Fitbit Adjustment Question
laurenebargar
Posts: 3,081 Member
I have myself set to sedentary on both MFP and fitbit, because I have a desk job and some days I only average about 3,000 steps a day (im an accountant, during tax season im lucky if I move from my desk during the day lol) but even on the days Im not walking too much I still have a pretty high calorie adjustment. Any idea why this might be? For example yesterday I walked a little over 5,000 steps, I was on a boat all day, and my adjustment was 734. It seems pretty high to me, I've checked everything that I can think of and fitbit and MFP match exactly with my weight loss goals, current weight, etc. Any advice?
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I am 55, 5'8", 150 lbs, in maintenance at 1820 net Calories, have a Fitbit Charge 2 with HR, and have MFP set at Sedentary. The last time I got 5,042 steps, I earned 729 extra Calories as my Fitbit Calorie adjustment. The effort put in, such as number of stairs or how hilly the terrain, factors into the Fitbit estimates.
I always eat back 100% of my earned Calories. I ate back 90% of them when I was losing a few pounds and had no problem netting 1700 Cals per day to lose those pounds. I do use a food scale to weigh all solids, measuring cups and spoons to measure liquids, and verify all food items I log through outside web sources and Nutrition Facts labels. I trust that my Calorie Intake is pretty accurate, and I trust my Calories Out is pretty accurate using the Fitbit.0 -
Possibly, I havent been using my fitbit long enough to actually see if this will work for me or not. I just dont want to set myself back two-three weeks trying to see if eating the fitbit calories will make me gain or if I will continue to use. But I guess there is only trial and error0
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What are your total stats? How many calories does MFP tell you to eat, and did you set it up for .5, 1, 1.5, or 2 pounds per week to lose? What does Fitbit show as your total # burned calories yesterday?
And have you confirmed that your height/weight/age are accurate in both sites?0 -
laurenebargar wrote: »I have myself set to sedentary on both MFP and fitbit, because I have a desk job and some days I only average about 3,000 steps a day (im an accountant, during tax season im lucky if I move from my desk during the day lol) but even on the days Im not walking too much I still have a pretty high calorie adjustment. Any idea why this might be? For example yesterday I walked a little over 5,000 steps, I was on a boat all day, and my adjustment was 734. It seems pretty high to me, I've checked everything that I can think of and fitbit and MFP match exactly with my weight loss goals, current weight, etc. Any advice?
What I have usually found with people questioning large FitBit exercise adjustments on MFP, is that they have underestimated their activity level and/or have a very aggressive deficit set in MFP. What people often don't understand is that the exercise adjustment between the two is a "true up" between the calories that MFP thinks you will burn based on the stats and activity level you entered, and what FitBit estimates as your total burn.
Using myself as an example, I also have a desk job but I average >12K steps/day so I'm set at Active, with negative calorie adjustments enabled. I'm in maintenance, and MFP estimates my NEAT burn (excluding exercise) to be 1835 cals/day. However, according to my FitBit, my total calories burned averages 2200-2300. So my adjustments are usually 300-500 cals. If I were still set at sedentary, and my baseline calorie goal was 1600 or less, then yes, I would see very large adjustments too. Because I'm not sedentary, and because I burn more calories than MFP estimates I would based on the information I entered during set up.
It takes time for the two systems to really work well and consistently together, so if this is a new syncing relationship you may want to be conservative with what you eat back at first. But I've trusted mine since the beginning, eat back the calorie burn adjustments, and lost weight predictably and now maintaining with no issues.3 -
In general, MFP & Fitbit work together like this:
MFP estimates what you will burn in a day based on your height/weight/gender/age and activity level.
Fitbit estimates your calorie burn based on those stats and your actual movement.
If Fitbit shows you burn more than MFP expected, you get an adjustment. So MFP expected you to burn x, and Fitbit said you burned x plus an additional 734.
If your stats are wrong in one or the other site, the burn estimation could be way off.0 -
StaciMarie1974 wrote: »In general, MFP & Fitbit work together like this:
MFP estimates what you will burn in a day based on your height/weight/gender/age and activity level.
Fitbit estimates your calorie burn based on those stats and your actual movement.
If Fitbit shows you burn more than MFP expected, you get an adjustment. So MFP expected you to burn x, and Fitbit said you burned x plus an additional 734.
If your stats are wrong in one or the other site, the burn estimation could be way off.
Exactly what I was trying to say but this is much more succinct!0 -
StaciMarie1974 wrote: »What are your total stats? How many calories does MFP tell you to eat, and did you set it up for .5, 1, 1.5, or 2 pounds per week to lose? What does Fitbit show as your total # burned calories yesterday?
And have you confirmed that your height/weight/etc. are accurate in both sites?
Yes that all my stats are correct in both MFP and Fitbit here are my stats:
SW: 217
CW: 200.8
Height: 5'4
Goal : 140
Set to lose 1.5 lbs a week
Current calories from MFP: 1,310
Fitbit says I burned yesterday: 2,531
This translated to MFP that I should eat 2,044 yesterday.
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WinoGelato wrote: »laurenebargar wrote: »I have myself set to sedentary on both MFP and fitbit, because I have a desk job and some days I only average about 3,000 steps a day (im an accountant, during tax season im lucky if I move from my desk during the day lol) but even on the days Im not walking too much I still have a pretty high calorie adjustment. Any idea why this might be? For example yesterday I walked a little over 5,000 steps, I was on a boat all day, and my adjustment was 734. It seems pretty high to me, I've checked everything that I can think of and fitbit and MFP match exactly with my weight loss goals, current weight, etc. Any advice?
