I am confused by fitbit

TexasJade

Can someone help me understand fitbit? I just set it up but it shows I burn 1680 cals. It says I have less than 1200 cals to eat in a day based on losing 1.5lbs, which is also what I have on MFP. But MFP gave me 1610 cals. I am confused on the amount of cals I need.

DeguelloTex

What is your activity level set to in MFP?

TexasJade

I have it set to sedentary

maxit

Eat and log your food into and according to MFP. Log all your exercise and all into FB. Usually the small discrepancies between the two are insignificant by the end of the day.

eileensofianmushinfine

If you've only "just" set it up, I would wait till tomorrow to get an accurate reading. My guess is that it's taking an estimated guess based on the time of day? Mine did something similar...

Liftng4Lis

Did you enable negative calorie adjustments?

editorgrrl

Connect your accounts at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit

Set your goal to .5 lb. for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

In the MFP app, go to More > Steps and choose Fitbit.

Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal and follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments. No need to log any step-based activity—your Fitbit is tracking it for you. Log non-step exercise (like swimming or biking) either in Fitbit or in MFP—never both. Exercise logged in MFP overwrites your Fitbit burn during that time.

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

Merkavar

Maybe you aren't sedentary like mfp thinks. Maybe your super duper sedentary (technical term).

Enable negative adjustments in mfp and you might find that mfp will show 1600 less 300 exercise giving around 1200 like fit bit says.

When I wake up in the morning I normally have a negative 100 cal adjustment. I need to jump on a treadmill after work to get up to what mfp considers sedentary.

Christine_72

I completely ignore fitbits calorie goals.

Use mfp for food and fitbit for exercise.

TexasJade

Thank you all. Apparently, I had set MFP to lightly active, not sedentary but I did the adjustments suggested above, including changing my goal to 1lb a week since I have 35 to 40 lbs to lose and I am still within 10 cals of the 1680 that fitbit said I burn when I set it up. I have surpased that in just the few hours since I set it up though. However, since I had just set it up maybe it will adjust as suggested above. I will wait a couple of days to see. Thanks again.

editorgrrl

TexasJade wrote: »

Apparently, I had set MFP to lighly active, not sedentary.

If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments, choosing an activity level is a matter of personal preference. At lightly active you start with more calories in the morning, then get smaller adjustments. Either way, your goal is still TDEE minus deficit.

TexasJade

editorgrrl wrote: »

TexasJade wrote: »

Apparently, I had set MFP to lighly active, not sedentary.

If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments, choosing an activity level is a matter of personal preference. At lightly active you start with more calories in the morning, then get smaller adjustments. Either way, your goal is still TDEE minus deficit.

I am completely confused. Should I have chose to enable negative cals? Before having my last two babies, I did not do that, didn't know it was an option but I also ate closer to 1400 cals then and lost about 45lbs.

TexasJade

I guess I don't completely understand the approach or reason.

maxit

If you don't get the expected amount of activity, then the negative calorie adjustment takes a bit a way, thats all.

marissafit06

maxit wrote: »

If you don't get the expected amount of activity, then the negative calorie adjustment takes a bit a way, thats all.

This. Enabling negative calories makes sure makes sure that MFP give you a calorie allotment based on your actual exercise for the day. On days you aren't active enough you get fewer calories in the same way that extra activity give you a greater calorie allowance.

TexasJade

I forgot to also change my goal to fitbit to 1lb a week. The current calorie goal for fitbit is 1395, MFP is 1600. I know I am completely missing something but I don't really understand the reasoning. I think I must be making it harder than it is because I only used MFP before my babies and easily lost. I just don't want to mess this up.

TexasJade

maxit wrote: »

If you don't get the expected amount of activity, then the negative calorie adjustment takes a bit a way, thats all.

Thank you.

TexasJade

marissafit06 wrote: »

maxit wrote: »

If you don't get the expected amount of activity, then the negative calorie adjustment takes a bit a way, thats all.

