Ability to turn off calorie counting on all Fitbit devices

[Quigley2]

Hi guys, 

My name is Caroline and this time last year I weighed a mere 45 kg (I'm 5 foot 9) and was borderline hospitalised and tubed. Now I'm healthy and building muscle like there's no tomorrow. I love fit bits, I think their a great gadget for fitness, but I can't use mine because the calorie feature makes me feel the need to restrict my intake. I am not blaming the company for this, for some counting calories is very important in their journey to health, but to some its detrimental. So I really think this should be an optional feature for everyone. I hope people will support this idea and provide some help to the eating disorder recovery community. I understand that this isn't a huge deal, but it's important to me so please take the time to support my idea,

Caroline 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Miabee12]

I completely agree! I've never had an eating disorder but have had food/calorie/exercise fixations in the past, and would love the option to make calorie count something you could toggle off in display. I would also love if they didn't force a goal that is tied to a specific metric, like activity minutes or steps--or make the "goal" an optional thing too! My goal is to move and eat intuitively, and I'd like to know more about my sleep and HR because of that, but I don't want to track calories, or even necessarily steps. 

[Coleaflower]

I 100% agree. I didn’t buy a Fitbit for so so so long despite really wanting one because the fact that you can’t turn calorie counts off is so ignorant. I’m not saying no one should ever calorie count (although that’s probably true) but not being able to turn it off supports crash diet culture which is so so harmful for heart health. If health (and not vanity) is goal of products like this, turning off calorie counting should not be something people are begging for. The inability to turn this off is evidence that Fitbit is profiting off of fatphobia and body insecurity that has plagued women for decades due to the unrealistic and unnecessary beauty standards, only now we repackaged that as health!!!! 

[river_m]

Agree! I've had my Fitbit for less than a month, and I'll certainly never buy another one without this change. So frustrating to find that this was brought up years ago and still isn't fixed. During setup, I want to see a big "check here for no mention of food / nutrition / calories".

I had to go through all the settings to get rid of most of the food and calorie and "nutrition" talk, but I can't get rid of all of it. The calories are still on the watch face, and the app thinks it's "helpful" to pop up nutrition advice even though I give them all a thumbs-down.

How has this feedback been here for years without a fix?

[konijntje]

Yes, it's still annoying me! Fitbit has a tin ear when it comes to women's mental health.

You can change to a different watch face, though. Not all of them show calories.

[Briver]

I think it’s misleading to throw this suggestion or request into “Nutrition” but I digress. I was sent the the feature suggestions by Fitbit support on Twitter, after making several tweets about how it should be both POSSIBLE and EASY to opt out of mentions of weight/fat/calories— There are plenty of fat and indeed “0b*se” Fitbit users who use devices for tracking sleep, activity level (time/distance/frequency —NOT ‘calories burned’), and HR, among other metrics. There are plenty of users who are not fat who would also benefit from Fitbit devices and apps being weight neutral (at the very least) instead of positioning “weight gain” as a negative health outcome in and of itself, as demonstrated in the ‘tip’ I received after a few nights of poor sleep: 

there’s so much evidence out there that suggests a large percentage of negative health outcomes for fat  and/or “overweight” people comes from weight bias and maltreatment or lower standards of care from healthcare practitioners, not the very characteristic of being fat.

if I continue to use Fitbit devices and their premium service, there has GOT to be a clear and accessible way to opt out of calorie (intake/‘burned’) data, weight (loss/gain, positioning as a negative health status), and ‘fat burn’ zones. Make Fitbit weight neutral and focus on movement, activity, menstrual cycle tracking, and sleep insights. 

this has been a suggestion since 2019– Implement it now.

[CosmicCrisp]

THIS SHOULD ABSOLUTELY BE CHANGED

 I love love love the Fitbit’s sleek design and helpful alarm system. I really wish there were more watches like it on the market, but it is so disappointing that the calorie counting feature makes it inaccessible to many people. Including the option to hide fitness features can allow users to feel more in control of their physical and mental well-being. 

[Roughheels]

Please please please make it possible to hide calories burned!  I've been in recovery from an eating disorder for over 15 years, but I still don't like seeing calories burned reminders.  It's a reminder of unhealthy behaviors, which is such a bummer in a product that's otherwise so good at promoting health!

[SophieGreen]

I fully agree. I've struggled a lot with mental health and maintaining healthy habits in the past, and when people introduce calorie counting into the mix it always just makes me feel like no matter how hard I try, I'm not doing enough. I really feel that showing calorie amounts should be a feature you can enable or disable, because while I know it's very helpful for some, it can be really harmful to others such as myself. I'd love to be able to keep track of my exercise and eating habits without it always being attached to a number, because without the calorie count, I feel much freer to use the app to actually encourage myself on the progress I am making at building a healthier relationship with food and exercise. I feel like when you get calories involved though, for me at least, I get so obsessed with the number on the screen that I can't ever enjoy the progress I make in these endeavors. Overall, looking at calories only brings me feelings of shame, and it's bad enough that I don't even use the feature that allows you to keep track of what you eat because it's just so calorie-centric. I hope adjustments can be made in the future so that people can have the option of enabling the calorie count or not.

[danielleiat]

Has any progress been made on this? Or have people just been asking for four years to not have a calorie counter on their devices and nothing happened? Eating disorders are fatal. I’m shocked this wasn’t taken more seriously.

[Chakakant]

As Fitbit clearly don't monitor or listen to their own Community...

Here's a way to remove Calorie counting on the app. Use the Edit button on the top right on the home screen, then you can delete the Calorie widget (the flame symbol) using the X button, last image shows my Calorie free display .

HOWEVER, this only removes the calorie counting throughout the app/watch/stats. It doesn't remove "fat burn", for example (the idea that someone could be exercising without caring about burning fat is still an anathema to Fitbit obviously). The fattist and dysfunctional eating language is still there. But at least you can control the Calorie counting sh*t yourself. I hope this helps!

[danielleiat]

Unfortunately, I’ve tried that and it reappears immediately. Also I’m not able to remove it on the watch, only very temporarily in the phone app.

[Chakakant]

That sucks! Fitbit need to fix this! Ffs.