fitbit exercise calories and activity level settings
dawnda1234
Posts: 22 Member
I just started maintenance and am using a fitbit synced to fitness pal to calculate my calories in vs out. I noticed the fitbit adding exercise calories for day to day running around activities as well as exercise. Should I change my fitness profile settings on fitness pal to sedentary even though I'm active so not to overestimate calories? I don't think I'm understanding how this all works.
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Replies
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It depend what activity level you're set to. You can set mfp status to sedentary & have Fitbit add extra calories once you get past about 3.5k steps, or set it at somewhat active & it will start adding calories at about 5k steps. As long as you're doing enough steps to get calories added (or have negative adjustments enabled) you 'll be fine.
I started off with mfp set to sedentary and let Fitbit do the amendments from there. I average about 12k steps so generally got about 3-400 calories added per day. I recently changed my status to 'somewhat active' just to get a higher starting calorie count, rather than having as much added in. It's a mental game really - for me, it allowed me to feel less deprived seeing a higher number there at the start of the day, rather than having to earn it. I still do as many steps anyway, so it hasn't made me lazier2 -
Either set MFP to sedentary and use FitBit calories
Or
Set MFP to active and do not allow calorie adjustment.
I'd go with option 1 as long as it seems to give you reasonable results.0 -
Thank you! What is negative adjustments exactly? Can I set myself at sedentary and enable negative adjustments?0
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Hang on hang on. Before you start changing settings... the FitBit tracks your total calorie burn from all your activity, not just exercise. If you are seeing exercise adjustments, it just means that FitBit says you are burning more calories than MFP estimated you should be burning in a day. It doesn't only give you an adjustment if you exercise.
Using myself as an example, I'm also in maintenance, 5'2 and 120 lbs. When I started on MFP I was set at sedentary because I had a desk job and I wasn't exercising regularly. After the first 6 months I got a FitBit and had worked up to regular exercise (mostly walking) and was averaging 10k steps/day. My exercise adjustments were really big 400-600 or more. I came on these boards and got the good advice that 10k steps/day isn't sedentary, it's probably more lightly active. So I changed my activity setting to that, got a higher base calorie target, and smaller exercise adjustments which I liked better because I wanted those adjustments to be representative of my purposeful exercise. Over the next couple of years I've steadily increased my activity as I lost weight and am now maintaining. I now average 15k steps/day and do circuit training 3 times a week. I've changed my activity to Active as a result.
In maintenance, MFP estimates my NEAT calories (not including exercise) to be 1860. FitBit says my average total calories burned (TDEE) is around 2200, so my adjustments are usually around 300 cals or so. If I have a lighter day like Monday, when I was home with a sick kid and barely hit my 10k steps, I only got about a 50 cal adjustment. I have negative calorie adjustments enabled so if I were truly not moving as much as normal, MFP would deduct cals from my baseline so that I didn't eat as much.
I've found the two systems to work quite well together but you need to give it some time for FitBit to predict your activity and burn and for you to understand how to sync them up.
But if you're concerned that you are seeing adjustments for things that aren't exercise, changing your setting to sedentary is the worst thing you can do since you are very active (as you said initially). You'll see even bigger adjustments for things you think aren't exercise.6 -
Thank you so much. I am 45, 145 pounds. I do an hour of weight training 3 days a week, 40 to 50 minutes of moderate cardio a day and a half hour walk most evenings. Also, I am averaging 16,000-20,000 steps a day. The lightly active setting gives me around 1840 calories + between 600 and 1000 exercise calories a day from the fitbit. Does this sound right or should I up my activity to moderate?0
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dawnda1234 wrote: »Thank you so much. I am 45, 145 pounds. I do an hour of weight training 3 days a week, 40 to 50 minutes of moderate cardio a day and a half hour walk most evenings. Also, I am averaging 16,000-20,000 steps a day. The lightly active setting gives me around 1840 calories + between 600 and 1000 exercise calories a day from the fitbit. Does this sound right or should I up my activity to moderate?