This. Enabling negative calories makes sure makes sure that MFP give you a calorie allotment based on your actual exercise for the day. On days you aren't active enough you get fewer calories in the same way that extra activity give you a greater calorie allowance.

Thank you.

TexasJade

Ok, I guess I haven't looked at food log on MFP since I made the adjustments. So if my log says I have earned 222 extra cals today, should I have eaten those or is it already figured in? For instance, my log says I am allowed 1378 but I am over by 15 cals but it says I have earned 222 in excercise.

WinoGelato

It is hard but you kind of have to give it some time and trust the tools...
MFP has you set a calorie goal that enables you to lose weight without doing any exercise based on your stats and an estimated activity level.
Fitbit measures your total activity, including exercise, and estimates a daily burn and reports that to MFP. The number may change as the day goes on. By enabling negative adjustments, MFP will give you less calories if you are less active than it thinks you should be, but that is the way to get the most accurate numbers.
The exercise adjustment is the difference between what MFP thought you would burn and what Fitbit said you actually did, so yes, you should eat those back, BUT you should be aware that the hungers will continur to adjust even after you are finished with your activity for the day, mine takes away 100 or so cals after I go to bed because I'm suddenly less active than I had been earlier.

A normal day for me looks like this:
MFP goal set at 1750
Wake up 6 am, negative adjustmenr of about -80-100. Cals
Exercise in the morning, walking or circuit training, suddenly a big positive adjustment, now I'm about +150 cals.
By the time I get to work, sit at a desk most of the day, the exercise adjustment dwindles.
Evenings are busy, so it goes back up... until I go to bed and as I mentioned I can "lose" some of those earned calories.

When all is said and done I average 12-14k steps and usually get a 200-300 cal exercise adjustment, which corresponds nicely to my Fitbit daily burn of 2100.

It takes a while to get used to but its a great little tool.

Merkavar

TexasJade wrote: »

Ok, I guess I haven't looked at food log on MFP since I made the adjustments. So if my log says I have earned 222 extra cals today, should I have eaten those or is it already figured in? For instance, my log says I am allowed 1378 but I am over by 15 cals but it says I have earned 222 in excercise.

It goes calorie goal-food+exercise =net calories

So i assume what your seeing is something like
1378-1393+222=207

The 207 is how many more calories you can eat.

But be aware that it's all estimates and people tend to over estimate exercise and under estimate food. So maybe don't eat it all.

Also with the fit bit the adjust is based on calories burn right now and forecasts the rest of the day. So if you going to sit down or sleep I would leave the calories or leave most of them.

For me I have negative exercise most of the day, I get home and jump on the treadmill, turn the negative into a positive, but I know over the next few hours before I go to sleep the exercise figure will come down. For me it drops about 50 calories ever 2 hours or so so if I want to have positive exercise when I complete my day I need to exercise an extra 10-15 mins.

Great Wall of text?

editorgrrl

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

Without negative calorie adjustments enabled, you'll never eat at a true deficit on days you burn fewer calories than your MFP activity level. (But they never put your calories below 1,200.)

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

TexasJade

Thank you all for your patience and help. Fitbit now says I have 1600 cals, so closer to what MFP was giving me. I will try to learn the new pattern and follow the fitbit group. Thanks!

WinoGelato

It was said up thread but is worth repeating, most people use FitBit to track their activity and synch back with MFP but ignore the calorie counts for what to eat on FitBit itself as it is never going to match exactly with MFP. I don't even look at that anymore. I look at my steps, my miles, and occasionally my calories burned total when I'm looking at changes in my TDEE.

TexasJade

WinoGelato wrote: »

It was said up thread but is worth repeating, most people use FitBit to track their activity and synch back with MFP but ignore the calorie counts for what to eat on FitBit itself as it is never going to match exactly with MFP. I don't even look at that anymore. I look at my steps, my miles, and occasionally my calories burned total when I'm looking at changes in my TDEE.

Thank you. I will do that.