i need help just got a fitbit (charge) today (im New)

milkydud85

I worn my fitbit for 8hrs and it says i burned 1,431 which i believe its false... but my situation is when i start a group excercise at a gym how do i track my excercise or workout session (only)? i see a thing on my app on my phone and it has diffrent sections like track your excercise, floors, sleep logged, active minutes. do i log these in myself or what? please help this device did not come with instruction pamphlet.. i guess i got to go online, but not have enough time.. can anybody help me with this. A simple answer would do.. lol straight the point thank you very much

FishyK

The simple answer is to hook it up with MFP and let it do everything. First day is going to be wonky. Let Fitbit work with MFP and eat what MFP says you can eat.

NancyN795

I'd recommend that you read the FAQ that you'll find in the stickies for the group. It will answer a lot of your questions.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to give a simple answer to your message. There's too many questions and not enough information. You're new to this. Just accept that you'll need at least a few days to get up to speed.

If your exercise is step based (walking, running, dancing, etc.) just hold the button on the side of your Fitbit until it vibrates to begin logging the exercise and hold it again at the end to stop. That will create a record that you can go back and review later if you want, but it won't actually affect the Fitbit's calorie calculations.

If your exercise is not step based (weight lifting, swimming, cycling, etc.) then you need to log it manually. Most people here do that in the Fitbit app because it reportedly uses a better database, but it could also be done in MFP. Either way, a manually entered exercise will overwrite what your Fitbit computed for that time (that's why you need a start time and a duration), so it won't double count.

The calories your Fitbit displays is what you burn just from being alive (your BMR) plus the calories it estimates you've burned based on the activity it detects - steps, but adjusted based on the intensity of the steps. So, it will show calories burned when you get up in the morning, even if you didn't wear it to bed. I'm not sure if you thought the 1431 was too high or too low. Also, I'm not clear on whether the 1431 is the calorie burn displayed on the Fitbit itself (or in the Fitbit app) - which is its estimate of your Total Daily Energy Expenditure - or if it was the Fitbit calorie adjustment that MFP displays. Either way, don't really trust the numbers on the first day, they're typically off. However, 1431 could be anywhere from about right to low for having worn it for just 8 hours (depends on what you did during that time) and for most people would be pretty high for the adjustment shown in MFP. (Not ridiculously high, though, if you've been really active and have MFP set to sedentary.) As an example, it is 3 in the afternoon here, I haven't exercised yet today and mine says I've burned 1403 calories, which gives me an MFP calorie adjustment of 288 calories.

heybales

Ditto's to there is no simple answer, because you asked so many questions without enough info.

And yes - it did come with a manual - it's online.
Since the device requires being online - they figured you'd have access to it.

Suggest you read through the manual if you want to understand something.
Just as you'd look at a box of food as to how it's to be cooked if you've never used it, this is good time for some reading.