Why does your calorie alotment change day to day?

[sbgrimes]

Why does the fit bit band change your callorie alotment from day to day.??

Just curious.

[CarolS · Accepted solution]

Your calorie allowance is based on how active you are and how many calories you are burning on any given day.  For example, if I start my day very active, Fitbit assumes that I'm going to continue to be that active for the rest of the day and it might allow you a bunch of calories to eat 🙂  However, if I sit on my bum for the rest of the day, it recalculates and takes some of those calories allowed away 😞 

Bottom line, is that if I want to get a bigger calorie allowance, I need to keep moving!

[sbgrimes]

thank you

[Del678]

wonder if that's why my calorie goals change on myfitnesspal as well? I've been wondering that, a little annoying. 🙂

[kosmosEP]

This is why I use MyFitnessPal as well.  It's a lot more stable with the calorie thing, and it also links up to my fitbit so I still get extra calories from my steps.  It's a great app and free!

[JennMarie922]

I also have my fitbit linked with myfitness pal... I like that it syncs my steps and workout and adjusts my calories but I don't like that it assumes I'm going to be that active throughout the day... is there any way to change it so it only syncs what I've already done and not what it THINKS I'm going to do? Or do I just need to manually enter my workouts?

[Heybales]

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@JennMarie922 wrote:

I also have my fitbit linked with myfitness pal... I like that it syncs my steps and workout and adjusts my calories but I don't like that it assumes I'm going to be that active throughout the day... is there any way to change it so it only syncs what I've already done and not what it THINKS I'm going to do? Or do I just need to manually enter my workouts?

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MFP and Fitbit don't sync what you are going to do, only your current TDEE at that point in time.

That TDEE is compared to your non-exercise maintenance that MFP came up with from your selection of weight loss goal.

If the TDEE is more, you are given a positive adjustment, as it should be. Since that maintenance figure was a calc, but Fitbit is actually live estimate, it's more accurate.

Perhaps where you are thinking of plans is the fact MFP must somehow figure out how the day is looking to adjust the new maintenance, and therefore after a deficit, the new eating level.

Having Fitbit set for historical daily burn estimate rather than live can make that effect worse.

It also means you likely picked the wrong activity level on MFP - pick a higher one and the adjustments won't be so big by the end of the day - except for exercise the Fitbit estimated correctly.

[RAZE]

I've had this happen to me, but I don't have a fitbit yet - I'm trying out the calorie counter and dashboard, etc. I'm pretty new. I put in my stats and plan, etc. and the first two days the 'target calories' were the same, but today it added 600 more calories. There's no device telling it that I've burned more calories, and I haven't input any, so why did it go up?

[RAZE]

I've had this happen to me, but I don't have a fitbit yet - I'm trying out the calorie counter and dashboard, etc. I'm pretty new. I put in my stats and plan, etc. and the first two days the 'target calories' were the same, but today it added 600 more calories. There's no device telling it that I've burned more calories, and I haven't input any, so why did it go up?

[lilac1932]

All this is really confusing me.  The last 3 days have been almost identical in terms of steps, activity level and calories burned.  For 2 of the 3 days I was allowed 73 and 125 calories on MyFitness Pal.  Yesterday the only difference was that I left my One in my wrist strap (not clipped to my bra as usual) and I was credited for the full 1834 calories I burned.  What made the difference?

Thanks

[Heybales]

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@lilac1932 wrote:

All this is really confusing me.  The last 3 days have been almost identical in terms of steps, activity level and calories burned.  For 2 of the 3 days I was allowed 73 and 125 calories on MyFitness Pal.  Yesterday the only difference was that I left my One in my wrist strap (not clipped to my bra as usual) and I was credited for the full 1834 calories I burned.  What made the difference?

Thanks

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You need to describe better where you are looking for what you are describing, since many look at both sites as a goal - which frankly I think is big mistake as far as eating goal. Let Fitbit inspire to steps and activity, and manually log non-step based execrise perhaps, but let it report to MFP the calorie burn and only view MFP for eating goal amount.

Identical on Fitbit for calories burned?

Allowed 73 and 125 calories on MFP? You mean the adjustment on Fitness tab was that much?

You were allowed that much more to eat? Not clear, use the terms the site actually uses and where.

Credited for full 1834 calories on MFP - you mean you got an adjustment on the Fitness diary of that much?

So could the other days with it in different location be getting different step counts? If different steps counts of course different calorie burns.

Valid step counts, or like while driving?

[lilac1932]

I'll try to describe it better.  MyFitness Pall credited me with  73 and 125 calories the 2 days.  Telling me I could eat that many more calories and still be at my goal of 1450 per day.  The third day it credited me with a huge number of calories...approx 1500.  In other words, I could pretty much eat it all and not take in any extra calories.  Am I making sense?  It's sooo hard to explain.

