New to the whole Fitbit / mfp

sandtparadise

do I need to switch of my phone step tracker when I'm step tracking with Fitbit? Ordered a fb and not set it up yet so curious about this

Uicnow

They should work together.

sandtparadise

Thanks, just furiously googling away trying to get as much info, is it sad that I'm so excited about buying a fitbit, it doesn't arrive until tomorrow though!!!

shadow2soul

sandtparadise wrote: »

Thanks, just furiously googling away trying to get as much info, is it sad that I'm so excited about buying a fitbit, it doesn't arrive until tomorrow though!!!

Nope. I think I was checking the tracking information for my Surge 2-3 times a day (and it was on 2 day shipping/amazon prime). Fitbit is awesome.

Now as for your first question, you can tell MFP to pull the step count from Fitbit instead of your phone counter. I can't tell you what it would do if you had the phone counter linked to MFP and Fitbit since I've never tried it. For example, my iPhone still counts my steps when I hold it (as displayed in the iHealth thing), but the MFP app shows my steps from my Fitbit and isn't pulling step data from my phone.

fatjon73

sandtparadise wrote: »

Thanks, just furiously googling away trying to get as much info, is it sad that I'm so excited about buying a fitbit, it doesn't arrive until tomorrow though!!!

Not at all...I got mine 3 weeks ago...and I checked logs every 20 mins, wrote it down so I could see the difference...and I spent hrs forum hunting FB info.....

Welcome to the world of Data...........(I am a data geek.....not a fitness freak).....

browneyedgirl7928

I'm new to Fitbit - I ordered the Fitbit Charge HR and it should be here Tuesday. I'm excited. I'm a T1 paraplegic and use a wheelchair. Last year I wanted an activity tracker to track propulsions. I emailed every company that offered an activity watch and NikeFuel was the only one that said it would work. The NikeFuel is/was disappointing and now I know why they don't make them anymore.

Long story short I got a cheap activity watch that had a pedometer in it to see if it would work when I wheel and to my surprise it did. I also have a wheeler friend who can walk some that has a FitBit and I asked her if it tracked when she wheeled and she said yes.

Today is my 20 years post injury anniversary date and as a present to myself I bought the FitBit Charge HR. I have a goal to get 10,000 propulsions. On workout days that's doable very soon. I hit over 6,000 yesterday.

I have Amazon Prime so it said should be here Tuesday - I'm hoping it comes Monday!! I can't wait.

heybales

You might be aware that the "steps" the device is seeing is what leads to calculating calorie burn, and I find it very unlikely it would have any bearing on the actual energy you expending wheeling.

So it sees a propulsion as a step, and steps and stride length info give distance. Distance and time give pace, and pace and weight give calorie burn with some highly accurate formulas intended only for walking and running.

That's why I doubt they would translate well.

Please keep great records of what you eat and your weight, I'm betting you'll need to adjust your actual TDEE or daily maintenance based on results.

If you could find some studies that gave actual lab measured calorie burns and formula relating to weight perhaps, you might be able to tweak the stride length correctly to compensate.

The other area is that all non-moving time is given sleeping level calorie burn, BMR, based on gender, age, weight, height.
That formula came from study of average healthy weight participants with average ratio of muscle to fat mass.

With the biggest set of muscles normally in the body not actually being used, I'm betting that BMR formula is also off.
That could be corrected too though with change of height, but would need some research showing how that maybe has changed for you.

This potential issues seems very interesting to solve, and I think it would be with some tweaks, but there is no way you can be hitting the averages that are used for all the base math that is built upon.

Just wanted to throw some proper expectations your way, with things to watch out for.

The "step" goals is still great though, and I bet on your wrist it'll register beautifully with the normal motions done.

browneyedgirl7928

Yeah, I figured I would have to make some tweaks to benefit me the best. My boyfriend is a car guy - he can probably figure out my stride.

Most of my muscles do get used. I ride an FES bike - which is electrical stimulation to propel my legs. I ride that for an hour 3 times a week. I can ride it longer if I chose, but I like to do arm stuff like hand cycling and weights while I am at the gym. I bought a hand cycle last year to go biking with my boyfriend outside and his legs are strong so I don't want to be a weeny when I go out biking with him especially since I strongly advised he get a bike too. I tend to set most things to sedentary since I am sitting and I just don't burn calories like those in the abled bodied world.

I weigh weekly - I bought myself a scale that my wheelchair can get on with minimal help so that's accurate. I figured it would keep me more motivated to have my own scale instead of driving to Weight Watchers or using the hospitals. I also track everything I eat. Mostly low carb with a cheat day here and there.

Do you think I should adjust my TDEE and BMR down? I'm at the gym 3 times a week and also box a few times a week. With it getting nice (finally) in South Dakota the boyfriend and I will be biking and kayaking as often as we can in our free time as well.

Thanks for your advice heybales - I really appreciate it. Looking forward to unboxing it tomorrow. Was so hopeful it would come today.

heybales

I'd say follow the recommendations, using a reasonable weight loss goal amount, for about 6 weeks.

As a woman, your BMR literally changes during 4 weeks anyway, so it takes that long to really discern something from the stats.
The first 2 weeks is likely to see some weight drop just from water loss, unless you've been in a diet already, in which case that happened.

So just valid weigh-in days, to minimize known expected water fluctuations.
Morning after rest day eating normal sodium levels, not sore from last workout.
Really accurate food logging by weight from week 2 to week 6.

So whatever amount you lose in those 4 weeks, assuming it's just fat, can be added to whatever you really ate, and that will show real TDEE for whatever level of activity was.
And can compare to what Fitbit said for that time, and adjustment can happen.

Weight change x 3500 / 28 days = difference between eating level and TDEE.

So if 4 lbs even was lost.
4 x 3500 / 28 = 500 deficit to whatever you ate.

If stats show you ate say 1726, then average TDEE was 1726 + 500 = 2226.