Caloric surplus or just turning into a fatty?

[CorVane]

Hello all! I am new here so please be kind . I tend to stay in a caloric deficit year round because I love the lean look. I love the size of my upper body but wished my legs were bigger. I’ve slowly been bumping up my macros and I’m currently around consuming 3k calories and my Fitbit claims I burn around 3,500. My issue is I’m not counting on the weekends and sometimes my Saturdays are full of booze. If I continue raising calories to a surplus then eat and drink like an ******* on the weekends am I just asking to get fat?

[SuffolkPunch]

If you were in a deficit all year round, you'd be constantly losing weight. If that's not the case, you must be around maintenance. So if you know what your calorie intake is, that is your maintenance. Things like calculators and fitbits only make guesses. It's better to have real data from observing your intake and weight changes.

Don't try to count what you burn off, formal exercise actually doesn't change daily energy expenditure very much at all and it's much easier and more effective just to eat the same calorie level every day and observe weight changes (weigh yourself every morning) over a period of weeks. Then if you are not losing or gaining at the required rate, you just tweak the calorie count.

[desslok]

Well you look lean enough to notice any subtle changes in BF% so you can adjust as necessary by using the mirror as a guide in conjunction with scale averages.

[CorVane]

If you were in a deficit all year round, you'd be constantly losing weight. If that's not the case, you must be around maintenance. So if you know what your calorie intake is, that is your maintenance. Things like calculators and fitbits only make guesses. It's better to have real data from observing your intake and weight changes.

Don't try to count what you burn off, formal exercise actually doesn't change daily energy expenditure very much at all and it's much easier and more effective just to eat the same calorie level every day and observe weight changes (weigh yourself every morning) over a period of weeks. Then if you are not losing or gaining at the required rate, you just tweak the calorie count.

So just scale and mirrors are better than fitbits eh? Cuz yea if I were to consume 10% more than I burn (according to the Fitbit) that’s a pretty high number of calories for me at least

[CorVane]

Well you look lean enough to notice any subtle changes in BF% so you can adjust as necessary by using the mirror as a guide in conjunction with scale averages.

Good to know. So I take it most people hate Fitbit watches on here haha! Is it really that unreliable??

[SuffolkPunch]

Looking at your pictures, I can see you have way more experience with body recomposition than most people who first post on here.

This is a good resource for serious trainees:

On wearables: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/re...ght-wearables/
On calorie surplus for mass gain: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/bulking/

[DougyF7]

Good to know. So I take it most people hate Fitbit watches on here haha! Is it really that unreliable??

They are reliable for counting your steps. The other metrics they provide likely aren't very reliable

[AdamWW]

Good to know. So I take it most people hate Fitbit watches on here haha! Is it really that unreliable??

It's not a matter of 'hating' them, they just aren't a useful means of accurately tracking calories so it's best not to lean on them for that.

You may be off by several hundred calories.