How is Fitbit calculating calorie burn goal and why isn't it adjusting?

[NaomiE]

I have a Fitbit One, and my calorie goal is set automatically by Fitbit based on my personal factors and my stated goal of maintaining my current weight. When I set up my tracker last year, that was: female, 28, 5'11", 165 lbs, moderately active with no desire to lose weight. Fitbit set my calorie goal at 2,490 calories daily. I'm not big into calorie counting (and actively try to avoid diet culture), but I *know* that was already a high burn goal based on how many calories I consume (I tend to really struggle to consume 2,000 calories daily- I have a chronic disease that makes both eating and absorbing nutrients hard and have tracked calorie consumption for medical reasons in the past.). I decided to stick with the given goal and see how it went. I have lost about 10 lbs, so I input the new weight into my personal info when it changed. Fitbit has changed my bmr based on my new weight, so it is tracking me as burning fewer calories both at rest and when active, but my overall calorie burn goal has not gone down. If I keep trying to hit that burn goal (as I usually do), won't I keep losing weight? Isn't it a little irresponsible of Fitbit to provide a burn goal that will cause weight loss when someone has chosen the "maintain weight" option in their profile? And isn't it irresponsible not to change the calorie goal based on new information? It isn't as though Fit bit hasn't adjusted anthing due to my new weight- my bmr and weight data have changed in the dashboard, but not my burn goal. Do I need to figure out my own new calorie goal (which is a bit challenging, since Fitbit doesn't actually provide its customers with the particular formula they use in the first place)? I don't have any disordered eating or exercise in my past, but I can't imagine that it is easy for those who do to question and challenge excessive calorie burn goals when they're presented with them.

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to see you around @NaomiE.  If you want to how to set a "maintain" weight goal, I recommend setting up a new goal by doing the following from your Android Fitbit app:

1. Tap the menu icon in the top left corner of the dashboard.
2. Tap Account, then tap Settings.
3. Tap Nutrition & Body.
4. Change your goal as desired. To delete the goal, tap the icon in the top right corner and tap Remove weight goal.

After editing this, you should be able the information that you prefer to have.

Let me know the outcome. 

[NaomiE]

Wow. No. I clearly stated that I have a chronic illness that makes getting *enough* nutrients and keeping my weight up really hard. I asked for help figuring out what my burn goal should be to keep my weight stable, again, because I'm SICK. I questioned why Fitbit's given goal is causing weight loss when I set my goal to *maintain current weight." I'm assuming that you just didn't read my post or just skimmed for key words, but you just *congratulated* me on a result of my illness which is due to not being able to eat or keep the foods I do ingest down (due to chronic nausea and vomiting). Would you walk up to a chemo or pancreatitis patient in real life and congratulatell them on their weight loss? (Especially after they had just mentioned that they were worried about it and needed help figuring out how to make it stop?) Yikes.

[NaomiE]

I have had mostly great experiences directly dealing with Fitbit Customer service (have only had to do it twice, though), but from my reading of the forums it sounds like the company may not have a particularly consistent policy on replacing defective or broken parts. It looks like there may be a rule about nonreplacement that is flexible or left to the discretion of employees- my replacement was easy and they gave me more than I needed, but others report having the exact same problem with their device and being given a link to the online store by customer service wih no offer of credit, free replacement, or help. The forums, however, are another matter. I've posted a few queries over the year I've had my One, and none have ever been answered helpfully. At most I get a link or quoted passage from the help section which doesn't actually address my issue- since I always search and read articles before asking. People are usually good natured and generous with any knowledge they have, though. I think I might be done with forums (at least questions) for a bit, because this most recent exchange was just amazingly horrible, insulting, and screwed up: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/One/How-is-Fitbit-calculating-calorie-burn-goal-and-why-isn-t-it-adj.... Long story short, a thoughtless (or worse?) mod just congratulated me on losing weight via nausea and vomiting resulting from a chronic illness.

