Calories burned

KyriaCathy

Just an observation really.
I wear a FitBit One everyday. It syncs with MFP and adds calories back to my daily goals based on my activity level. After this mornings run my MFP Diary showed showed a calorie burn credit from Fitbit of 280. My Fitbit dashboard showed an 800 calorie burn. Out of curiosity I plugged my time and distance into MFP exercise calculator and it showed a 450 calorie burn. Quite a big variation! In the long run I know, as long as I stick to the same one each time and adjust my intake accordingly and continue to show a loss, it really doesn't matter which one I use; but still amazing how different they are!

aylajane

Actually it makes sense once you realize what is included in the calculation. During your day, you burn a set number of calories just by existing... Say in one hour you burn 50 calories just surviving in a coma (i.e. BMR of 1200 calories per day). If you check your Fitbit at 8am after your run and it says you have burned 800 calories, that *includes* your BMR plus any movement you did beyond coma. So if your BMR of 50/hour would be 400 calories (50 x 8 hours). That means your additional movement is 400 calories. Let's say 100 calories of that was just from getting up, getting dressed, walking to your car, etc. So the *additional* burn from your run was 300 calories.

The MFP exercise calculator says 450 calories... I dont know if that includes BMR or not (i.e. is it the full burn for that time you were running including BMR, or just the extra on top of it?) but its a lot closer to our 300 calc.

Now MFP diary DOES include your BMR... So it assumes that at 8am, your normal activity (i.e. you put lightly active, so its your BMR of 400 plus a little extra for movement - say 120 calories) is about 520 calories if you had NOT run. So your earned calories is 280 - putting you at 800. This is very close to our estimate above of 100 calories "daily living" above BMR. 400 calories BMR, so 300 calories EXTRA from the run.

Remember, calories burned calculations may or may not include the following, so you have to be careful. This is why people eat back half their exercise calories - usually the "burn" includes BMR, so if you add in the full amount you are counting your BMR twice, since MFP already had that separate.

BMR = coma
NEAT = extra calories from daily living (included in your "lightly active" or other activity setting). Sometimes this includes BMR so be careful.
Exercise = deliberate exercise ABOVE your NEAT calories (running, working out)
TDEE = BMR + NEAT (assuming doesnt include BMR already) + Exercise = total daily burned calories.

"Earned" calories are always the exercise ones - those above your BMR and what you told it your regular daily living included (since those were included in its base calories you start the day with). You only earn those that go above and beyond BMR and NEAT.

Hope that helps.. I am not an expert, but have gathered this from hanging around here awhile.

rpyle111

When you look at the net Fitbit adjustment, there is a little i in a circle. Clicking that shows the calculation. Note that it changes over the day as the daily projections change.

Aylajane explained it pretty much as I understand it.

When in doubt, eat your main number, keep moving and if you feel hungry or weak on higher activity days, eat more !

Rob