Yesterday was day 4.  Again, almost identical steps, activity level etc.  MyFitness Pal credited me with 0 calories burned.

These extremes are what is confusing.

[lilac1932]

I'll try one more time to explain this...by telling you what was recorded the last few days.

Today so far....2090 steps.  MyFitness Pal is showing a"fitbit calorie adjustment" of 70 calories

Yesterday...3831 steps....MyFitness Pal is showing a "fitbit calorie adjustment" of 0 calories

Day before that...7565 steps...MyFitness Pal showed a "fca" of 570 calories

Day before that....3276 steps...MyFitness Pal showed a "fca" of 42 calories

Day before that...5028 steps...MyFitness Pal showed a "fca" of only 13 calories

The ratios of steps to "fitbit calorie adjustment" just don't make sense.  Some days less steps but higher calorie adjustment.  Some days average steps and absolutely NO calorie adjustment

[Heybales]

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@lilac1932 wrote:

I'll try one more time to explain this...by telling you what was recorded the last few days.

Today so far....2090 steps.  MyFitness Pal is showing a"fitbit calorie adjustment" of 70 calories

Yesterday...3831 steps....MyFitness Pal is showing a "fitbit calorie adjustment" of 0 calories

Day before that...7565 steps...MyFitness Pal showed a "fca" of 570 calories

Day before that....3276 steps...MyFitness Pal showed a "fca" of 42 calories

Day before that...5028 steps...MyFitness Pal showed a "fca" of only 13 calories

The ratios of steps to "fitbit calorie adjustment" just don't make sense.  Some days less steps but higher calorie adjustment.  Some days average steps and absolutely NO calorie adjustment

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There we go, that makes sense.

So first - forget ratio of steps to adjustment - there is no relationship.

There's not even a ratio of steps to total daily burn, which is where the adjustment comes from, because steps can be big or small, active or not, resulting in less or more calorie burn.

First comfirm your steps, on Fitbit of course. Look at the time of big step counts, confirm you really were walking or active or other expected step-based activity.

If while driving a car, folding laundry, gardening, ect - you got a problem with location of Fitbit. Getting false steps, that of course gives false calories.

Other than that, if steps appearing where you were indeed active, then the Fitbit is just telling the difference between more or less active steps. It can tell the difference between running and walking by impact, so it can tell the difference between many short easy and many long hard steps, and give correct calorie values to it.

So except for confirmation above - working as designed.

You are getting adjustments to what MFP estimated would be your daily maintenance (which it then takes a deficit from for weight loss), and when Fitbit says it's really higher (or looks like it'll be higher), the MFP takes deficit and you get to eat more.

Means you picked a very close MFP non-exercise activity level to what you really do, with adjustments mainly that small. Might confirm you have negative adjustments on too, just in case you aren't as active.

[Heybales]

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@lilac1932 wrote:

I'll try to describe it better.  MyFitness Pall credited me with  73 and 125 calories the 2 days.  Telling me I could eat that many more calories and still be at my goal of 1450 per day.  The third day it credited me with a huge number of calories...approx 1500.  In other words, I could pretty much eat it all and not take in any extra calories.  Am I making sense?  It's sooo hard to explain.

Yesterday was day 4.  Again, almost identical steps, activity level etc.  MyFitness Pal credited me with 0 calories burned.

These extremes are what is confusing.

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And yes, this description was very confusing, so I'm glad you had the other one.

Just so you have a better handle on what is happening, because your wording above is confusing.

Your 1450 goal is with MFP's estimate of your non-exercise maintenance minus a goal loss amount, say 500 for 1 lb weekly.

If you really do that much activity (which is usually non-exercise days), you eat 1450.

If you are actually more active and/or exercise, you eat more, and the same deficit is still in place.

You are actually "taking in ... extra calories". Because you are burning extra calories.

All Fitbit is doing is giving MFP a daily burn value rather than MFP's own estimate to do the math with.

Your are remaining at the same NET eating goal, which is a way of saying when exercise takes say 300 calories off the top of what you ate at 1750, merely to power you mechanically, your body is left with 1450 for all the other functions of life. Which is still 500 below what it would burn without the increased activity.

[lilac1932]

Thank you.  I learned something.  I didn't realize that the fitbit was more sophisticated than a basic pedometer..eg able to measure long/short steps and measure step pressure.  Again, thank you

[msfarkee]

I'm glad I log my calories on Fitbit now (first did MFP for a month).    No syncing, one site for everything. 

Less confusion.