Support Food Plans with a weight gain goal

Not everybody wants to lose weight. Some want to gain weight and build muscle.

 

Moderator edit: added label

157 Comments
Grr8jon
Recovery Runner

Heidi, the android app has recently added support for those who are working on weight gain

 

P.s. thank you fitbit for the update!

HeidiHdez
First Steps
i downloaded the app 2 days ago and it says no
mari2
First Steps

Currently, the app tells me I'm "over-budget" whenever I eat more calories than I burn. This is really discouraging! I have my plan set to a "weight gain" goal, and I wish the app would follow through and act like this is in fact my goal, not just weight maintenance.

lindsaybied
First Steps

As a pregnant woman, I also need to gain weight. It is very discouraging to constantly be "over budget" when I know gaining weight is the right thing to do for my child. I use the browser dashboard and the Android app. Please update so we can set the calorie goals to gain and not just maintain.

lindsaybied
First Steps

 As a pregnant woman, I also need to gain weight. It is very discouraging to constantly be "over budget" when I know gaining weight is the right thing to do for my child. I use the browser dashboard and the Android app. Please update so we can set the calorie goals to gain and not just maintain.

dragonrainsd13
First Steps

Hi Fitbit Dev,

I am with about the 3 pages of idea suggestions. It is roughly 5% of the population here in the states that needs to gain weight to function properly. And support of those indivuals and myself is lacking. Exersice science hasn't really changed on this since 2004 however we are seeing more people that show signs of wasting while have some or no chemical or illness related reasons. I struggle to hit the 130 mark on a weekly basis and my weight when i haven't gotten a cold or flu can change by more then 10 lbs in a matter of about 24 hours. The risks assessed by underweight people are similar as someone who is overweight. BMI is a inaccurate way to scale things as it doesn't take into account for muscle mass but is still used widely. Please if you wouldn't mind helping out people like us it would be wonderful! 

 

Sincerly,

Dragonrainsd13

New to Fitbit

Hussain94
Stepping Up
Hello,

I'm wondering why the Fitbit app does not support gaining weight meal plan?

So when you set your goal to gain weight, and go to meal plan so you can set a meal plan that makes you eat calories more than you burn, instead you will be given a weight maintenance plan, which will tell you to burn as much as you eat so you can maintain your weight, and whenever you try to eat more than you burn so you can gain weight, it will tell you that you are over eating "red zone"!

What would be awesome to see, is the ability to set your goal to gain weight, and go to meal plan and set when do you want to achieve your goal, so it will tell you how many calories more you should eat so you will achieve the goal by that time, for example if you want to achieve it soon you should eat 500 calories more than you burn, if you want to achieve it later you can only eat 200 or 250 calories more than you burn.


I hope I can see that feature soon in fitbit.
And excuse my bad English. 🙂
SunsetRunner
Not applicable

It's possible to set up a weight loss, maintain weight or weight gain plan on the fitbit.com website.

 

After logged in to the website, hover over the weight tile, click the gear icon which appears. If a weight plan is currently set, it's possible to remove from the tile (click done).. afterwards when setting up a new weight goal, it's possible at the left side of the screen to choose wanting to loose weight, maintain weight or gain weight.

Chovexano
First Steps

So, I'm aware that setting a weight gain goal is supported by the app, I would like to suggest weight gain badges for people whose weight goal is higher than their actual weight.

 

I have a whole badge section where, if everything goes according to plan, I will never earn another badge, because there are no badges for gaining weight.

Kayleighrose
First Steps
I am wanting to gain weight but Fitbit does not yet support this. I've changed my weight goal to add weight but it still just tells me the amount of calories I need to eat to maintain and not gain.
DeathB4Decaf
Stepping Up

After so much time, I'm very disappointed FitBit still incompletely supports weight gain across the platform. In the past, I regrettably discouraged friends from ordering a FitBit because of this missing functionality. I'm frustrated that FitBit cashes-in by selling flashier new models while this fundamental use case remains half-baked and seemingly ignored.

 

I love the rest of the service, but I'm losing faith.

jankijubilee
First Steps

I agree 100%! I'm trying to gain weight to prevent osteoporosis in my future. I've been underweight since I was about 2 years old. I've been hounded by my doctors. Guidance on gaining weight with a food plan that helps guide someone on how to gain weight without having to chug sugar or butter would be great!!

ace2963
Stepping Up

PLEASE put a weight gain meal plan.....   :'( its the only reson i got it

gainittowinit
Jogger

@lindsaybied I feel the same way! I added a 'new idea' specifically surrounding this thought. its a mental trigger thats negative when I see "you are over budget"....but my doctor told me I need to eat way more calories then they alloted. 

 

Upvote it if you canFeature Request - Manual Calorie Set

robertoB
Jogger

Hello
I agree with ace2963

When I every day see the arrow pointing towards the RED field and OVER sign,

I just feel sad, because I am trying to do by best to gain weight and eat enough

calories. But the app/FITBIT is stil telling me I am doing something wrong and it only 

maintains the amount of calories I need to get, which is a fake and wrong, because I need to

eat more and more every day. FITBIT is not supporting this.

