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ShelliesTrying
Posts: 85 Member
Does anyone have a FitBit linked to their MyFitnessPal? If so share your experience!
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Replies
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My Charge HR is linked to MFP. It works wonderfully. I set my activity to sedentary, enabled negative adjustments, and just the number of calories that result. I've been maintaining this way for a couple of months now, no issues.0
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Does it log your activity automatically? I bought a used FitBit on eBay, I think the charge, and am waiting for it to arrive. I haven't added exercise into my weight-loss yet. I have just been logging everything and staying under my calories.0
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ShelliesTrying wrote: »Does it log your activity automatically? I bought a used FitBit on eBay, I think the charge, and am waiting for it to arrive. I haven't added exercise into my weight-loss yet. I have just been logging everything and staying under my calories.
It tracks my steps and automatically adjusts my calories. Since it's the HR, when I am exercising, I activate the exercise mode (press a button on the side) and it uses my heart rate to register the calories I burn when I'm running. Even if I didn't press the button, it would still register the steps and increase my calories though.0 -
If you link the accounts and Fitbit sees you using more calories than MFP it will add a Fitbit exercise calorie adjustment to your MFP diary effectively giving you more food.0
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I was wrong it's the FitBit Flex
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It was only $40 so if I like it and feel like it's beneficial I will upgrade later on.0
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So it doesn't actually log that you walked 30 min it will just up your calories a little?0
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ShelliesTrying wrote: »So it doesn't actually log that you walked 30 min it will just up your calories a little?
It will log your steps. If you have linked it with MFP, you will see the adjustment to your calories.0 -
Ok. Well I hope it gets here soon so I can check it out.
Right now I am just logging and eating better. I haven't started adding exercising or anything. My phone has the S Health on it but it just logs that I got xx amount of steps or xx min of activity and you can't always carry your phone on your person for every step you take so it's not a good record of what you're doing.0 -
Mine are connected. Try eating what it tells you to for a few weeks, and then lower/raise calories are necessary for your goals. The numbers have been accurate for me, so far.
If you link them, do not add exercise in MFP- that would be double dipping.0 -
I updated my weight and it dropped me 200 calories. I was still losing with what it was set at so that kind of put a damper on things but I couldn't figure out how to change it back.
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ShelliesTrying wrote: »So it doesn't actually log that you walked 30 min it will just up your calories a little?
Correct. You can opt to log specific exercise and enter the time to avoid double-accounting.0 -
ShelliesTrying wrote: »Does anyone have a FitBit linked to their MyFitnessPal? If so share your experience!
Yep. I use my Fitbit to determine calories out and MFP to log my calories consumed.
When I first started using a Fitbit (started with the Zip) and linked it to MFP, I discovered that I was so Sedentary that I would actually lose calories with MFP set to Sedentary. Only with exercise would I meet what MFP expected a Sedentary person of my stats to burn in a 24 hour period. Which is really sad when you think about it.
I have used both the Flex and Zip. Both underestimated my TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure/24 hr calorie burn) by about 200 calories a day on average. Which was nice, because it meant I could eat all the calories I was given and still lose slightly faster than what I was aiming for.
I am now using the Fitbit Surge. I love it, but I also realize it is not easily affordable. For people who want the HR, I typically suggest going with the ChargeHR. My calorie burn from the Surge seems to be about spot on right now (maintaining my loss will be the true test).
As for what is sent over-
Fitbit sends MFP : weight (if tracked in Fitbit), steps, total calories burned as of last sync, sleep minutes (if tracked), BF% (if tracked in Fitbit)
MFP sends Fitbit : weight (if tracked in MFP), any exercise logged into exercise diary, and calories consumed
**Things like the elliptical, and swimming need to be manually logged. When you link your Fitbit to MFP, MFP will say to manually log exercise here, but it doesn't matter. Where you log the exercise that Fitbit can't track is up to you. I personally prefer to leave all my exercise logging to my Fitbit account.ShelliesTrying wrote: »It was only $40 so if I like it and feel like it's beneficial I will upgrade later on.