Moderator edit: Content 

[AlejandraFitbit]

Thank you for your response @NaomiE; first of all I'd like to apologize for my first post, I am aware that it sounded thoughtless and out of touch with your current situation.  As a further apology, I've edited my first response to  remove this comment.

However; the steps provided on the response are valid towards creating a caloric profile to maintain your current weight despite health difficulties. Since this is a special case; we recommend for you to check with your physician if s/he has a particular caloric goal for you (depending on treatments, medication and additional supplements or activities) and if his/her plan is to allow a weight gain with your current activity and diet or maintain it under the same circumstances.

If this is the first case; unfortunately the Fitbit environment does not have a "gaining" program, only weight loss and maintaining. Our friends over at MyFitnessPal do have a gaining program in which you can track the micros and macros allowed within your particular diet and set a special caloric goal. If you have a particular caloric goal to reach, or an approved food plan from your doctor; you can input this information on a custom food plan in MFP. Not to worry since the information will automatically sync to your Fitbit account.

On the latter scenario; your caloric goal might not have been set and it has defaulted to "personalized".  Usually we see such caloric halt whenever "Personalized" mode is active on your Food Plan, what this does is use your past history to grant calories for the following day. It's best to leave your Calorie Estimation under "Sedentary" which starts low but grants calories throughout the day depending on your activity and caloric burn. Go to your Food Log page and click on the blue gear where the calories are granted, click on "Sedentary". Nevertheless, it's best to check your basic settings as well, for any weight, height and stride length information that we might have been missing and it's giving out default results.

Again, I'd like to offer my most sincere apologies for the whole ordeal and I hope the above information has helped  to understand this situation.

If there are any questions present, I'd be glad to continue assisting you. 

[gloria41]

Hi!
Well I decided to return the device and buy and Avia Stride. I used to own one and LOVED, but I lost it.

Their customer service is amazing and the device is accurate. It tracks sleep, steps, heart and calories burnt, which is what I need. The app is really cool and it only cost me less than $50.

Thanks for your response!

Sent from my iPhone

[NaomiE]

Thanks for the apology. I personally find you deleting your original comments to be a way of avoiding accountability and rewriting history, however- it would have been much more appropriate to leave your commentary as it was and apologize (As is the current Internet etiquette- changing your words after the fact is sort of dishonest, especially when there has been a conflict. I'm glad I took screenshots.). Your response didn't "sound" thoughtless, it was thoughtless. I accept your apology, however, and am entirely happy to drop any specific frustration I have with you. You do, however, as a mod, represent Fitbit in the forums. The nonpersonal issue here is that none of the suggested actions address the bigger issue, which is that Fitbit's built-in algorithms for "maintain current weight" are creating calorie burn goals which result in weight loss, which is problem #1. Problem #2 is the specific issue I raised that there's a glitch- the calorie burn goal doesn't go down when weight and BMR go down. Why? This isn't just about me. Health and fitness are not intrinsically tied to weight loss. The word "maintain" does not mean remain stable or drop- it means to remain stable or the same. Not everyone in your community has the same health goal or needs (ie there are plenty of people who want to be active for whom weight loss is dangerous or simply unwanted), and I would love to see Fitbit increasing its cultural competency around this issue OR not pretending that they, as a company, are competently providing goals for anybody except those who hold weight loss/attaining an idealized body type as their primary goal. The majority of average folks will assume they can trust Fitbit's algorithms to do what they say they do, within a reasonable margin of error, and Fitbit doesn't provide its math for people to check or adjust. I don't expect you personally to be able to answer these questions, but it would be really great if we could acknowledge that this is actually a problem with the product- it doesn't do what it says it does, and new data is not permeating through all the software and creating new results; in my case, inputting new weight caused the algorithm that calculates BMR to recalculate and drop my BMR, but there's obviously no process triggered to effect the calorie burn goal algorithm- so I'm still being told to burn the number of calories which resulted in unwanted weight loss even when I was ten pounds heavier. I really hope this is an *oversight.* The response that I'm getting, though, is first to completely skip reading my first post and entirely miss the point, and *then* to make it sound like I'm so bizarre and unique that your software couldn't possibly keep up. All I'm asking the software to do is run the calculations it purports to run (ie, calculating an approximately accurate burn goal to keep weight stable). I will go ahead and calculate my own caloric needs based on my actual weight and goal of keeping it stable (which on multiple other calculators, using only my demographic info and no info about my illness, is over 60 calories less than Fitbit's number at my higher weight and over 100 calories less at my current, lower weight). Not everyone is going to seek that extra information , however, and it seems like the company would want to know that the advice they're giving their customers is inaccurate and possibly dangerous.       [Edited to fix a typo in the sentence that begins "The word 'maintain...'"]

