Weight Loss Plan Help

[znmaese]

Hi all,

I had a question regarding the iOS Fitbit app and the weight loss plan. I'm looking to lose some weight and I'm trying to understand what Fitbit's calculation is when it comes to how many calories I should be consuming. There's no option for a weight loss plan (e.g. 2 lbs. per week) so I'm wondering what pace the app is setting for me to lose weight?

I question this because I've eaten 1,660 calories today and my app is telling me that I still have "3,490 cals left". Admittedly, I'm a large man with a somewhat active job (15k-17k steps per day with 4,800 burned calories today), but there's no way I can lose weight if it expects me to eat 5k calories per day. If I understand better it's understanding of a weight loss plan, I would trust it more, but I haven't been able to find any help with this. I understand BMR is taken into consideration when looking at burned calories (I looked up calories burned through the night and, doing a little math, saw that Fitbit estimates my BMR to be about 2k per day), but I just don't know how I can lose weight by eating that much.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks! 

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @znmaese, thanks for joining us, it's great to have you on board. 

I understand your concern about the food plan wanting you to eat more than you think you should. In this particular case I would like to recommend checking @SebringDon's excellent tips and recommendations about how to set up, follow up and succeed in losing weight with a food plan. I'm sure it will be very helpful for you as it has been for many members in the Community!. 

I hope this can be helpful, if there's anything else please feel free to reply! 

[znmaese]

Hi Marco,

It looks like these guides are out of date, as the weight loss section of the app doesn't resemble anything like this now.

Any idea about an updated guide?

Thanks,

Nick

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @znmaese, I hope you're doing well, my apologies for the delay in the response. 

It's possible the icons on the Weight loss section have changed but the principle is the same. We recommend set and edit your Food Plan on the online Dashboard, as it will give you a better insight and instructions about how to reach your weight goal. This is also recommended to edit the intensity of your Food Plan as it's possible that the app will set you a sedentary default, which explains why is telling you to eat more calories 

In order to edit your Food Plan:

- Go to your online Dashboard and on the Log section you'll be able to click on the arrow to the right under the Food Plan Section until you see Edit Plan 

- Click on Edit plan and in the Pop-up that will appear, set your weight goal and click on next. You will then be able to choose the Intensity of your plan.

- Clck on Next, you will receive information about how the Food Plan will work and then you'll see a summary and the calorie deficit you will need to acomplish in order to stick with the plan.

- Click on Next to save your changes, you will now see the changes reflected and the amount of calories you are required to eat daily.

Please remember that the app and the Dashboard do not give you a daily estimate of the weight you've lost as you will need to input your weight every now and then for the goal to adjust. Additionally, make sure to log in your food every day for the plan to be more accurate. 

I hope this resolves your inquiry, if there's anything else I can do for you please feel free to reply!