Is anyone else doing this?

ahmshaki

I bought a Fitbit Zip (step tracker only) a week ago and have found it so much helpful. I haven't linked it to MFP, and I don't think there is a need to do that.

Fitbit shows the total calories I burn during the 24 hours based on the information I the Fitbit in the settings for my Hight, weight, age and gender.

I use MFP to track the food calories.

I look at both Fitbit and MFP and make sure I'm in a deficit.

Fitbit zip for total calorie burn
MFP for total calorie in.

maxit

I use fitbit for activity and mfp for food - linking them is easy and helpful for me.

thunder1982

I link them too. I track deliberate exercise (I have a surge so I choose whatever I am doing on the screen). I track calories in MFP. Fitbit syncs with MFP to give me any additional exercise calories. I am set to sedentary in MFP as I have a desk job. I usually get a couple of hundred calories as a positive adj to daily calorie goal as I just fall into the lightly active category during the week. Weekends I am often really active but can sometimes have that really lazy day where I read a lot or like yesterday end up working at a desk for hours.

I tend to monitor my weight using fitbit as my scales sync to my computer (and MFP) and I like the graphs there. My phone app gives me a weekly average too which is nice to see. I dont really like the food tracker thing on Fitbit plus the food data base here was better than when I tried the fitbit one.

Measurements I track on MFP.

So I am a bit all over the shop, each has its strengths and weaknesses on their own but together for me it works really well.

Sued0nim

It's rather like buying a TV and putting the remote control in a kitchen drawer so you have to change channels by getting up and pressing buttons on the TV

Slightly inconvenient, overcomplicated, will work but makes your life harder

Asher_Ethan

If you wanted a fitbit for step counter only, you know there are free apps on your smart phone that do the same thing, yes?

Maxematics

I link my Fitbit with MFP. As others have stated, not doing so makes little sense. You're not really using your Fitbit to its full capacity otherwise.

ziggy2006

What benefits do you experience by not linking them? I like having the information regarding my calories consumed and expended in one place, so I prefer to have them linked. I hadn't really thought about not linking them - that is an interesting approach.

beemerphile1

ahmshaki wrote: »

...Fitbit shows the total calories I burn during the 24 hours based on the information I the Fitbit in the settings for my Hight, weight, age and gender....

If it helps you on your journey that is a good thing. However, Fitbit ESTIMATES your burn, it doesn't SHOW your burn.

BoaRestrictor

Yes. I have fitbit flex, I use my fit bit to see what I burn and MFP to see what I ate. It's not hard. I'd rather do that then sync, cause syncing is a headache and a half.

jemhh

ahmshaki wrote: »

I bought a Fitbit Zip (step tracker only) a week ago and have found it so much helpful. I haven't linked it to MFP, and I don't think there is a need to do that.

Fitbit shows the total calories I burn during the 24 hours based on the information I the Fitbit in the settings for my Hight, weight, age and gender.

I use MFP to track the food calories.

I look at both Fitbit and MFP and make sure I'm in a deficit.

Fitbit zip for total calorie burn
MFP for total calorie in.

I have my Zip linked to MFP.
I log my food on MFP.
I log my non-step exercise on Fitbit.
I track my steps on Fitbit.
I keep an eye on my calories over/under to stay within the zone to lose a pound a week on the Fitbit dashboard.
It has been working really well for me.
My MFP diary looks like a bit of a mess but I am just ignoring it.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

H4N4H wrote: »

Yes. I have fitbit flex, I use my fit bit to see what I burn and MFP to see what I ate. It's not hard. I'd rather do that then sync, cause syncing is a headache and a half.

I don't get why it is a headache? Mine syncs it's self, I don't do anything.

jemhh

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »

H4N4H wrote: »

Yes. I have fitbit flex, I use my fit bit to see what I burn and MFP to see what I ate. It's not hard. I'd rather do that then sync, cause syncing is a headache and a half.

I don't get why it is a headache? Mine syncs it's self, I don't do anything.

I am guessing that the syncing part is a headache when the syncing doesn't work right. My Fitbit/MFP sync has been a mess since I got it in late January, in the sense that it never looks right when I look at my MFP diary. It might correct itself a day or two after the fact but that's not helpful. Now, like I said above, I sync it so that my MFP food entries flow over into the Fitbit dashboard because that's what I'm watching now to see if I'm on point calorie-wise during the day. But if it wasn't for my months/years of history logging on MFP (including saved meals and recipes) I probably wouldn't even log my food on here at this point.

wonderchu

Yep, I do this. I actually manually log any Fitbit calorie burn over my MFP maintenace TDEE as exercise on here, so I can see the deficit more plainly.