Did you buy it new or used?
I'm only asking because you could actually end up getting a defective Flex if you bought it used. I say this, because my first Flex was defective, Fitbit sent me a new one and didn't request the defective one back (left it up to me to get rid of it properly). Since Fitbit does that sometimes, it wouldn't surprise me if people sell the defective ones on ebay.0 -
ShelliesTrying wrote: »I updated my weight and it dropped me 200 calories. I was still losing with what it was set at so that kind of put a damper on things but I couldn't figure out how to change it back.
You have probably set yourself to lose at 2lbs a week. And you are probably set as sedentary when in fact you aren't.
So even through at your new, lower weight, you burn less calories in a day, you are still showing steady weight losses.
MFP lowered your calories because you are telling it you want to follow a very aggressive deficit and it is trying to accommodate you by updating your goals based on your new weight.
The problem is not necessarily that MFP updated your goals based on your new weight. The problem is that your goals may be a bit on the aggressive side (as many new people's goals are).
Fitbit, when connected to MFP, will try to calculate your total daily energy expenditure. And it will send an adjustment to MFP based on the difference between what MFP guesses your TDEE to be and what Fitbit believes it to be.
Most people lose weight optimally when eating at a deficit of between 10% and 20% of their TDEE (if obese 25% off of their TDEE is generally speaking fine)... as long as the resulting net calories remain above BMR.0 -
Mine are connected. Try eating what it tells you to for a few weeks, and then lower/raise calories are necessary for your goals. The numbers have been accurate for me, so far.
If you link them, do not add exercise in MFP- that would be double dipping.
If the accounts are connected correctly, integration is working, and the correct times are entered for the exercise in MFP, all that will happen is that the MFP exercise will flow through and over-ride the Fitbit exercise and the net adjustment will not be affected.
What will happen though is that you will have picked MFP's estimate for that exercise as opposed to the Fitbit estimate for the same.
While many people claim that sometimes MFP exercise estimates are over-blown; very few people make similar claims for Fitbit's exercise estimates.
A fitbit group exists with a very useful FAQ: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
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I am pretty sure that if you want to record your walks specifically you can use the Fitbit app's mobile run function as long as you bring your phone with you. You click on exercise, then the little stopwatch icon in the upper right corner and then hit track and it will use your phones GPS to measure steps, actual distance, pace and total time and will estimate calories as it always does but perhaps more accurately as it has an accurate distance and pace measure. Only thing it won't have is heart rate info. You'll be able to go back and review your stats in a handy lists and see what your exercise walks are contributing to overall stats. If you bought it because you are trying to incorporate more activity and actual sustained walks into your life, you might want to use this feature. It will let you see what you gain by doing a 30 min walk (for ex) and how much you progress in endurance and/or pace and that can be inspiring. Of course you can do that in Runkeeper too (that's where I doy runs) but if you're just walking it can be nice to have it all in one place. For just everyday walking as part of your life, what you have is fine and will push you to move more in general, which is as or more important than dedicated exercise0
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ShelliesTrying wrote: »I updated my weight and it dropped me 200 calories. I was still losing with what it was set at so that kind of put a damper on things but I couldn't figure out how to change it back.
You have probably set yourself to lose at 2lbs a week. And you are probably set as sedentary when in fact you aren't.
So even through at your new, lower weight, you burn less calories in a day, you are still showing steady weight losses.
MFP lowered your calories because you are telling it you want to follow a very aggressive deficit and it is trying to accommodate you by updating your goals based on your new weight.
The problem is not necessarily that MFP updated your goals based on your new weight. The problem is that your goals may be a bit on the aggressive side (as many new people's goals are).
Fitbit, when connected to MFP, will try to calculate your total daily energy expenditure. And it will send an adjustment to MFP based on the difference between what MFP guesses your TDEE to be and what Fitbit believes it to be.
