Can someone explain how the fit bit works with this app?

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pittmanclan545
pittmanclan545 Posts: 22 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I added my fit bit. Will the steps and calories show up on the myfitness pal app? I typically walk 20,000 steps a day and anywhere from 1700-2000 calories burned daily. Do I enter this manually? Does this get synced to the app? I'm not seeing anything like this on the app now.

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  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    If you sync your account, you will begin to see adjustments when your daily activity burns more calories than the activity level you set for your MFP account would estimate.

    Example: I chose "Sedentary" and I have a goal of 1,460 calories a day. When I move more than the "Sedentary" level would estimate that I would, I begin to see adjustments and get more calories. If I move less than this, I get calories deducted (since I have negative adjustments enabled on my account). If I move exactly as much as the estimate, it stays the same.

    I don't enter anything manually. I don't see my individual workouts, I just see the adjustment. I don't get a total calories burnt (although I can see that on my Fitbit page), I just see the calories that have been added to my daily goal.
  • pittmanclan545
    pittmanclan545 Posts: 22 Member
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    Do you see the steps ? I have 0/10000 steps showing on my MFP app but I have 5000 steps on my fit bit. How do I get them to sync? Or don't they??
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    pittmanclan545 wrote: »
    Do you see the steps ? I have 0/10000 steps showing on my MFP app but I have 5000 steps on my fit bit. How do I get them to sync? Or don't they??

    It doesn't sync the steps -- it makes an activity adjustment based on the steps once you move more than your activity level would have estimated. If I want to see how many steps I have taken, I refer to Fitbit. If I want to know how my calorie goals have changed for the day due to my activity, I refer to MFP.
  • fraserkr
    fraserkr Posts: 110 Member
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    pittmanclan545 wrote: »
    Do you see the steps ? I have 0/10000 steps showing on my MFP app but I have 5000 steps on my fit bit. How do I get them to sync? Or don't they??

    the steps don't show in MFP. You'll get add'l calories from exercise. See exercise page. There's a group here on MFP for FitBit users. You might find more information in that group.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    Make sure that Fitbit is selected for your step count in the MFP app.
    There has been a glitch though that is hitting some users. MFP is aware and looking into it. Basically some of us aren't getting adjustments and the steps aren't showing up in the app under our daily goals like they should.

    How it typically works:

    Fitbit sends MFP Steps, Calories burned, weight, bf%, and sleep minutes.
    MFP sends Fitbit weight, logged food and logged exercise.

    Steps, BF%, Sleep Minutes and weight will show up under the check in area on the website.

    Steps, BF%, Sleep Minutes and weight should be under the progress section of the app.

    Steps should also display on your app home page under calories.

    You get extra calories when your Fitbit burn looks like it will exceed MFP's estimate by the end of the day. Sedentary on MFP will get you the biggest adjustment and your adjustment is less likely to decrease later in the day. Higher activity settings will get you smaller adjustments, but you are also likely to see it increase a bunch and then lose a chunk of it if you sit down for any length of time.
  • pittmanclan545
    pittmanclan545 Posts: 22 Member
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    Thank you for explaining Shadow.. but none of that is happening :( Steps are not showing.. neither are calories burned or even sleep! I have the fitbit connected but there isn't any syncing of information.

    So here is my data from yesterday.. maybe you could analyze/explain for me so I can do it myself going forward:

    MFP gave me a food goal of 1240. I consumed 778 calories. Yesterday was my day off from running so I only walked a little and manually input 158 calories from exercise. MFP said I had 620 calories remaining for the day.

    Fitbit data from yesterday was 10,657 steps , 1790 total calories burned.

    Now fitbit is showing the data from MFP so it showed that I had eaten 778 calories and still had 1012 calories left to consume.

    Maybe I should just follow what fitbit shows since MFP won't show the data???

    Lisa
  • kuroshii
    kuroshii Posts: 168 Member
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    There is an entire "Fitbit users" sub-group here on the forum with several threads including FAQ. The moderator there starts off with a fantastic explanation about how the syncing works.

    tl,dr; log your exercise only in fitbit. log your food only in MFP. Then only look at what MFP tells you as far as what you have left to eat (ignore what fitbit says).

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