Which figure should I eat?

kpkitten
kpkitten Posts: 164 Member
edited November 2024 in Social Groups
Do I eat my Fitbit calories (from food plan) or MFP "daily calorie goal" (as adjusted by exercise/fitbit)?

The two are very different, up to about 300 calories different.
Because my activity level is so variable, I have Fitbit set to "sedentary" rather than "personalised", and I have MFP set up with moderate activity to give me a daily (pre-sync) target of 2060 calories per day.

In the FAQ, it says to eat MFP because the two will be correct by the end of the day, but mine are still miles apart when I go to bed (or when I get up and check the next day!). Because Fitbit is the lower, I try to eat that one, but when I'm aiming to get the biggest loss possible without cutting too much, I can't really afford to be +/-300 of my "ideal" amount.

Both MFP and Fitbit are set up with an intended 750 calorie deficit, so it's not that I'm aiming for bigger losses in one tool!

Anyone know which is the better one to aim for?

Replies

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Fitbit prorates your calories by time of day and goes way below 1,200. Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal & follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments.

    If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments, you'll be eating TDEE minus deficit: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • kpkitten
    kpkitten Posts: 164 Member
    Haha even by lunchtime my Fitbit wouldn't be below 1200 unless I've been lying in bed, but yeah I get that it will be lower earlier in the day because it doesn't know how active I'll be for the rest of it.
    I've got negative adjustment enabled so I'll go by MFP. The MFP figures make me happier, they just seemed a lot higher than Fitbit sometimes which worries me that they're inaccurate for some reason.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Trust the system for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

    We should all be looking for the maximum number of calories at which we lose weight—never the minimum. I eat back all my adjustments, and I lost the weight and have maintained for 8 months.

    It'll take trial & error to find what works for you.
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    Take editorgrrl's advice, but I find it odd that FitBit and MFP don't agree by the end of the day (midnight, so you have to check the next day). Whenever I've checked that they agree within <100 calories. Sometimes they only differ by a couple of calories. You might want to double check your settings.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Your settings on each for weight loss amount may not agree.

    Because they should match up, because by end of day, MFP is using the daily burn that Fitbit reports, if they both subtract 500, well, they should match.

    Now, Fitbit only sends over new data when it goes up by 100 calories for daily burn. So it could be missing the last hour, and by looking at the MFP calorie adjustment "info" for when was last sync, you may find that happens.

    But usually on next device sync, it corrects prior day final figure too. Unless that has changed, I don't keep checking things like that.
    Or rather more honestly, I'm up until midnight, so it always is auto-corrected next time I look.
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