I would increase activity to "active" or "very active" with what you're describing. You'll have more cals to start with but smaller adjustments.
How long have you had the FitBit and had it synced with MFP? You said you're maintaining, did you previously lose weight and just now transitioned to maintenance?
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I have lost 120 pounds naturally through diet and exercise. I started maintenance the first November and co time continued to loose 6 pounds because I was freaking out about eating my exercise calories. A friend suggested the fitbit to track calories in vs calories out. I have had it for a week and a half. I also log my food meticulously.1
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I had to read your post over again slowly, (Winogelato) but I finally get it. That calorie adjustment enabling is pretty cool. Thanks for your patience. I think fitness pal and fitbit are the best thing to ever happen to diet and fitness. I can eat healthy and indulge guilt free from time to time. I love being able to track my carb and protein macros. I am so confident that I can keep the weight of. It' s simply life changing.6
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dawnda1234 wrote: »I have lost 120 pounds naturally through diet and exercise. I started maintenance the first November and co time continued to loose 6 pounds because I was freaking out about eating my exercise calories. A friend suggested the fitbit to track calories in vs calories out. I have had it for a week and a half. I also log my food meticulously.
Wow congratulations on such a great loss! Transitioning to maintenance can be a little frightening, but you're right, tools like MFP and FitBit make it a lot easier to understand exactly what you need to do in order to keep that weight off. So the FitBit is relatively new for you? I definitely would recommend giving it a few weeks to sort of adjust to your patterns, but I've found mine to be very accurate, it helped me lose the last 15 lbs and keep off the 30 or so lbs that I lost for the last couple of years. It's reassuring to know that I can eat up to X amount without gaining weight back, and that if I do happen to gain a bit back, I know exactly what I need to do in order to get it back off.
Good luck!0 -
I'm a brand new Fitbit user. I synced my Fitbit to MFP. I have manually entered my calorie goal into MFP and I don't want the calorie adjustments. I'm set at sedentary. If I change my activity level will that then add less Fitbit exercise calories? I'm at my own entered goal because I'm using my data and am slowly increasing calories as I approach maintenance. I eat 1850 calories a day, am 5'6 and 154 pounds.0
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Yes, definitely go to sedentary and take all the calories it gives you. I used fitbit for 3 years (I now have an apple watch). It worked very well for me.0
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I agree with @nxd10. I have MFP set to sedentary with negative adjustments enabled, even though I range from lightly active to active on any given day. I then (usually) eat about half of the calorie adjustment it gives me. I've found it works very well, and I never have to worry on a less active day that I'll eat over my calories because I start out with the lowest amount available.0
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I agree with @nxd10. I have MFP set to sedentary with negative adjustments enabled, even though I range from lightly active to active on any given day. I then (usually) eat about half of the calorie adjustment it gives me. I've found it works very well, and I never have to worry on a less active day that I'll eat over my calories because I start out with the lowest amount available.
I think it's just a matter of preference. This OP seemed put off by getting exercise adjustments that weren't truly exercise - changing your activity level to sedentary when she's far from it is going to make that even worse.
I also prefer to use a higher activity level setting for myself that I feel is representative of my consistent numbers, so that I have a higher baseline to begin with but smaller exercise adjustments. I do have negative calories enabled so that if I do have a day where I'm not moving (long road trips or illness are usually the only reasons I don't hit at least 10K steps) then I do get less calories to work with.
I also have seen comments from new FitBit users who waited till the end of the day to "use" their exercise calories, and if someone is set at sedentary and gets big adjustments they may have >500 cals to use and that can be overwhelming. That's another reason I wanted them built into my baseline so that I use the calories for meals throughout the day and not tempted to spend them ALL on ice cream and wine...
