Brand new and confused about Fitbit integration

LaurieC3333

long story short, I got a Fitbit flex last week and while it has motivated me immensely (I now walk 4-5 miles a day and eat ten times healthier) I have a feeling it's not logging my calories accurately. At least not for me. I'm actually gaining weight. And that doesn't make sense as I am so much more active and eating so much better I should be losing something. (I understand about muscle gain, eat). So tonight I found MFP and logged my foods that ate today. Far is different calories than FB logged so same foods. So then I linked my FB to MFP and all the info I logged manually into MFP seemed to be overridden and the FB numbers appeared. Again telling me I had another 200 cals to eat today even thigh MFP tells me I ate 1800 plus. I'm just confused. So I unlinked my FB from MFP. I'm thinking I should just use the FB to motivate me to move and get me steps in and then use MFP for everything else. Can someone give me an opinion on this. I'm overwhelmed.

swirlybee

LaurieC3333 wrote: »

I'm thinking I should just use the FB to motivate me to move and get me steps in and then use MFP for everything else. Can someone give me an opinion on this. I'm overwhelmed.

That's what I do. The food logging part of Fitbit is confusing to me so I only log foods via MFP and use Fitbit to just keep track of how much I've walked.

editorgrrl

Connect your accounts at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit and enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Food & water only syncs one way—from MFP to Fitbit. No need to log any step-based activity—Fitbit is tracking it for you. Exercise syncs both ways, so log non-step exercise (like swimming or biking) either in Fitbit (that's what I do) or in MFP—never both.

Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal & follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments.

You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

StaciMarie1974

Need more info. What is your height, weight? What's your BMR? (Google it.) How many steps a day are you taking since getting the Fitbit, and what is your total daily calorie burn (for prior days) according to Fitbit? What is your goal in terms of how many pounds to lose a week? How much are you eating per day, and are you using a food scale?

Lots of questions, I know. In general Fitbit calculates your total daily burn from activity but also for living. Your body is always using energy, burning calories. Even if you sat on the couch all day. I've found it to be very accurate for me. But it can take a little time to learn what the #s mean.

If you've gained weight in one week's time: this does not mean you're actually gaining weight. Some weeks will be down, some up, some steady. Its the trend over time that matters.

LaurieC3333

Hi. Thanks for all the answers. to answer staci's question: 5'1" tall, currently 214 lbs. I have to ck my bmr. I've been taking 11k-13k steps a day since last week. Daily cals burned (and amt eaten in parenthesis) for last 5 days:

2187 (989
2520 (1037)
2413 (914)
2342 (1308)
2854 (1393)

Yes, using a food scale and scanning packaged foods using MFP scanner. I want to lose 1.5-2 lbs a week. In fact, I put in 2.0 lbs a week and MFP says I'm on track to lose 1.4 lbs a week at 1200 cals a day. Fitbit has me at about 1500 calories. I know eating too little hurts but I need to find a spot that will help me lose, not gain. If I was cheating that would be one thing but I'm not. I'm doing the steps. I'm eating healthy food.