Would I get less of a negative adjustment if I had a wrist band instead of a zip?

xLyric

I have my zip on my bra, and I love it because it seems to be super accurate. The only issue is I avoid my bra like the plague when I'm in my own home (who wouldn't?). Because of this I'm worried that the zip thinks I'm dead sometimes. I think I read that after a certain amount of time unmoving, it assumes you're asleep? I'm wondering if this is what is sometimes giving me negative adjustments at the end of the day. I wake up, walk around my apartment, clean, etc, but while I'm home I'm mostly reading and doing schoolwork. Then I'll dress like a normal member of society and go out and do whatever for the day, which is usually fairly active.

I guess my real question should be; what does Fitbit truly consider sedentary? From what I understand, I told Fitbit to count me as sedentary, and now Fitbit is telling me through negative adjustments that I'm even worse than that. I'd believe that. But I'm also curious if it's just assuming I don't wake up until I've had my weekly hibernation. It makes me consider a wrist band so it knows I'm conscious, but I worry about arm movement lending itself to step count inaccuracies. Does being asleep vs. awake but having little movement make a difference at all?

Just so I hopefully avoid the "just get off you're lazy bum" comments, I do walk daily and the negative adjustments turn positive. Yay! I just walk later in the day, so watching the calories dwindle made me curious. (I did read the FAQ, but if I'm ignoring the exact section that would answer this question please let me know!)

NancyN795

When your Fitbit isn't moving it assumes BMR level calorie burn - i.e. asleep. You don't HAVE to wear it on your bra. You can clip it to your waistband or stick it in your pocket or clip it to some other piece of clothing. You're kind of SOL if you do all that walking around the apartment, cleaning, etc. in the nude, though.

However, if you want a wrist worn tracker, don't fret about extra steps from arm movement. If they couldn't mostly filter out arm movements, wrist worn trackers wouldn't have become a thing. I had a One before I got my Charge HR and my step count didn't change significantly when I switched trackers. The only thing that has increased my step count by an appreciable amount is increased activity and I can thank Fitbit for the motivation to do that.

It's normal to start the day with a negative adjustment, even if you've got MFP set to Sedentary. That's because Fitbit and MFP use different ways to calculate things. MFP assumes that your expected calorie burn for your activity level will be spread evenly throughout the day. So, while you're sleeping you burn less than expected. If you then get up but don't wear your tracker, the adjustment will get more negative. If you get up and wear your tracker, but don't move much, then the adjustment may still get more negative, but probably not as much. I can attest to the fact that, for me, that negative number in the morning is an incentive to exercise earlier rather than later.

Christine_72

Just clip it on your pants. As for the bra thing, I'm the opposite.. I even sleep in mine as i can NOT stand the feeling of my boobs flopping around! I should elaborate the main reason I sleep in it is so I'm not fumbling around in the morning in the dark trying to clip it up lol

heybales

Zip doesn't do sleep either, so that's why Nancy's comment applies about BMR level burn.

But that is used anytime no steps are seen.

That Sedentary option on Fitbit is merely for them to guess at daily burn and per minute burn in absence of any actual syncs from device. It's barely above BMR, like 1.04 or such.

But if your device syncs - that doesn't apply.
And if MFP is doing daily eating goal - that doesn't matter.

True - if you went all day and did not sync until dinner - like I do - your adjustments through the day would be negative. I don't even look, it's useless incorrect info - why bother.
Oh, and it's MFP doing that - not Fitbit. Fitbit is merely reporting to MFP what it's got, either from actual device syncs, or estimated based on that Sedentary setting.
And it's because of what Nancy describes.

MFP at 1.25 x BMR vs Fitbit at 1.05 x BMR.

If no device syncs occur - MFP will always be giving negative.