prot        50

But, this is all dependent on how many calories you're burning each day.  I used to burn around 1,400-3,000 calories a day, but now I'm burning around 4K calories (doing a lot of recumbent biking - over 30 miles a day) a day so my calorie count sometimes goes over 2,000 a day.

You have to compare intake and burn to determine what is right for you.  Are you getting enough of the other levels I talked about, as well?

[chriseeo570]

Yes, I think it depends on how many calories you burn a day because when i first started i was eating way below what i was burning in a day and also losing weight but now i'm eating closer to what i burn a day and still losing weight.  I think fitbit does pretty good on accuracy on how much you can eat a day and still lose weight at least for me it has been working.  I used Sparkpeople in the past to track calories and lost weight.  The only way for me to lose weight is tracking calories once i stop tracking them the weight comes back on.  When I was college I was on a very low caloric intake and exercised like crazy but i was also hungry all the time.   When i was in college i thought that was the only way to be hungry all the time but now I know better. 

[KCat14]

That is the exact same thing that I'm seeing as well. It's frustrating that Fitbit is ignoring this app issue. I hate having to look at the website version to see if I'm in the zone, and how many calories I am over. It's embarrassing that Fitbit either doesn't care, or doesn't have smart enough software developers in their company.

[geminiwitch]

I know this is an old thread, but I also wanted to mention that the fitbit includes your basal metabolic rate in calories burned too.  After awhile it gets a sense of your activity level and adjusts your calories burned and calories to be eaten based on your goal (-250; -500, -750, or -1000).  It constantly adjusts your calories left or calories to be eaten all day going up or down based on your amount of activty.  It may say 3000 in the morning because you're typically active... but if you lay in bed all day sick and don't move but to go to the bathroom, it may end the day showing you have 1000 to eat because you didn't burn hardly anything just laying in bed.  

[Heybales]

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@geminiwitch wrote:

I know this is an old thread, but I also wanted to mention that the fitbit includes your basal metabolic rate in calories burned too.  After awhile it gets a sense of your activity level and adjusts your calories burned and calories to be eaten based on your goal (-250; -500, -750, or -1000).  It constantly adjusts your calories left or calories to be eaten all day going up or down based on your amount of activty.  It may say 3000 in the morning because you're typically active... but if you lay in bed all day sick and don't move but to go to the bathroom, it may end the day showing you have 1000 to eat because you didn't burn hardly anything just laying in bed.  

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The method you describe is if you have Calorie Estimation enabled in your settings.

The day's burn is estimated from history, and eating level based on that estimate.

With that option disabled, the day's burned is slightly over BMR (x 1.02 in my case) and eating level set to that, and then when you actually burn more than that, eating level increases.

If you sync late in the day after most activity and most meals, Estimation enabled probably a good thing.

If you sync a few times during the day, disabled is probably better unless each day is about the same.