Fitbit users - negative adjustment or not?

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entwife
entwife Posts: 134 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Fitbit users, do you prefer to select the negative adjustment or not? and why?

Sorry if this is in the wrong area, I wasn't sure where to put it
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Replies

  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
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    Yeah turn it on, why wouldn't you?

    Leaving it off means if your inactive it will show 0 instead of negative 200 and you might over eat.

  • 7lenny7
    7lenny7 Posts: 3,493 Member
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    I agree, turn it on.
  • thunder1982
    thunder1982 Posts: 280 Member
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    Mine's turned on but since I have a desk job I put sedentary as my activity level. I've never actually had a negative adjustment as a result.
  • entwife
    entwife Posts: 134 Member
    edited October 2015
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    Merkavar wrote: »
    Yeah turn it on, why wouldn't you?

    Leaving it off means if your inactive it will show 0 instead of negative 200 and you might over eat.
    Why wouldn't I? Well... it used to be on but the other night I wanted a glass of wine so I switched it off again :D
    Its got a negative again today but I won't be turning it off. o:)

    Was just interested to hear what others choose to do :)

  • entwife
    entwife Posts: 134 Member
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    thunder1982 wrote: »
    Mine's turned on but since I have a desk job I put sedentary as my activity level. I've never actually had a negative adjustment as a result.
    That makes sense. But my activity varies a lot. Some days I'm desk-bound and do 4-5k steps, other days I'm easily hitting 10-12k

    Does it matter what I have my step goal set to? Or does MFP just pull that figure based on actual activity on the fitbit?

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    entwife wrote: »
    Fitbit users, do you prefer to select the negative adjustment or not? and why?

    Sorry if this is in the wrong area, I wasn't sure where to put it

    I leave it off, to reduce the mathematical noise. It would only kick in on days where I left the thing at home (like yesterday) or knew I had been very inactive.
  • LovingLife_Erin
    LovingLife_Erin Posts: 328 Member
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    I don't have mine on. I'm set to sedentary, and very very rarely don't get enough activity to get a positive adjustment (like every 3-4 months if I'm I'll, in which case a few extra calories may be needed). If for whatever reason I eat to my goal and didn't get any negative adjustments when I should have, I'll still be in a deficit so it won't cause harm. Eating at a smaller deficit once in a while is fine with me. If your activity varies, or your mfp settings aren't on sedentary then it makes sense to turn it on.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited October 2015
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    I prefer it enabled, that way IF I have a day I move less I know to eat less. Mine is set to active so the only day I get calories taken away is Sunday/rest day when I only do 7 -10k steps.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    Yes I have mine on. I have a desk job but pre exercise I typically average about 8k steps a day.

    I also have my activity level set at sedentary even tho I am not but based on my understanding if you are using an activity tracker for calorie adjustments you should set your activity level to sedentary and use negative adjustments to get "true" results.

    Not sure if that is fact...I had my activity level set to "lightly active" and no negative adjustments it just meant I didn't get an adjustment before i hit 5k steps.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    SezxyStef wrote: »
    Yes I have mine on. I have a desk job but pre exercise I typically average about 8k steps a day.

    I also have my activity level set at sedentary even tho I am not but based on my understanding if you are using an activity tracker for calorie adjustments you should set your activity level to sedentary and use negative adjustments to get "true" results.

    Not sure if that is fact...I had my activity level set to "lightly active" and no negative adjustments it just meant I didn't get an adjustment before i hit 5k steps.

    @SezxyStef I've tried the sedentary versus the active adjustments - they both end up equalling same overall total - you just get less cals burned with exercise if set to active whereas with sedentary its a HUGE burn ...same difference :smiley: . It depends on the person and if they like to see high burns from exercise/steps :smile:
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    Yes I have mine on. I have a desk job but pre exercise I typically average about 8k steps a day.

    I also have my activity level set at sedentary even tho I am not but based on my understanding if you are using an activity tracker for calorie adjustments you should set your activity level to sedentary and use negative adjustments to get "true" results.

