Conflicting activity levels

LessthanKris

I have my MFP activity level set to lightly active and my Fitbit level set to sedentary. Will this mess anything up? I get 10K steps most days of the week so I earn calories back but I want to make sure that number is right and not messed up since my levels are different between the two apps.

NancyN795

The Sedentary/Personalized setting in Fitbit is completely different than the activity level in MFP. So, nothing gets messed up if they're not the same. It's really just coincidence that both programs have something that can be set to "Sedentary".

In Fitbit, it just affects how many calories Fitbit estimates you can still eat that day. Setting it to "Personalized" has Fitbit take your activity history into account in the estimate while the "Sedentary" setting has it assume you'll spend the rest of the day in bed. I don't pay much attention to that in Fitbit anyway since I use MFP to tell me how much I can eat.

In MFP, it is supposed to reflect your normal, non-exercise, daily activity level. With a Fitbit (assuming negative adjustments are enabled), it shouldn't matter too much at the end of the day if you've selected the right level. However, an accurate activity level will result in smaller adjustments, which can make planning easier. The one catch is that if your MFP settings result in you starting the day with the minimum calories then the math that MFP uses to compute your adjustment doesn't work as expected. So, if that is the case, it is best to choose a higher activity level and/or a smaller rate of weight loss to get that starting calorie number higher.