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WinoGelato wrote: »I agree with @nxd10. I have MFP set to sedentary with negative adjustments enabled, even though I range from lightly active to active on any given day. I then (usually) eat about half of the calorie adjustment it gives me. I've found it works very well, and I never have to worry on a less active day that I'll eat over my calories because I start out with the lowest amount available.
I think it's just a matter of preference. This OP seemed put off by getting exercise adjustments that weren't truly exercise - changing your activity level to sedentary when she's far from it is going to make that even worse.
I also prefer to use a higher activity level setting for myself that I feel is representative of my consistent numbers, so that I have a higher baseline to begin with but smaller exercise adjustments. I do have negative calories enabled so that if I do have a day where I'm not moving (long road trips or illness are usually the only reasons I don't hit at least 10K steps) then I do get less calories to work with.
I also have seen comments from new FitBit users who waited till the end of the day to "use" their exercise calories, and if someone is set at sedentary and gets big adjustments they may have >500 cals to use and that can be overwhelming. That's another reason I wanted them built into my baseline so that I use the calories for meals throughout the day and not tempted to spend them ALL on ice cream and wine...
Oh, I agree. For me, I don't care about seeing a big adjustment, and I sync my Fitbit throughout my day, so the total adjustment at end of day is never a surprise for me.0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »I agree with @nxd10. I have MFP set to sedentary with negative adjustments enabled, even though I range from lightly active to active on any given day. I then (usually) eat about half of the calorie adjustment it gives me. I've found it works very well, and I never have to worry on a less active day that I'll eat over my calories because I start out with the lowest amount available.
I think it's just a matter of preference. This OP seemed put off by getting exercise adjustments that weren't truly exercise - changing your activity level to sedentary when she's far from it is going to make that even worse.
I also prefer to use a higher activity level setting for myself that I feel is representative of my consistent numbers, so that I have a higher baseline to begin with but smaller exercise adjustments. I do have negative calories enabled so that if I do have a day where I'm not moving (long road trips or illness are usually the only reasons I don't hit at least 10K steps) then I do get less calories to work with.
I also have seen comments from new FitBit users who waited till the end of the day to "use" their exercise calories, and if someone is set at sedentary and gets big adjustments they may have >500 cals to use and that can be overwhelming. That's another reason I wanted them built into my baseline so that I use the calories for meals throughout the day and not tempted to spend them ALL on ice cream and wine...
Oh, I agree. For me, I don't care about seeing a big adjustment, and I sync my Fitbit throughout my day, so the total adjustment at end of day is never a surprise for me.
Same here. I sync my fitbit after every walk
And like I've said before, if i up my level to lightly active i get an extra 250 calories, i think.. But fitbit takes around 200 away every night no matter how many steps i get, so there's really no point.1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »I agree with @nxd10. I have MFP set to sedentary with negative adjustments enabled, even though I range from lightly active to active on any given day. I then (usually) eat about half of the calorie adjustment it gives me. I've found it works very well, and I never have to worry on a less active day that I'll eat over my calories because I start out with the lowest amount available.
I think it's just a matter of preference. This OP seemed put off by getting exercise adjustments that weren't truly exercise - changing your activity level to sedentary when she's far from it is going to make that even worse.
I also prefer to use a higher activity level setting for myself that I feel is representative of my consistent numbers, so that I have a higher baseline to begin with but smaller exercise adjustments. I do have negative calories enabled so that if I do have a day where I'm not moving (long road trips or illness are usually the only reasons I don't hit at least 10K steps) then I do get less calories to work with.
I also have seen comments from new FitBit users who waited till the end of the day to "use" their exercise calories, and if someone is set at sedentary and gets big adjustments they may have >500 cals to use and that can be overwhelming. That's another reason I wanted them built into my baseline so that I use the calories for meals throughout the day and not tempted to spend them ALL on ice cream and wine...
Oh, I agree. For me, I don't care about seeing a big adjustment, and I sync my Fitbit throughout my day, so the total adjustment at end of day is never a surprise for me.
