MFP and Fitbit steps

ksmommy5

I understand the whole calorie adjustment and the basics for logging exercise. Ive been wearing a fitbit for 3 days now (not doing anything different than when I was not wearing it) and its adjusting my calories like its supposed to (300 or 400 here or there) however its giving me an abundance amount of extra calories to consume. My normal goal is 1540 or so. I did a 400 calorie workout today plus my fitbit adjustment and its giving me back to 1700 AND I am -125 net calories. Its dinner in a few hours. I cant possible eat all these calories today. Should I turn off the step part on mfp?

gdsmit1

I've thought the same thing. I just leave it in place like it is. I like to see what it tracks. I try to stay under my daily allotment + exercise calories, but do not count the steps calories in that. if that makes sense.

It's all personal preference.

ksmommy5

I'm pretty sure it's the steps that it's adjusting because I log exercise in mfp but get a more accurate reading from fitbit so I just use those calories and deduct a bit. I've already adjusted 500 calories but some of that is from my workout today too. Maybe it's better to just turn off the step part?

manderson27

I wear a fitbit zip to count my steps but use the calorie count allotted to me by MFP.

eturtlet

I had to set my activity to sedentary for the calorie burn to be correct when using the Fitbit.

spicybaer

Unless you are doing an exercise in which the fitbit is not logging steps or activity I wouldn't log the exercise in MFP and just let it sync from the fitbit steps. That's the way I do it anyways. If I'm going to log exercise through MFP I take my fitbit off so that it is not tracking anything I am doing during that time. But that's just me

Gr8tDaneLover

eturtlet wrote: »

I had to set my activity to sedentary for the calorie burn to be correct when using the Fitbit.

But what if you are already Sedentary?

ksmommy5

spicybaer wrote: »

Unless you are doing an exercise in which the fitbit is not logging steps or activity I wouldn't log the exercise in MFP and just let it sync from the fitbit steps. That's the way I do it anyways. If I'm going to log exercise through MFP I take my fitbit off so that it is not tracking anything I am doing during that time. But that's just me

Ya it was a kettlebell class so barely any steps. I added it to mfp but overly underestimated just to be on the safe side.

kgirlhart

I think it is best to log all food in mfp and log all exercise in fitbit. That way you don't run the risk of double counting your exercise.

dmelvin3737

Something that I noticed immediately. MFP imports your workout automatically from Fitbit, even though it doesn't show up as a workout in MFP, it does count the calories burned during the workout.

It's not just the steps count that it brings in, but also the calories that you burn during your workout. The only way around this if you want to put your workouts into MFP only and be anywhere close to accurate is to not wear your fitbit during exercise.

OhMsDiva

when I had the fitbit charge, my numbers matched on fitbit and mfp. Every since I bought the charge hr mfp logs my calories burned as almost twice what fitbit says I burned. I dont pay attention either way and I have given up trying to see why there is such a big discrepancy.

ksmommy5

So i ate 1200 in calories today. I logged my workout in fitbit ~400 or so. Then another 380 calorie adjustment with the steps I assume. That puts my net calories at around 380. How on earth am I supposed to eat another 800 calories today to reach my 1200 net? Its 7pm lol

kgirlhart

The exercise adjustment in mfp is going to be the difference between what mfp expects you to burn and what fitbit shows that you are burning. The exercise adjustment says that with the 400 calories you burned plus your steps fitbit expects you to burn 380 calories more than mfp thinks you will burn. So you eat the 380 calories adjustment. You do not add the 400 calories you entered in fitbit to the 380 calorie adjustment. You only eat back the adjustment, not the exercise logged in fitbit.

Iknewyouweretrouble

ksmommy5 wrote: »

So i ate 1200 in calories today. I logged my workout in fitbit ~400 or so. Then another 380 calorie adjustment with the steps I assume. That puts my net calories at around 380. How on earth am I supposed to eat another 800 calories today to reach my 1200 net? Its 7pm lol

are you linked with MFP? it will log the calorie burn during the day and exercise.. it will give you calories back. are you saying it gives you a 780 calorie adjustment? you can choose to eat that back or not. personally i'd have nooo issue doing that but a lot of people don't eat back their exercise calories

ksmommy5

Iknewyouweretrouble wrote: »

ksmommy5 wrote: »

So i ate 1200 in calories today. I logged my workout in fitbit ~400 or so. Then another 380 calorie adjustment with the steps I assume. That puts my net calories at around 380. How on earth am I supposed to eat another 800 calories today to reach my 1200 net? Its 7pm lol

are you linked with MFP? it will log the calorie burn during the day and exercise.. it will give you calories back. are you saying it gives you a 780 calorie adjustment? you can choose to eat that back or not. personally i'd have nooo issue doing that but a lot of people don't eat back their exercise calories

I eat 50% of the actually workout portion of the adjustment. Not the extra steps. If it's just a walking day I will just hit my goal even though I got extra "exercise" cals.

WinoGelato

kgirlhart wrote: »

The exercise adjustment in mfp is going to be the difference between what mfp expects you to burn and what fitbit shows that you are burning. The exercise adjustment says that with the 400 calories you burned plus your steps fitbit expects you to burn 380 calories more than mfp thinks you will burn. So you eat the 380 calories adjustment. You do not add the 400 calories you entered in fitbit to the 380 calorie adjustment. You only eat back the adjustment, not the exercise logged in fitbit.

^This.

OP can you clarify? Your numbers are confusing. Once you enter the non step based work out in FitBit, ignore the calories burned from that. MFP will pull that into your total exercise adjustment for the day. It will sync with FitBit to estimate the total calories burned for the day inclusive of your steps, the exercise you did, and your BMR, and it will then provide you an adjustment based on how many calories MFP thinks you would have burned based on the stats and activity level you put in when you set up the account.

I have found the two systems to be quite accurate, but there's an element of trust there because trying to dissect all the individual numbers is going to be impossible. Generally if you get big exercise adjustments it's because you are considerably more active or burning more cals than MFP thought based on what you entered. After getting my FitBit several years ago I changed my activity level from sedentary to lightly active and now active because even though I have a desk job, I average 14k steps/day and that's definitely not sedentary!

I also found that the two systems get more accurate after a couple of weeks of data and then can better predict your patterns and your calorie burns.

Good luck.

mojolag

Some days MFP gives me several hundred extra calories for 10k steps and some days I get 80. WHY? (I’m not adjusting anything each day.)

mtaratoot

How does MFP know how many steps you're taking? If you have a fitness tracker, it's constantly collecting information and sharing with MFP.

Did you realize you woke up a zombie thread that was sleeping for seven years to ask this question?

AnnPT77

mojolag wrote: »

Some days MFP gives me several hundred extra calories for 10k steps and some days I get 80. WHY? (I’m not adjusting anything each day.)

The adjustment is for your total movement that day, whatever it is. It's not just for steps.