Fitbit

Gemzzz12

I've been meaning to ask this for a while.

I've noticed people logging daily activity such as walking about using a fitbit. Then eating it back in calories. The there are others who don't.

In terms of accurate logging, which is best? I thought general activity isn't counted as exercise. Otherwise without a fitbit you would have to calculate all of your movements and that would be ridiculous, especially if your main mode of transport is walking.

Thanks!

pariskathryn

I have my mfp activity set to sedentary so it adjusts when I'm more active- on lazy days it doesn't really add anything, but there are days where I'm certainly not sedentary (either from a lot of general activity or from running). I eat back some of the calories (I aim for 50%). I lose more weight when I do it this way, but that's probably moreso because the more I am able to eat the less likely I am to eat "calories that don't count" (but that actually do) like sneaking bites of my husband's pizza.

Maxematics

I have a Fitbit Charge HR. It reports my calorie burns to MFP. I set myself as sedentary on MFP when I'm not, so the adjustment from Fitbit earns me extra calories to eat. Yes, I eat all of them most of the time. If I didn't, I'd lose weight too fast.

The difference between Fitbit and manual exercise logging is this. Say I set myself as "Very Active" on MFP. I walk for three hours straight that day on top of my normal activities. If I log "Walking, 3.5 mph, 180 minutes" I could very well be double dipping into the extra calories I get from MFP by setting my daily activity level as Very Active. With Fitbit and the same 180 minute walk, it will not report any extra calories for me to eat on MFP unless I've very well passed the highly active threshold I've reported for myself, hence no double dipping. I hope that makes sense.

Gemzzz12

Thanks! That does make sense.

DonaldBlinks

I think I heard somewhere too that it only adds activity beyond what it would expect you to use on a normal day based on how you set your activity level. So like if you set your level at "active" it might expect you to take 10,000 steps and it wouldn't add calories until you go beyond those steps (those are just an estimate, I don't know the actual numbers)

...also that's just something I've heard, I'm not sure if it's true. But I've had my level set to "lightly active" and "sedentary" and I ended up with similar total calorie numbers for the day so that would make sense.

shadow2soul

Fitbit only gives you calories on MFP when your Fitbit calorie burn is going to be higher than MFP's estimate based on your activity level.

Example:
I have MFP set to Lightly Active.
Before exercise MFP thinks I burn 1810 calories per day which breaks down to roughly 75 cals an hour and 1.2 cals per minute.

As of 8:48 am, Fitbit has told MFP that I have burned 497 calories. MFP adds 75 calories for every hour left in my day and 1.2 for each of the 12 mins it would take to finish out the hour that Fitbit reported in. Based on those numbers MFP predicts that Fitbit will say I have burned 1649 calories by the end of the day.

The adjustment math is then
1649 (Fitbit) - 1810 (MFP) = -161 calories

In this case MFP will take away calories. It won't take away the full 161 because that would take me below the minimum of 1200 calories.

Each time I sync the math will be re-evaluated.

It also goes the other way. On Thursday for example, my Fitbit calorie burn was 2607 calories. A 500 calorie deficit is 2107, so MFP adds in some calories to make up for the difference or my deficit would become 1297 for that day.