Fitbit issues help!

lilbeckyboo1981

Hi I have happily been logging food and my steps have been updating during the day and giving me the calories to go with it. I have started swimming most days and logging it on mfp with the correct start time so it matches on Fitbit and weirdly mfp will log say 600 calories for the swim but all my allowance from the steps for the whole day stays at 0 even if I were to do 6000 odd?!! Help

shadow2soul

lilbeckyboo1981 wrote: »

Hi I have happily been logging food and my steps have been updating during the day and giving me the calories to go with it. I have started swimming most days and logging it on mfp with the correct start time so it matches on Fitbit and weirdly mfp will log say 600 calories for the swim but all my allowance from the steps for the whole day stays at 0 even if I were to do 6000 odd?!! Help

Your adjustment from Fitbit isn't based on the number of steps you take. It's based on a calorie burn comparison.

When you select an activity level on MFP, MFP estimates how much you should burn in a 24 hr period based on your stats. When you log exercise, the calorie burn for the exercise gets added to this number. With Fitbit connected, it will also send the exercise log to Fitbit, so that Fitbit can correct your full day calorie burn.

Now the adjustment on MFP is:
Fitbit calorie burn - MFP burn (based on activity level + any logged exercise) = +, - , or 0 adjustment

If you don't have negative adjustments turned on, then you should do that. Your Fitbit calorie burn is your TDEE for the day (the number you have to eat less than to lose weight). MFP adjusts it's calorie burn in the form of an exercise adjustment to match your Fitbit burn so that your deficit stays at 1lb, 2lb or whatever loss per week you selected. If negative adjustments is not enabled, then when your Fitbit calorie burn is less than what MFP expects you will get an adjustment of "0". This means that you have a smaller deficit than expected (possibly even none at all).

An easy check to see the math behind your adjustment is to:
From the App - tap your adjustment 1 and you will get taken to another screen, tap it again on the new screen to see the math

From the PC - click the little "i" next to your fitbit adjustment in your exercise diary.

lilbeckyboo1981

Thank you that's really helpful