Most people lose weight optimally when eating at a deficit of between 10% and 20% of their TDEE (if obese 25% off of their TDEE is generally speaking fine)... as long as the resulting net calories remain above BMR.
Ok, I don't understand all of this. I think I have mine set to 1lb per week bc I didn't plan to tackle this aggressively. For me it is about learning how to eat healthy and getting past sugar cravings and the like. I started at around 265
and I am 5'9 (ish). I have lost 43lb in probably 110-120 days. I lost some weight bf I started logging and I have logged for 100 days as of today. It started at 1900(ish) calories and went down to 1750. I am fairly sedentary. I work 8-5 at a desk and then go home and work some more sitting. I haven't added exercise in for a few reasons. One of the reasons being I want to get the eating healthy to stick and two I am limited on time. I know everyone says "you have to make time" I will when I am ready. I don't do cheat days, I log everything. With the exception of a few days over the past 2 weeks I never exceed my calories. I have the S Health app on my phone which tracks steps but I don't carry my phone 24/7 so it's not really accurate and it I don't know how to equate xx steps into minutes walked even if I was logging exercise. I think I covered all your points! Thanks for the post.0 -
shadow2soul wrote: »ShelliesTrying wrote: »Does anyone have a FitBit linked to their MyFitnessPal? If so share your experience!
Yep. I use my Fitbit to determine calories out and MFP to log my calories consumed.
When I first started using a Fitbit (started with the Zip) and linked it to MFP, I discovered that I was so Sedentary that I would actually lose calories with MFP set to Sedentary. Only with exercise would I meet what MFP expected a Sedentary person of my stats to burn in a 24 hour period. Which is really sad when you think about it.
I have used both the Flex and Zip. Both underestimated my TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure/24 hr calorie burn) by about 200 calories a day on average. Which was nice, because it meant I could eat all the calories I was given and still lose slightly faster than what I was aiming for.
I am now using the Fitbit Surge. I love it, but I also realize it is not easily affordable. For people who want the HR, I typically suggest going with the ChargeHR. My calorie burn from the Surge seems to be about spot on right now (maintaining my loss will be the true test).
As for what is sent over-
Fitbit sends MFP : weight (if tracked in Fitbit), steps, total calories burned as of last sync, sleep minutes (if tracked), BF% (if tracked in Fitbit)
MFP sends Fitbit : weight (if tracked in MFP), any exercise logged into exercise diary, and calories consumed
**Things like the elliptical, and swimming need to be manually logged. When you link your Fitbit to MFP, MFP will say to manually log exercise here, but it doesn't matter. Where you log the exercise that Fitbit can't track is up to you. I personally prefer to leave all my exercise logging to my Fitbit account.ShelliesTrying wrote: »It was only $40 so if I like it and feel like it's beneficial I will upgrade later on.
Did you buy it new or used?
I'm only asking because you could actually end up getting a defective Flex if you bought it used. I say this, because my first Flex was defective, Fitbit sent me a new one and didn't request the defective one back (left it up to me to get rid of it properly). Since Fitbit does that sometimes, it wouldn't surprise me if people sell the defective ones on ebay.
It is used. I cannot afford a new one at this point and assuming this one works it will give me an idea if this is something worth investing in later on. Fingers crossed.0 -
I am looking into a charge HR, so basically if I link it from reading all of these posts it will just log my exercise automatically?
And the calories will show as exercise?
The same as if I were to manually enter calories burned?
I'm hearing about it lowering calories instead of adding calories. I do not eat my "exercise calories" anyways, but I wouldn't wanna see it going lower.0 -
I am looking into a charge HR, so basically if I link it from reading all of these posts it will just log my exercise automatically?
And the calories will show as exercise?
The same as if I were to manually enter calories burned?
I'm hearing about it lowering calories instead of adding calories. I do not eat my "exercise calories" anyways, but I wouldn't wanna see it going lower.
Ash... If you have a seriously lazy day, it does detract calories from you. It's not a bad thing. Saves you eating more than you should be for that day.0
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