Calories in/calories out don't match when trying to maintain weight

[Caffeinatedjess]

My friend and I both have Fitbits and have the same problem. We both set our goal to maintain our current weight. So our calories burned and calories eaten goal should be equal right? But they aren't. My calories to burn goal is 2.2k and to eat is only 1.8k. If I did this everyday, I would lose weight, not maintain. My friends does the same thing. Why is this?

Moderator edit: subject updated for clarity

[EdsonFitbit]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community @Caffeinatedjess. It's great to have you here. This sounds weird. I would recommend doing the following:

- Log out from the app

- Reboot your phone

- Log back in

If this doesn't help, please be so kind to provide me with a screen shot of the discrepancy in the app.

Catch you later. 

[NaomiE]

My issue is similar. My account is set with accurate personal information and I checked the "maintain weight" goal, but the calorie burn goal Fitbit calculated for me is too high. I'm female, 28, 5'11," 165 lbs when I got my Fitbit, and it gave me the goal of 2,490 calories to burn a day. That number has resulted in unwanted weight loss. I input my new weight data (now 155 pounds) recently, and my app and dashboard lowered my shown weight and my bmr, but the calorie burn goal did notchange at all. I rechecked that my goal is set to "maintain weight," and I have done the log out, restart Fitbit and phone or computer, log back in dance repeatedly. About an hour ago, I opened the food goals section for the first time and set my goal there to "maintain" as well. Now I have a new icon/data point on my app (place setting with the legend "calories left"), which I presume to be information about the approximate number of calories I should consume to reach my goal of maintaining my weight at 155. However, this number has been fluctuating wildly (by more than 100 calories each time, and it has been a different number every time-about 5-that I have checked the app over the last 30 minutes). None of these "calories left" numbers match the calorie burn goal number of 2,490 and I have not engaged in any activity or input any food data. I've already asked for help with this issue in the help and ideas>report glitch forums and gotten no helpful response other than that I can independently choose a new calorie goal and manually input it, which really doesn't answer my question. Any illumination you can provide about why calorie burn goals that are set as "maintain" result in weight loss and why calorie burn goals don't update with new weight data would be very appreciated!

[NaomiE]

(Sorry, I have screenshots but I can't figure out how to upload them into a comment!)

[Meregrotta]

On the website, under the Food section, click on the blue gear in the upper right corner of the window... is it set to sedentary or personalized?

I suspect it will be slightly less buggy if it is set to sedentary.  Personalized attempts to calculate your calory burn based on prior activity, sedentary just adds calories through the day as you burn them.

[NaomiE]

Won't sedentary result in an even *lower* calorie intake goal? And is it going to affect the burn goal at all? I know this post isn't "mine," as I am not the op, but it sounds like Caffeinatedjess's issue is also that Fitbit is "allowing" too few calories and setting too high of a burn goal for her to actually maintain her weight. I'm fairly active- usually hitting between 13,000 and 15,000 steps per day. The food calories (allowed intake) aren't that much of an issue for me- what I'm really trying to figure out is why the calorie burn goal Fitbit calculated for me is *so high.* I just added the food plan yesterday to see if that would give me any additional understanding of why the burn goal for "maintain" is high enough that it's causing weight loss and isn't adjusting downward with weight. Adding in my actual calorie consumption just makes it weirder- I'm not taking in anywhere *near* enough calories to maintain my weight with a 2,490 calorie burn goal, the calorie intake goal and calorie burn goal are not equal, and again, the software isn't adjusting the burn goal in response to more information (just as it did not when I input my new, unwanted, lower weight). It seems that the software doesn't talk to itself across all data points, nor does new data trigger the calorie burn goal algorithm to rerun and calculate a new goal (unlike the bmr, which does adjust).