Fitbit and MFP

ilovefastcarstoo
ilovefastcarstoo Posts: 115 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
i just synced my Fitbit with MFP. I'm curious how accurate my calorie adjustment is according to Fitbit.

Replies

  • kksmom1789
    kksmom1789 Posts: 281 Member
    I just synced mine this week I love it! I eat my 1200 calories and not all my exercise calories since I'm not sure how accurate it is and I've been losing all week long
    It's really so easy I don't log my exercise anymore and only log your food in MFP
    I wish I would of synced mine in January when I got my Fitbit
  • ilovefastcarstoo
    ilovefastcarstoo Posts: 115 Member
    kksmom1789 wrote: »
    I just synced mine this week I love it! I eat my 1200 calories and not all my exercise calories since I'm not sure how accurate it is and I've been losing all week long
    It's really so easy I don't log my exercise anymore and only log your food in MFP
    I wish I would of synced mine in January when I got my Fitbit

    Yay! I haven't been exercising too much but I would put barely any calories burned so I wouldn't go over. I worked my butt of today at work and my Fitbit synced in my diary and it claims I burned roughly 800 calories. So that's exciting. I'm still not sure how it figures all that out. So I ate some cals back and am still in deficit. Hopefully these coming weeks will show more loss :) I'm glad it's working good for you!
  • kksmom1789
    kksmom1789 Posts: 281 Member
    Mine also showed that I burned about 800 today the only exercise I do is I walk during my lunch break I ate back 300 calories
  • EddieP50
    EddieP50 Posts: 192 Member
    Here is a FAQ page on fitness apps with MFP
    What is Calorie Adjustment in My Exercise Diary Diary
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    I've been a Charge HR user since July. It brought me from 139 pounds to 109 pounds. Here are a few things I've noticed by using it/reading feedback from others:
    • Apparently the more overweight you are the more the calories earned tend to be inflated. Several overweight/obese users have said they gained weight by eating what Fitbit stated while users who are more fit have claimed Fitbit underestimated the calories they can eat. Then again, I wonder how much of this boils down to accurate logging and using a food scale. I take this information with a grain of salt. Observing your own data and making adjustments is the best resource.
    • I'm 5'3" and 114 pounds now as I'm currently bulking. Personally I'm gaining weight at a slower rate than I should be using Fitbit as a baseline. However, I use the "dominant" setting on my non-dominant hand and I tend to overestimate calories if I don't have the nutritional facts for something. When I workout and walk 18K+ steps, I get 900+ calories more to eat and it hasn't been a detriment to my weight loss or weight gain at all. I eat most of my extra calories back.
    • Setting your food plan to sedentary instead of personalized on Fitbit will stop the calorie adjustment from changing so much on MFP. When it's personalized, Fitbit projects your extra calories based on how active it expects you to be for the day. You may see you have 600 extra calories for the day, but if you sit for the rest of the day it can shoot down to 400. With the sedentary setting, you start with a lower amount of calories and earn calories throughout the day. I've found that much easier to deal with and there are no surprises.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Interesting @synacious , Thanks for posting :smile:
  • clark614
    clark614 Posts: 92 Member
    So, correct me if i am wrong. If i exercise on my elliptical while wearing my fitbit, i should not log that exercise because it will already be incorporated into MFP?
  • clark614
    clark614 Posts: 92 Member
    Also, Fitbit is giving me a lunch summary of 300 calories in addition to the 495 that i actually ate. How does that happen?
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    clark614 wrote: »
    Also, Fitbit is giving me a lunch summary of 300 calories in addition to the 495 that i actually ate. How does that happen?

    It just happens sometimes, don't know why. . Just delete the incorrect entry.

  • kksmom1789
    kksmom1789 Posts: 281 Member
    clark614 wrote: »
    So, correct me if i am wrong. If i exercise on my elliptical while wearing my fitbit, i should not log that exercise because it will already be incorporated into MFP?

    Yes I no longer log exercises

  • lemonychild
    lemonychild Posts: 654 Member
    i log only swimming, i find it accurate enough .... i'm not exactly sure of 100% precision but as you read the article you will see that the true number (and less of an estimate ) is at the end of the day
  • fifijoaney
    fifijoaney Posts: 21 Member
    I did find that it didn't accurately log my walks. If I say went out for a 30 min walk it would say I had burned 130 calories. Was a bit skeptical of this so started logging the walk on my fitbit so that the times matched up and it reduced it to around 60 calories burned which sounds much more sensible.

    I've found it brilliant for everything else. I'm not sure why it did this but it's a great motivator for me to move more and get as many steps as I can.

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