 

So FITBIT TEAM, can you please give me/us some feedback about when 

you are going to update the app/dashboard, so we are supported in gaining weight

via a EAT MORE food/meal plan, so a weightlifting/gaining weight program is equal to a

adding and gainging weight program in the fitbit app.

 

I can see that this topic has been talked about since 2014, which means you have not

taken us serious for 2 years. Please... help us NOW and not in 2018. 🙂

 

Thank you

windkew
Keeping Pace

Yes please this would be very helpful!

 

Kdunf422
First Steps
I fully agree. It seems as though weight gain is not fully acknowledged as a reward able goal. It would be simple, once a person has set their weight goal to lose or gain, link that to the badges so that you only get those that reward you for moving in the direction you want. As much as losing weight is hard for some, gaining is hard for others and we should be rewarded too. Badges don't mean anything in the long run but they are a source of motivation and I would like a chance to earn them.
rachelm316
Jogger

I was surprised to come to this idea and see that the status is "implemented." Yes, I can say that I want to gain weight, but that doesn't do anything! It still sets my goals for calories to maintenance. I'm pregnant and need to eat an extra 500 calories/day. I bought the fitbit thinking that it would help me eat enough, but for some reason there is no basic, obvious feature to manually enter how many calories you would like to eat daily, or what you would like your calorie deficit (or overage) to be.

 

If I followed the suggestions from this app, I would have a very unhealthy pregnancy. As it is, the app is useless for what I wanted it for. There are a lot of pregnant women, and a lot of them probably have a Fitbit!

SouthernPa
Stepping Up

Please make the food plan allow for weight gain!!  I have read all previous posts on this request and the time span from the first request to present is a few years.  I am just over 50 and have been struggling to increase my calorie intake so I can gain weight.  I don't want to maintain my current weight, which is under weight.  If I followed the app suggestions for calorie intake, I'd waste away within a week!!

cwilson1211
First Steps

I'm also trying to gain weight for my health and was glad to see a weight gain plan available. However, I'm unable to edit my food diary to reflect this goal. It still says I am "over budget" at the same number of calories as it did when I was only able to have a maintain weight goal.

Status changed to: Reviewed By Moderator
AndrewFitbit
Premium User
Moderator Alum
Moderator Alum

There might have been some confusion on this so I'm changing the status to reviewed. You can set a weight gain goal, but we currently don't support food plans for a weight gain goal. This would be great to have for people trying to gain weight!

alix.evans
First Steps

Fitbit:  this is important.  Right now, when you go over the calories required to maintain weight, a red, knife-and-fork X shows up with a big red, "Whoops!" telling you how far over your calorie allotment you've gone.  Those of us who are trying to gain weight know, intellectually, to ignore this.  But please try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who's using the fitbit who's chronically underweight, or worse, who's recovering from an eating disorder.  The ticker telling you how many calories you have every day subtly calibrates your thinking whether you're rationally on board or not, discouraging us from eating as much as we need to be healthy, and that red X that we see EVERY day, if we're staying on track, is like a nasty little shove backward at the end of every day - it may not seem like a big deal, but over the long term it's really demoralizing.  Please understand that we're all trying to use your product to get healthy, and some of us NEED to gain weight to be healthy.  Your interface is actively discouraging and interferes with our achieving healthy weights.  This is such a simple fix, and would make such a difference to people who really need it.

AHunt03
Premium User
First Steps

I agree with the comments here and fully support the request to enable weight gain targets to be tracked with positive graphic (and ohther) feedback.  Why?  I am a cancer patient and many cancer patients struggle with cachexia (weight loss) which according to the literature is a leading cause of death among cancer patients - malnutrition.  Seems counterintuitive - but there is a point at which your body starts to convert muscle into energy while simulaneously confusing the body about whether it is hungry.  In my case I am building my plan under the guidance of my oncologist and dietitian but they can't be by my side every day, every step of the way.  At the same time - physical fitness is an important part of enhancing the body's ablity to be as inhospitable as possible to the proliferation of cancer cells.  This is a wonderful tool.  For me it is "this close" to being a life-saving tool.  Thank you.

KendraMN
Recovery Runner

Thank you for sharing your story, AHunt03.  I went through cancer treatment back in 08 and being able to keep a healthy weight is a HUGE issue.Being healthy is not ALWAYS losing weight.  Some goals are to build muscle...and some goals are to keep yourself alive to be able to fight.

One size doesn't Fit ALL.  FITbit should include ALL goals.

 

WarriorAkina
First Steps

I was given a fitbit recently, and I appreciate the tracking technology enough to consider purchasing an additional one for my partner. However, since I don't really care about counting my steps, the lack of this feature rather makes the fitbit fairly useless for me... I might just end up giving this one away and buying a different tracker with better software. Isn't there a way to open up the features a bit and make the whole app more customizable? Isn't the software half the point of buying a fitness tracker?

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