Fitbit Charge HR: Am I missing something here? HELP!

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es513
es513 Posts: 51 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok.. so I received my Fitbit Charge HR today and synced it with MFP. All my data transferred over and according to my Fitbit app I have 502 calories left for the day but MFP says I have 670 left for the day. I know they don't use the same calculations so I'm just going to go with the 502 calories.

I entered my cardio manually on mfp using my ft7 and I logged a 480 cal burn. and after syncing the two apps, MFP is only showing 182 calories earned from exercise instead of the 480 it was before?

Aside from that little issue.. I have done a lot of thread reading and I'm pretty confused at how people make it so complex. If I'm not mistaking, shouldn't I just eat the 502 calories it says I should? Is there some sort of rocket science that I'm missing?

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  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
    edited April 2015
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    I just got a Fitbit too. I got the Flex.

    Anyway I've stopped logging workouts on MFP and am just allowing the Fitbit data to determine any earned calories since that does automatically adjust the number on the MFP calorie counter. Not sure if it is the right way to go but it seems less confusing to me to do it that way. My workouts are not very typical movement (I practiced a martial art called Aikido) and I don't think the fitbit is getting all of the data but it gets enough for my purposes. I'd rather under estimate than go over.
  • es513
    es513 Posts: 51 Member
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    That makes sense. I am thinking I'm going to stop logging my workouts on MFP as well. I would much rather under estimate than over estimate and over eat.

    Thanks!
  • redheadedyogi
    redheadedyogi Posts: 5 Member
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    I'm entering and relying on calorie count on MFP/ignoring what FitBit says about my remaining calories. However, I'm now using the FitBit app and ChargeHR exercise tracker to estimate my calorie burn and not entering those on MFP.
  • es513
    es513 Posts: 51 Member
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    Hmm, so you use MFP to count calories? Then you use Fitbit to estimate your calorie burn during your workout but don't log it on MFP so MFP won't say you "earned" those extra calories?

    Sounds reasonable. Thanks for the tip!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,879 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/PAV8888/view/exercise-do-i-enter-it-in-my-all-day-activity-tracker-in-mfp-or-both-741788

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/PAV8888/view/fitbit-charge-hr-good-idea-accurate-adjustments-741808

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/PAV8888/view/eat-back-your-exercise-calories-741835

    Define Daily Activity Level through Steps: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14715035
  • Docpremie
    Docpremie Posts: 228 Member
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    You have to link the 2 apps together for the information to flow. If you've linked through Fitbit, you still need to enable the data link in MFP. You also need to decide whether you want to allow MFP to negate calories as well, if you're below your desired calorie burns. I do neither, since I use TDEE so I have a constant calorie intake. Once linked, you don't enter exercise on MFP, since Fitbit will add those calories for you, when you exceed your calculated burn.

    The other thing about Fitbit is you should "customize" your Fitbit. I have a longer stride for my height, so I custom enter my stride length. It easy to measure, just walk off 20 or so steps in a normals tried, measure the distance & divide by the number of steps. If you don't want to customize, then Fitbit will enter you stride according to their usual equation based on height.

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