[NaomiE]

@gloria41, I'm glad you found a product and company that works great for you! I dig my Fitbit One's data gathering abilities and capacity to be worn incognito under my clothing (having endless interactions where people assume I'n trying to lose weight, when weight loss is a sign of a traumatic illness for me, is uncomfortable for all parties), I have just had some recent trouble with the forums. I'd still recommend the Fitbit devices to people (but only those who I know have no previous or current mental illnesses surrounding body dysmorphia or disordered eating and exercise behaviors, as every time this topic has come up here, whether I or anyone else has started the conversation, I've gotten zero reassurance that the company is acting carefully or competently around these life- and health-threatening issues.)

[HelenaFitbit]

Thank you for your participation in the forums @NaomiE and for sharing this information with us. 

I'd like to mention that Fitbit is not a medical device and it is not intended to be used as such; it is a general tool for fitness and overall improvement. If there's a medical symptom from a condition that you'd like to keep track of; it's best to consult  your physician for help tailored to your requirements. From there, you can adjust your personal goals on Fitbit; or set a caloric value that best suits your needs. 

I'd like to quote @AlejandraFitbit's information here:  "Our friends over at MyFitnessPal do have a gaining program in which you can track the micros and macros allowed within your particular diet and set a special caloric goal. If you have a particular caloric goal to reach, or an approved food plan from your doctor; you can input this information on a custom food plan in MFP. Not to worry since the information will automatically sync to your Fitbit account." and I'd like to add that there's an option (under the premium version of MFP) for you to set different caloric and activity goals for each days as well as food analysis and tracking macronutrients by gram or percentage. 

Calorie setting through Fitbit is set based on a particular weight loss (or maintaining) goal and it creates a certain caloric deficit to meet your nutritional and activity needs; this is a combination of your BMR, activity history and proprietary algorithms.This calculation varies from user to user and it is in constant evolution depending on the activity, food logs and calories are tracked over time. For additional information, I'd recommend taking a look into @SebringDon's epic Food Plan post. Again, these calculations are general and should not be used as absolutes if they do not work for an individual user. 

If there are any questions present, please let me know and I'll be glad to help. 

[NaomiE]

Okay. I'm clearly not getting anywhere here, as the questions I have repeatedly posed are 1) Why is Fitbit's "maintain weight" setting creating calorie burn goals that are so high as to cause weight loss (both anecdotally from my own experience *and* compared to every other calculator I have checked, when said other calculators have no more information about me than Fitbit's software does)? and 2) Why doesn't inputting new information trigger the calorie burn goal algorithm to recalculate? I'm not, and have not at any point, asked for any advice about my illness- I simply mentioned it to reinforce that I'm *not trying to lose weight,* because that tends to be the basic assumption around here. The discussion about my health condition is, frankly, a sideline that became an issue because of the first responder's lack of careful reading and a resultingly insensitive comment, which she has since apologized for. Since no one is even addressing my questions, I'm going to go ahead and stop my activity in this thread. At this point I have to assume that Fitbit's entire system is oriented around the weight loss and diet industry, and I should use my One merely as a data collector, as its interpretation of data is apparently useless and/or actively misleading for those who are not attempting to lose weight. Thanks to all who responded- it just seems like there either isn't an answer to my actual question (apart from, basically, telling me that I shouldn't expect the product to perform a function that it both advertises and offers as a option during setup) or we aren't communicating well. Again, thanks for your time, everyone.