    Not sure if that is fact...I had my activity level set to "lightly active" and no negative adjustments it just meant I didn't get an adjustment before i hit 5k steps.

    @SezxyStef I've tried the sedentary versus the active adjustments - they both end up equalling same overall total - you just get less cals burned with exercise if set to active whereas with sedentary its a HUGE burn ...same difference :smiley: . It depends on the person and if they like to see high burns from exercise/steps :smile:

    Yah that's what I figured actually...there really is no right or wrong way with a tracker just what you are comfortable with.

    I like seeing the burns...hehe
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    @SezxyStef thats what I thought :smiley: and I feel as if I'm cheating if I see too high a burn, but maybe I'm just weird/odd lol
  • thankyou4thevenom
    thankyou4thevenom Posts: 1,581 Member
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    entwife wrote: »
    thunder1982 wrote: »
    Mine's turned on but since I have a desk job I put sedentary as my activity level. I've never actually had a negative adjustment as a result.
    That makes sense. But my activity varies a lot. Some days I'm desk-bound and do 4-5k steps, other days I'm easily hitting 10-12k

    Does it matter what I have my step goal set to? Or does MFP just pull that figure based on actual activity on the fitbit?

    I would suggest setting your activity on here to sedentary. On your work days you might get a little negative adjustment but on your days where you're doing 10k in steps you'll get a lovely bump in calories.

    Also remember if for some reason you do go over one day due to a negative adjustment you can take that off another dats calories. As long as you're under over the whole week you'll still lose.
  • nyponbell
    nyponbell Posts: 379 Member
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    I have it on, but I also have my activity level set lower than I need to. I do get negative adjustments whenever I sync during the day. I tend to not sync until the evening though, for that reason (and because I don't want too positive adjustments that are later reduced and making me go over).
  • rockmama72
    rockmama72 Posts: 815 Member
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    I'm set to sedentary with negative adjustments. I work from home and can be really lazy!

    I like the idea of earning all my extra calories--it makes it sort of a game.
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
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    Merkavar wrote: »
    Yeah turn it on, why wouldn't you?

    Leaving it off means if your inactive it will show 0 instead of negative 200 and you might over eat.

    I leave it off because MFP would give me 1200 calories and I'd rather not eat 1200 calories. So I have a minimum that I eat, it's still a deficit if I don't get in a workout, just not a very big one.
  • soapsandropes
    soapsandropes Posts: 269 Member
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    I don't have it on. I try to maintain an active lifestyle so for me it doesn't factor into my "exercise" it is just getting up and moving around.
  • krithsai
    krithsai Posts: 668 Member
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    The whole point of the Fitbit for me is to give me an accurate gauge of how much I've moved that day. With a desk job, it's very easy for me to only do like 3k steps a day. Enabling negative adjustments is a good reality check and reminds me to use my Bluetooth head set and walk around while taking phone calls.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    edited October 2015
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    If you always get a positive adjustment, then enabling negative does not matter. It only matters if your actual activity level is less than your stated activity level.

    Example: you tell MFP you're light active, and MFP estimates you will burn 2000 cals a day based on that. But tomorrow you're a slug, only walk 1500 steps in your day, and your Fitbit says you burned 1700. If you do not have negative enabled, you may eat more than you need for such days.

    If you always - or almost always - burn more, then Fitbit gives you a positive adjustment. If the slow day is an oddity, then eating a few hundred calories 'extra' every now and then will probably not derail your progress. Or just mentally know on those days to adjust.

    Personally I have the negative 'on' because it shows me if I'm ahead or behind schedule. I'm always behind schedule in the morning - and know what I need to do to end up where I want.
    entwife wrote: »
    Fitbit users, do you prefer to select the negative adjustment or not? and why?

    Sorry if this is in the wrong area, I wasn't sure where to put it

  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    Turn on negative, for sure. If it's off, then you could be over-eating on the days when you're less active than usual.

    But if you're getting big negative adjustments regularly, you should drop your activity level in MFP to a lower level. For instance, if you're at "active", move to "lightly active". Then you should see fewer negative and more positive adjustments.

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