Fitbit question?

loulouowens

WinoGelato wrote: »

I think a lot of people don't understand how FitBit works with MFP. When you enter your stats and activity level in MFP it calculates an estimate of your NEAT calorie maintenance, and then the selection of a goal rate Of loss (1 lb/week, etc) then calculates a calorie target at a deficit. When you have MFP and FitBit synced, FitBit tell MFP how many cals you are actually burning (estimate of your TDEE). The difference between what MFP thinks you burn based on info your provided, and what FitBit says you burned, is the exercise adjustment you see. It's a true up essentially.

So people that see exercise adjustments when they haven't done much in the way of exercise, are usually a sign that they've provided info to MFP that suggests they are far less active than they actually are.

And for what it's worth I lost the weight I set out to lose, the last 20 lbs of which were with a FitBit, and am currently a few years into maintenance trusting and eating back the exercise adjustments. I'm 5'2 and 118, I have a desk job but average 15k steps/day so my activity level is set to active. MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1830, but my TDEE from FitBit is 2200-2300 so my adjustments are in the neighborhood of 400-500 cals. I eat them all back and continue to have predictable results.

Thank you so much this is really helpful. I've never bothered before but as goal gets nearer (24lbs) I've slowed my weigh loss to 1lb per week, I'm moving more and was feeling hungry. But scared to eat them in case I gained!

I've been going nearly 12 months now (breaks for Christmas and holiday) and I'm really ready to eat as much as I can whilst continuing to lose the last bit. My hair isn't great and I think this has to do with being at deficit for so long.

Maybe ive been too hard on myself, even when I run (2/3 times a week) I do 5k I burn about 350 calories but only eat half as extra. And never eat more than MFP says even through j always have adjustments from Fitbit

But I will be healthy and slim soon! Bald but slim lol

RobBasss

WinoGelato wrote: »

I think a lot of people don't understand how FitBit works with MFP. When you enter your stats and activity level in MFP it calculates an estimate of your NEAT calorie maintenance, and then the selection of a goal rate Of loss (1 lb/week, etc) then calculates a calorie target at a deficit. When you have MFP and FitBit synced, FitBit tell MFP how many cals you are actually burning (estimate of your TDEE). The difference between what MFP thinks you burn based on info your provided, and what FitBit says you burned, is the exercise adjustment you see. It's a true up essentially.

So people that see exercise adjustments when they haven't done much in the way of exercise, are usually a sign that they've provided info to MFP that suggests they are far less active than they actually are.

And for what it's worth I lost the weight I set out to lose, the last 20 lbs of which were with a FitBit, and am currently a few years into maintenance trusting and eating back the exercise adjustments. I'm 5'2 and 118, I have a desk job but average 15k steps/day so my activity level is set to active. MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1830, but my TDEE from FitBit is 2200-2300 so my adjustments are in the neighborhood of 400-500 cals. I eat them all back and continue to have predictable results.

Yep, this cost me 3 months of anguish, I have a desk job, but I am active, workout 5x a week pretty consistently, so silly me chose moderately active in MFP, then I would add activities to MFP and eat back, anyhow I was overeating for months and not losing anything while working my butt off, once I learned the above, I set MFP to Sedentary and let my Gamin do negative calorie adjustments, down ~5 lbs in 4 weeks. I should have known better when MFP said 2000 calories for me to lose 1 lbs a week... oh well back on track.

WinoGelato

loulouowens wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

I think a lot of people don't understand how FitBit works with MFP. When you enter your stats and activity level in MFP it calculates an estimate of your NEAT calorie maintenance, and then the selection of a goal rate Of loss (1 lb/week, etc) then calculates a calorie target at a deficit. When you have MFP and FitBit synced, FitBit tell MFP how many cals you are actually burning (estimate of your TDEE). The difference between what MFP thinks you burn based on info your provided, and what FitBit says you burned, is the exercise adjustment you see. It's a true up essentially.

So people that see exercise adjustments when they haven't done much in the way of exercise, are usually a sign that they've provided info to MFP that suggests they are far less active than they actually are.

And for what it's worth I lost the weight I set out to lose, the last 20 lbs of which were with a FitBit, and am currently a few years into maintenance trusting and eating back the exercise adjustments. I'm 5'2 and 118, I have a desk job but average 15k steps/day so my activity level is set to active. MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1830, but my TDEE from FitBit is 2200-2300 so my adjustments are in the neighborhood of 400-500 cals. I eat them all back and continue to have predictable results.

Thank you so much this is really helpful. I've never bothered before but as goal gets nearer (24lbs) I've slowed my weigh loss to 1lb per week, I'm moving more and was feeling hungry. But scared to eat them in case I gained!

I've been going nearly 12 months now (breaks for Christmas and holiday) and I'm really ready to eat as much as I can whilst continuing to lose the last bit. My hair isn't great and I think this has to do with being at deficit for so long.

Maybe ive been too hard on myself, even when I run (2/3 times a week) I do 5k I burn about 350 calories but only eat half as extra. And never eat more than MFP says even through j always have adjustments from Fitbit

But I will be healthy and slim soon! Bald but slim lol

With less than 25 lbs to lose you could almost move to 0.5 lb/week even. How much have you lost so far, and how rapidly were you losing over the last year? What calorie target did MFP provide? I were losing hair I would definitely look at increasing calories and making sure to fuel the activity. It does sound like you might want to back off a little, it will make the transition to maintenance smoother as well, in my opinion. A lot of people that have an aggressive deficit struggle when trying to find maintenance cals and often gain back a little in the process.

loulouowens

In the last 3 months I've lost 17.5lbs. I'm set to sedentary , 1lb per week loss and my current calories from MFP are 1440 I'm 5ft 9" age 38 currently weigh 177 target is 154ish.

I started at 268 x

SusanMFindlay

hesn92 wrote: »

Wow I am confused. You all are saying sedentary includes a few thousand steps but mine starts adding calories even after a thousand (or less). I guess I don't understand how this thing works.

Does yours have a heart rate monitor? If so, you'll tend to get more credit for high intensity steps that raise your heartrate more (e.g. going up stairs). I think I even get a tiny bit of credit for standing vs. sitting and for heavy lifting. So, it could be something like that.

Alternatively, one or both of MFP/FitBit might have the wrong stats for you. So, I'd definitely check that they're both assuming the same height, weight, age, gender, etc. If there's a mismatch, that could cause the issue you're describing.