Fitbit calories left

kathleencook88
kathleencook88 Posts: 2 Member
edited November 21 in Health and Weight Loss
Why does my Fitbit say that I have 461 calories left to eat and MyFitnessPal say that I have 742 left?

Which one to I follow? So confusing :(yncbx7vkgh5d.jpg
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Replies

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    edited July 2015
    your fitbit calorie goal isn't the same as your MFP goal, but the food eaten is the same. Simplest approach is to stick with MFP and just use fitbit activity adjustments.

    I'm not 100% clear where Fitbit's food goal comes from personally.

    Edit:

    Tuesday I logged 1080 (not complete) of food, Fitbit.com says I burned 2470. It also says I should have eaten 1720 hence have 640 left. MFP says I had 654 calories left after a 414 cal adjustment from Fitbit ie I should have eaten 1734 - a discrepancy of 14 cals.

    The same 14 cal difference appears on wednesday with 1607 eaten against targets of 1549 on MFP and 1535 on Fitbit. Fitbit is working to a 750 cal deficit as I burned 2285 that day.

    These are complete days, other weirdness might happen during a day.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    What peeves me is days like yesterday

    by 4pm I had walked 3800 steps which gave me a +89 calories adjustment on MFP

    I then logged an 80 minute gym workout at 600 calories .. entering it on MFP so overwriting supposedly any steps taken between 4.15pm and 5.35pm

    Lo and behold I look back on yesterday and MFP has my exercise in total at +480 .. the 600 from exercise and -120 from fitbit (instead of the 689 I could have been lead to expect)

    It doesn't impact on my weight but bothers me on a maths front because other days I won't lose calories
  • svornov
    svornov Posts: 9 Member
    I've lost 60 lbs on the advice of my endocrinologist's PA. I plateaued for a month and in consultation with her discovered my problem. The answer is whether in MFP or Fitbit's dashboard don't eat back your burnt calories. How I miss the days when I had a 1,000 deficit and an excuse for the Indian buffet. :s
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    svornov wrote: »
    I've lost 60 lbs on the advice of my endocrinologist's PA. I plateaued for a month and in consultation with her discovered my problem. The answer is whether in MFP or Fitbit's dashboard don't eat back your burnt calories. How I miss the days when I had a 1,000 deficit and an excuse for the Indian buffet. :s

    nope

    MFP is set up as NEAT so the expectation is you WILL eat back your exercise calories

    However you must be accurate on your food logging and exercise burns and the MFP database of exercise notoriously overestimates

    But another way round is to be less accurate on your food logging and not eat back your exercise

    If you were following a TDEE approach that would be different, but where you say "the answer is" you're actually theoretically wrong .. the answer would be to be more accurate .. but there are many ways to skin a cat
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    svornov wrote: »
    I've lost 60 lbs on the advice of my endocrinologist's PA. I plateaued for a month and in consultation with her discovered my problem. The answer is whether in MFP or Fitbit's dashboard don't eat back your burnt calories. How I miss the days when I had a 1,000 deficit and an excuse for the Indian buffet. :s

    @svornov - if you did that with Fitbit, you'd be eating nothing at all. Fitbit's calorie burn is your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), so to eat none of what it says you burned would translate to not eating at all.

    ____________________________________________

    To the OP: What do you have your MFP activity level set at?

    The adjustment on MFP's side is just a prediction until midnight. Fitbit sends over a calorie burn as of your last sync. MFP then calculates how many hours/mins are left in your day and multiplies it by XX calories based on the activity level you selected. It takes this calculation and adds it to your Fitbit's calorie burn to come up with an estimate of what Fitbit will say you burned by midnight. This predicted number is used to calculate your adjustment. It will re-do this calculation every time you sync (so your adjustment can move up or down).