Same here. I sync my fitbit after every walk
And like I've said before, if i up my level to lightly active i get an extra 250 calories, i think.. But fitbit takes around 200 away every night no matter how many steps i get, so there's really no point.
Christine as you know Fitbit gives you BMR for every moment you're inactive; MFP gives you BMR x 1.25 when you're set as sedentary.
So, when you go to sleep at night (or sit on the couch watching TV), you "lose" 0.25xBMR of your positive adjustment for the length of time your Fitbit recorded expenditures are below those MFP is expecting. (0.4 when set as lightly active, 0.6 active and 0.8 when set as very active).
The "EXERCISE" adjustment has nothing to do with exercise and is an accounting adjustment such that your MFP TDEE is equal to your TDEE as measured by Fitbit to the end of day.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »I agree with @nxd10. I have MFP set to sedentary with negative adjustments enabled, even though I range from lightly active to active on any given day. I then (usually) eat about half of the calorie adjustment it gives me. I've found it works very well, and I never have to worry on a less active day that I'll eat over my calories because I start out with the lowest amount available.
I think it's just a matter of preference. This OP seemed put off by getting exercise adjustments that weren't truly exercise - changing your activity level to sedentary when she's far from it is going to make that even worse.
I also prefer to use a higher activity level setting for myself that I feel is representative of my consistent numbers, so that I have a higher baseline to begin with but smaller exercise adjustments. I do have negative calories enabled so that if I do have a day where I'm not moving (long road trips or illness are usually the only reasons I don't hit at least 10K steps) then I do get less calories to work with.
I also have seen comments from new FitBit users who waited till the end of the day to "use" their exercise calories, and if someone is set at sedentary and gets big adjustments they may have >500 cals to use and that can be overwhelming. That's another reason I wanted them built into my baseline so that I use the calories for meals throughout the day and not tempted to spend them ALL on ice cream and wine...
Oh, I agree. For me, I don't care about seeing a big adjustment, and I sync my Fitbit throughout my day, so the total adjustment at end of day is never a surprise for me.
Same here. I sync my fitbit after every walk
And like I've said before, if i up my level to lightly active i get an extra 250 calories, i think.. But fitbit takes around 200 away every night no matter how many steps i get, so there's really no point.
Christine as you know Fitbit gives you BMR for every moment you're inactive; MFP gives you BMR x 1.25 when you're set as sedentary.
So, when you go to sleep at night (or sit on the couch watching TV), you "lose" 0.25xBMR of your positive adjustment for the length of time your Fitbit recorded expenditures are below those MFP is expecting. (0.4 when set as lightly active, 0.6 active and 0.8 when set as very active).
The "EXERCISE" adjustment has nothing to do with exercise and is an accounting adjustment such that your MFP TDEE is equal to your TDEE as measured by Fitbit to the end of day.
I go to bed around 7-8pm most nights so setting it to anything above sedentary just doesn't work for me. Thanks for the explanation Pav
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Another active user set to sedentary here. I prefer it that way so that if I have less active days, which are more common now that I am employed full time, my adjustments don't feel like I am going backwards. I eat small amounts of food throughout the workday in case I never get out of "sedentary" mode. If things work out, I walk a couple of hours after I get home, then enjoy my extra cals in the evening with my coffee.
As long as your numbers work and keep your weight stable, it's all good. :^)0 -
I have my MFP set to 'active', with negative calorie adjustments. I find it a good reminder that I need to move my butt if I actually want a decent dinner!2
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http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy/p1
First section touches on why you may prefer one setting over another - second section deals with the math to see what is happening, and how you adjust for it.
Or as @Christine_72 shows - she knows when she goes to bed at such a time, she better be in the green by 200 calories, to actually be on target by midnight.
If you go to bed about the same time - it's not hard to discover.
So then it's a matter of do you plan your day such you don't really require intra-day updates with how much you got left and can eat for meal and snack.
Or you plan little and need insight as to how much you'll have left come end of day, so more accuracy through the day is better.0
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