Under the Calorie Target

[Janetpam]

Information needed! I am doing well with logging, exercising, and eating healthy foods. I wear a Fitbit blaze and I think the calories are not correct. I am constantly under the daily target with my calorie input but I am not losing weight. I don’t know if the watch is wrong or the food diary is under estimating the calories. Some say to eat all the recommended calories, but that seems scary until I know what might be happening. Any ideas?

Please and thank you 

[Dominique]

There is a margin of error in both the calories in tracked by you and the calories out tracked by your Fitbit. What tends to happen very often is that calories in are underestimated and calories out overestimated: if you underestimate your intake by 250 calories and your Fitbit overestimates your expenditure by 250 calories, a calculated deficit of 500 calories will turn out to be no deficit at all. This doesn’t mean your Fitbit is useless: if it overestimates your expenditure, it will do so consistently. You’ll just have to shoot for a higher calculated deficit in order to obtain the actual deficit you need to reach your goal. 

[Janetpam]

Thanks for the information. Do you know the answer to this question? If FB calculates the calories for the day, does it already include the deficit needed to lose weight or do I need to do the math myself? For example if FB says I need 2,000 calories and I adjust for the variance you noted, do I eat 1,500 calories (FB calculations) or 1,000 (my calculations and this is just an example) to lose one pound a week? I am not sure if the calculations by FB include the deficit needed to lose weight. 

[Esya]

The calculations by FB include the deficit you have set in the food plan to lose weight. Your adjustments would be on top of that.

[Daves_Not_Here]

@Janetpam - welcome!  You'll get better answers if you can provide specific information like your average and total calorie deficit, what Food Plan you are using, how many days you have sustained the calorie deficit, your current and target weights, age, level of fitness, how much you've already lost, etc.  One size does not fit all.

Regarding if your daily target already includes the calorie deficit allowance for weight loss, it depends if you set up a Food Plan. 

Finally, my observation has been that many people who struggle to lose weight complain that Fitbit must be significantly overestimating their calorie deficits.  While that's certainly possible, I think it's more likely that people are not logging all their eating.

[emili]

@Janetpam hey and hello. I am a diehard fitbit fan, but there are some things that I just want to know to be sure everything is working as it should and calories per day is one of those things. I did my own calculation using a TDEE calculator to get a sense for where I should be with intake. Then I reduced it slightly to allow for error and then reduced it again for the deficit I actually want. That is the number I work for. If fitbit and I agree- awesome, if not that's ok because the scale will tell me who was correct. I consistently lost weight when I was losing. As you start to lose, make sure you take into account the pounds gone and for every ten or so recalculate just to be sure you aren't overeating. And lastly, logging. we do our best to be accurate, but we make mistakes. By taking a bit off the top before I even considered my deficit- I kind of made up for mistakes. every grape I took out of the fridge or every spoon I licked clean- none of that made it to the log because half the time I did it while in the middle of something else.. ultimately the scale is telling you - you are eating to maintenance. Your in and out are equal which is why you aren't losing weight- provided of course there isn't a medical issue...