Fitbit and exercise

sara_alexandra

I'm new to the Fitbit world and was wondering...if the Fitbit picks up that you did activity other than just steps and it transfers to my fitness pal, do I not log the activity?? For instance, I just saw a Fitbit adjustment of 257 calories. Does that mean that the 15 minutes of activity I did equaled 257 calories?

malibu927

The 257 calorie adjustment is for your entire day, not just exercise. But you're right, if Fitbit detects your non-step based exercise then you don't need to log it. You can if you'd like, but MFP's calorie burn estimate tends to be less accurate than Fitbit's.

sara_alexandra

So the 257 is what I typically burn just by being alive (bmr) plus whatever extra activity I did??

Ready2Rock206

sara_alexandra wrote: »

So the 257 is what I typically burn just by being alive (bmr) plus whatever extra activity I did??

The 257 is whatever extra you burned above what MFP already assumed you were going to burn based on the info you gave it.

malibu927

Not quite...

Say MFP gives you a goal of 1600 calories to lose a pound a week. That means it believes, on average, you burn 2100 calories a day before exercise (BMR plus general activity). When you sync your Fitbit, MFP reads it and then estimates what your total calorie burn for the day will be. If it estimates that you'll end up burning 2357 calories, then it will give you a 257 calorie adjustment. Keep in mind that this will go up and down if you become more or less active throughout the day. I just synced my Fitbit for the first time in four hours and haven't moved much since then. My adjustment on MFP went from 720 to 605 because it doesn't think I'm going to burn as many calories now. By the time I sync it up tomorrow my adjustment should be about 450 calories.