Bring back sedentary food plan option to Fitbit app

My fitbit updated and automatically changed my daily calorie estimate from sedentary to personalized. The personalized setting is over estimating my calories burned and saying I can eat more than i should and causing my food plan to over eat. Even if i try to anticipate it, the numbers change, causing me to not meet my weight and nutrition goals
20 Comments
AnnaYessey
First Steps

I have the same problem. It's quite annoying, as it makes my weight loss harder than it needs to be.

NagCB
Recovery Runner
I really do not like the new way of seeing your calories in and out, it makes no sense to me at all. Please bring the option back to change to sedentary.
linds0001
First Steps

I am also having this issue. It's estimating my daily calorie allowance too high after being on vacation last week which nearly doubled my steps. Now that I'm home and walking significantly less that what I was even before vacation, the numbers are very wrong. I don't want an estimate at the beginning of the day based on what it "thinks" I'll be able to have (which I assume come from the averages I set the week before) I want to know what I have in the moment. This new view is going to either make me overshoot my goal and stop losing weight, or if my activity goes back up enough later on, undershoot my allowance by too much and make me suffer physically.

Status changed to: Reviewed By Moderator
LizzyFitbit
Premium User
Fitbit Moderator
Fitbit Moderator

Hi @espell, and thanks for taking the time to share this product feedback about bringing back the sedentary food plan option to the Fitbit app with us. We rely on feedback like yours to help us develop products and features that we know our community wants to see. If this product feedback receives votes from other customers and gains popularity, it will be shared internally with various teams at Fitbit. To learn more about how Fitbit decides what product feedback is developed, visit our FAQs.

Watch this space for status updates. In the meantime, try visiting Health & Wellness to talk with other members about all things health and fitness.

SunsetRunner
Not applicable

Hi @LizzyFitbit, I've returned to fitbit after a couple of years' break today and am otherwsie enjoying my Inspire 3. I would also like to raise awareness for bringing back the sedentary food plan option in the app now the online dashboard has been discontinued. Similar to the OP, this is a feature I would use every day and would really appreciate having. Reagrds,

AFrye13
First Steps

Yes this!!!!

LizzyFitbit
Premium User
Fitbit Moderator
Fitbit Moderator

Hi @NagCB, thanks for sharing this product feedback about adding the sedentary food plan option to the Fitbit app with us. Because this idea was already requested in this board, I’ve moved your post here. This will help us to make sure the product feedback shared here doesn't get confused, or split a popular vote. Please click on the thumbs-up to show your support.

Gabriellegb
Jogger

I have the same issue and i'm honestly thinking of switching to another app. I don't understand why we can't chose how we track our calories 

Lexums
First Steps

I would also really appreciate this change. I want to track calories and take weightloss more seriously but the prediction model it's doing makes it very difficult to use, especially as someone new to calorie tracking. Every time I open the app the estimate changes, and it's just very confusing. I agree with @Gabriellegb about switching to another app because of it, it really makes no sense we can't choose how we want to track them. I hope those gets fixed soon

Tom1987
First Steps

Hi,

I totally support this. I've just switched to Fitbit from another brand, and I was really disappointed to see that there is now no longer any sedentary option for the food plan. My calories are over estimated too, and I'm having to use another app to monitor this at the moment. It would be great if this could be brought back. It really doesn't make any sense as all other apps do this.

TM

SunsetRunner
Not applicable
Until recently, we could use the PC dashboard to switch from personalised to sedentary. The PC dashboard has been removed, and the feature is not on the app

Sedentary is absolutely critical for very many of us using Fitbit to track the balance between calories in and calories out.
LizzyFitbit
Premium User
Fitbit Moderator
Fitbit Moderator

Thank you for your product feedback about returning the sedentary option to the Fitbit app food plan with us! We've found a similar request and merged yours with it. You can find it here. Please vote on the existing thread to help us track interest.

SunsetRunner
Not applicable

Yep, me too.  It’s severely impacting the very goals that Fitbit is there to support - very disappointing and I hope this is reinstated immediately.  

Swerdnar
First Steps

Me too! It took me a long time to figure out how to change this and now it's gone. The sedentary option is much more logical and should honestly be the default setting. Please bring it back.

Swerdnar
First Steps

Additionally, this page should be updated as it is no longer accurate: https://store.google.com/intl/en/ideas/articles/fitbit-calories-in-vs-out/

Sarahsactyl
First Steps

I too would like to change the format to sedentary. I moved from a different calorie tracking app and this switch is overcomplicated with the dynamic counter. 

Hannah307
First Steps

Please update your app guides, it’s taken me ages fruitlessly digging around in the ‘tiles’ that we don’t have anymore to find out that the option for sedentary calorie calculation doesn’t actually exist. I think it’s a very useful but pretty obscure facility not helped by the fact that it isn’t promoted. It was mentioned in a detailed article about calorie calculation right towards the end. 22 people voting for the facility to be reinstated is probably not going to change anything soon? I agree with another post, much more promotion and attention drawing within guidance would have helped. Overpriced weight loss apps have similar calorie meters as their main everyday feature! Surely sedentary is just another type of calorie calculation that can be switched back on? With promotion it would be interesting to see how many people use it once they’re more aware of it. 

BryonySea
First Steps

I agree, it's crazy that this hasn't been changed yet! It's something we had before so why on earth can't you put it back. The dashboard was so much easier to use than the app as well. This and the fact that you can't delete badges anymore is the second issue I've had just today. Let's not even talk about the hideous and difficult user interface when it comes to loging food. I've been using LifeSum and then shifting the numbers across. The way the calories are currently set up makes absolutely no sense

Yesterday I was over my calorie burning target of 2463 by 727 but my food said I was 253 under target after eating 1491 and I had 949 in my budget. 

Today I have 233 calories left to burn, I ate 1,498 which is 240 under food target and 50 left in my budget.

Can someone please explain because I can't see any correlation in these numbers 😤

SprFrog
First Steps

Please, bring this feature back. The app is showing very unrealistic numbers for the calories burned. Not useful at all

vnshd
Jogger

None of the FAQs or documentation reflect that the sedentary setting has been taken away. incredibly annoying and time wasting. The personalised setting isn't accurate for me, its unreliable and doesn't update quickly enough. if i only relied on the charge 6 i would be eating a lot less than necessary. its annoying to have the watch tell you your over budget throughout the day then to only say your 1000 cals under in the evening when its too late to eat. ide much rather manage my cals by adding the exercise ive done to a static calorie budget for the day

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