    Example:
    I'll use my stuff as the example.
    MFP expected calorie burn for a Lightly Active person of my stats: 1895
    Fitbit calorie burn as of 6:47 am : 414
    My day has 17 hrs 13 mins left from the last time I synced.
    MFP's calorie burn translates to 78.958 calories per hour or 1.315 per minute.
    17*78.958 = 1342.286
    13*1.315 = 17.095
    1342.286 + 17.095 = 1359.381
    1359 + 414 = 1773
    Based on the 414 Fitbit sent over, MFP expects the calorie burn from Fitbit to be 1773 by midnight. Obviously this will change as I start moving around, but that's where it sits currently.

    ____________________________________________
    Now Fitbit on the other hand is guessing at a full day's burn of 2179 based on previous history. This will also adjust up or down as the day goes on, but first thing in the morning it's based on what I typically do. I have mine set to personalized.

    If however, I switch it to Sedentary. It will start the day thinking I'm only going to burn my BMR (so my deficit will be off of that at first) and it won't add in calories until I actually burn them.

    Usually by midnight though, the amount of calories I can consume is pretty much the same on both (less than 50 calorie difference).

    If you want to play it safe, go by whichever gives you fewer remaining calories.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    I use MFP for everything so whatever the calories left that MFP says is what I go with. The Fitbit calories burned is your TDEE (it gets your calories eaten from MFP) and I did use that number along with my actual calories eaten, adjusted for weight lost, to calculate my TDEE - 600 calories that I now eat each day. The two numbers were within 100 calories of each other so Fitbit is pretty accurate, once you wear it for a few weeks so it has actual data to calculate from.
  • ashed456
    ashed456 Posts: 7 Member
    I usually try and ignore the added calories that fit bit gives me on MFP. My idea is to not eat the additional calories. So by staying at 1258 as you logged and not eating the remainder 742 its just an added bonus :smile: Well that's how I think anyways
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    ashed456 wrote: »
    I usually try and ignore the added calories that fit bit gives me on MFP. My idea is to not eat the additional calories. So by staying at 1258 as you logged and not eating the remainder 742 its just an added bonus :smile: Well that's how I think anyways

    That is fine if you have a low weekly weight loss goal (like 1/2 - 1 lb.) Otherwise, you can easily be losing too much lean body mass which will be very detrimental in the future.

  • PrimroseFlower
    PrimroseFlower Posts: 110 Member
    edited July 2015
    I got my fitbit charge hr the other day and WOW! I didn't realize how active I really was. According to fitbit, I had almost 1000 calories left over yesterday.
  • bmchenry02
    bmchenry02 Posts: 233 Member
    With all the confusion that surrounds fit bits, what advantage do they have?? Maybe another thread and perhaps it's no different than figuring out MFP....just curious as I don't have one.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    bmchenry02 wrote: »
    With all the confusion that surrounds fit bits, what advantage do they have?? Maybe another thread and perhaps it's no different than figuring out MFP....just curious as I don't have one.

    They motivate you to get off your backside, they give you a goal to work towards every day, they accurately calculate your TDEE, they are the second most useful tool in my weight loss after my kitchen scale.

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Fitbit prorates your calories by time of day—and goes below 1,200.

    Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal and follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments. If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, you'll be eating TDEE minus deficit.

    You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • cld111
    cld111 Posts: 300 Member
    I have an issue I hope someone can help with related to the OP (I think?). At 11pm I generally have a few calories left over in MFP. When I wake up and check the next day, I'm always in the red by 100-200 calories I guess because of that negative adjustment. How do I avoid this? I'm thinking I may need to follow Fitbit's calorie goal instead of MFP's?
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Fitbit prorates your calories by time of day—and goes way below 1,200. Ignore it & follow your MFP calorie goal.

    The discrepancy has nothing to do with negative calorie adjustments. If it's always 100 calories, then always leave 100 calories' wiggle room at the end of the day.
  • chelsy0587
    chelsy0587 Posts: 441 Member
    My fitbit and MFP seem to be at least within 100 calories of each other, which in my book is darn good... I use the fitbit to see if I'm "in the zone" I try not be to under budget but there are days I am and days I'm over budget.

    I think other than being a motivator the fitbit calculates your TDEE and helps me know how much of those exercise calories are eatable and how many aren't.
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