Fitbit users - negative adjustment or not?

ebouchie

segacs wrote: »

To clarify: Negative calorie adjustments are only relevant if you burn fewer calories than your MFP base activity level.

For instance, let's say you've set MFP to "lightly active" and it estimates you should be burning 1800 calories every day just from your normal daily activity. If, by midnight, your Fitbit has logged fewer than 1800 calories, you'll get a negative adjustment for the day.

The Fitbit adjustment may go up and down throughout the day due to the way it syncs. But if you burn more than 1800 calories every day, negative adjustments won't be relevant.

If you've set MFP to sedentary, it's pretty unlikely you'll ever have a negative-adjustment day (unless you end up in a coma or are really ill and bedridden, for instance). If you set MFP to a higher activity level, you could have days when you're simply less active than usual and you do see negative adjustments.

Excellent explanation! I no longer use my Fitbit since I won my Apple Watch but I suspect it works the same.

Alidecker

jeepinshawn wrote: »

I always turn on negative adjustments, although pretty much the only time I see one is first thing in the morning.

This is how it works for me too, by the end of the day I am good, even if I don't do a structured workout, I still get some added calories. Having a dog to walk everyday seems to help that

earlnabby

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

Situations where you may as well turn it off:

• If you are consistent in daily steps
• If you sync later in the day.The Fitbit site even suggests turning it off if you only sync late in the day
• If you use MFP's NEAT method to calculate calories and you have your activity level set to sedentary.

When you definitely want them turned on:

• If you have your activity level set higher than sedentary
• If you are eating to TDEE instead of NEAT

ncfitbit

I didn't use to enable negative adjustments because I used to use the TDEE method with a custom calorie goal and ignored any exercise calories added by MFP or fitbit. However, I realized I was probably overestimating my expenditure and it varied too much by day so I switched back to a dynamic calorie goal based on lightly active. However, I've quickly saw that on days when I'm super wiped from a tough cardio session early on in the day I would tempted to really rest later in the day (a nice nap sounds good sometimes!) and enabling negative adjustment is really what keeps me from just parking myself on the couch because I don't like to see my hard work dwindle away!

earlnabby

ncfitbit wrote: »

I didn't use to enable negative adjustments because I used to use the TDEE method with a custom calorie goal and ignored any exercise calories added by MFP or fitbit. However, I realized I was probably overestimating my expenditure and it varied too much by day so I switched back to a dynamic calorie goal based on lightly active. However, I've quickly saw that on days when I'm super wiped from a tough cardio session early on in the day I would tempted to really rest later in the day (a nice nap sounds good sometimes!) and enabling negative adjustment is really what keeps me from just parking myself on the couch because I don't like to see my hard work dwindle away!

Whether you set negative calories or not, you will have calories earned taken away if you work out in the morning and sit around the rest of the day. The difference is that with not having negative calories enabled you never go less than zero added calories.

kuroshii

rockmama72 wrote: »

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.

Me too! When I'm in the office I'll get 5k-7k steps hardly trying, but days I work from home I become a complete lump if I'm not careful.