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Fitbit question: To sync or not to sync?

anya42
anya42 Posts: 7
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi All,
I haven't posted on these forums much, but i had a question. I started with myfitnesspal like two years ago to lose the extra 'baby weight'. I lost like 15 pounds in about 6 months, great. But over the next year gained most of it back, boo. I did slack off on logging everything in during that time. I started logging in everything, but have only lost 5 pounds in 6 months, boo again.

During this time, I also got a fitbit one, which I really like. It couldn't sync with the myfitnesspal app because I had an older phone, but not a big deal, I could still see my steps and calories. I did sync to my computer once a week or so and could see my general 'trends'. My problem is that according to my fitbit, I burn an average of around 2000 calories a day (I always get my 10,000 steps, I'm kinda OCD about it even. :wink: ) Obviously, those calories can't be 'right' or I should have lost more weight by now. No, when I bought the fitbit, I didn't think the calories would be super accurate, I didn't mind that, I mostly wanted to know steps. But now I've gotten a new phone that should be able to sync to the MFP app.

So my question, will the 'wrong' calorie numbers screw up my calorie count if I sync with the app? Can I have it sync steps and not calories? Is this a question I should be asking at the fitbit forums? I don't post much, but I do lurk occasionally and I've seen a bunch of people here have fitibts, so I thought I'd ask.

Replies

  • Kellryn
    Kellryn Posts: 139 Member
    I have the fitbit One and have been syncing it with MFP for about 5 months now. It is very accurate. The only adjustment I had to make was up my activity level in MFP to lightly active. MFP and fitbit are within a few hundred calories of each other. I told MFP I wanted to lose 2 lbs. a week and fitbit says my deficit is around 1000 calories a day. I do lose 2 lbs. a week and have for months. My average step count per day is around 16000. Fitbit says my average calorie burn per day is 2500 to 2700. I love my fitbit One.
  • anya42
    anya42 Posts: 7
    Well, I guess I can try syncing for a while and see how it goes. I just didn't like the idea that I might gain back.
  • jim180155
    jim180155 Posts: 769 Member
    I sync. I average about 10k steps daily and assume that I'm getting credited with a few too many calories, so I try to stay a couple hundred calories under goal each day.

    One of the nice things about synching is that you can try to increase your steps on a day when you think you'll be overeating, or if you're still hungry at the end of the day and you're willing to work for food.

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