What I have usually found with people questioning large FitBit exercise adjustments on MFP, is that they have underestimated their activity level and/or have a very aggressive deficit set in MFP. What people often don't understand is that the exercise adjustment between the two is a "true up" between the calories that MFP thinks you will burn based on the stats and activity level you entered, and what FitBit estimates as your total burn.
Using myself as an example, I also have a desk job but I average >12K steps/day so I'm set at Active, with negative calorie adjustments enabled. I'm in maintenance, and MFP estimates my NEAT burn (excluding exercise) to be 1835 cals/day. However, according to my FitBit, my total calories burned averages 2200-2300. So my adjustments are usually 300-500 cals. If I were still set at sedentary, and my baseline calorie goal was 1600 or less, then yes, I would see very large adjustments too. Because I'm not sedentary, and because I burn more calories than MFP estimates I would based on the information I entered during set up.
It takes time for the two systems to really work well and consistently together, so if this is a new syncing relationship you may want to be conservative with what you eat back at first. But I've trusted mine since the beginning, eat back the calorie burn adjustments, and lost weight predictably and now maintaining with no issues.
I saw your post on another thread and was going to reply but didnt want to hijack the thread. It is a new fitbit less than a week, so ive been leaving extra calories to account for this.0 -
Your profile here says you are 23, is this correct & is this the age Fitbit has listed? An error in birth year could cause wonky #s.
Ok, first bit of backwards engineering is that if you are set to 1.5 per week and MFP assigns 1310, then MFP expects you to burn 1310 + 750 or 2060. So with Fitbit saying you burned 2531 that is almost +500.
Stats: lead to 1718 bmr. 2075-2150 should be your expected burn before exercise, on MFP. It uses 1.2 or 1.25 or close for sedentary. So the 1310 + 750 is reasonable.
Fitbit might be overcrediting you, or it might not. Keep going as you are, give it time to 'get used' to you, and leave a few hundred calories behind just in case.
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I had to rerun some #s because I had the wrong gender on my calculator.0
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StaciMarie1974 wrote: »Your profile here says you are 23, is this correct & is this the age Fitbit has listed? An error in birth year could cause wonky #s.
Ok, first bit of backwards engineering is that if you are set to 1.5 per week and MFP assigns 1310, then MFP expects you to burn 1310 + 750 or 2060. So with Fitbit saying you burned 2531 that is almost +500.
Stats: lead to 1718 bmr. 2075-2150 should be your expected burn before exercise, on MFP. It uses 1.2 or 1.25 or close for sedentary. So the 1310 + 750 is reasonable.
Fitbit might be overcrediting you, or it might not. Keep going as you are, give it time to 'get used' to you, and leave a few hundred calories behind just in case.
Okay just tried it on the computer , and it said to maintain id be at 2060 and then back to 1.5 loss a week, and it went back to 1310 my birthday is correct in both apps, Tried it on my phone and got the same numberes, yes im 23 so that is correct as well0 -
At this point, I'd say wait and see... Fitbit may be over-crediting you with burn, or it could be right. Since you're cautious and not eating all the calories back, you should be on the right path.
In reality, there is not a set # of steps to calories ratio. Its an approximate. If I sit/sleep for 23 hours and run 12,000 steps in an hour, its probably NOT the same calorie burn as if it were to move moderately thru the day (sitting/sleeping less) and total 12,000 steps still.
My thought process: If I run, I burn about 9-10 cals per minute. BMR is about 50/hr for me. So in this scenario, I'd burn about 1750 for sleeping 23/running 1. But I might burn 3 cals per minute on average for running casual errands. So say I do that for 6 hours (on my feet, never sitting, but not cardio level movement), averaging 2k steps per hour, and sleep the other 18: 1980.0 -
StaciMarie1974 wrote: »At this point, I'd say wait and see... Fitbit may be over-crediting you with burn, or it could be right. Since you're cautious and not eating all the calories back, you should be on the right path.
In reality, there is not a set # of steps to calories ratio. Its an approximate. If I sit/sleep for 23 hours and run 12,000 steps in an hour, its probably NOT the same calorie burn as if it were to move moderately thru the day (sitting/sleeping less) and total 12,000 steps still.
My thought process: If I run, I burn about 9-10 cals per minute. BMR is about 50/hr for me. So in this scenario, I'd burn about 1750 for sleeping 23/running 1. But I might burn 3 cals per minute on average for running casual errands. So say I do that for 6 hours (on my feet, never sitting, but not cardio level movement), averaging 2k steps per hour, and sleep the other 18: 1980.
Yeah I guess ill give my fitbit more time to adjust to me and ill just keep leaving calories until im more comfortable, Ive had alot of sodium this week and im retaining water so I havent been able to really see how eating more is going to impact my calories.0 -
I've only had a Fitbit for about a week, my sister gave me her old Charge HR as she got the new Alta HR. It is taking some getting used to, but also check that Fitbit has your stride length correct. The stride length was really off for me and I just made a little adjustment. I think it has something to do with the calculation but I'm not sure how much.0
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I've only had a Fitbit for about a week, my sister gave me her old Charge HR as she got the new Alta HR. It is taking some getting used to, but also check that Fitbit has your stride length correct. The stride length was really off for me and I just made a little adjustment. I think it has something to do with the calculation but I'm not sure how much.
How to you measure your stride length? How would I know if its accurate?0 -
laurenebargar wrote: »How to you measure your stride length? How would I know if its accurate?
From the Fitbit Help site...
How do I measure and adjust my stride length?
https://help.fitbit.com/?l=en_US&c=Topics:Account_Settings
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