Fitbit/MFP question

iwtbt170

Ok..so I can't seem to remember my fitbit account info (because I was dumb and didn't write it down) and I have the app so I'm always logged in...anyways because of this, I can't sync the two. Adding regular actual exercise is not a prob..but they days I work I don't go to the gym..reason being I work 12 hour days on my feet for 11.5 of them walking fast up and down my machine all day..on a typical work day, I log 20+ thousand steps a day..I work 3-4 days a week depending on the week. So, what I am wondering, is how do i incorporate those steps as cals burned? I know MFP already accounts for TDEE, so I can't log all the calories my fitbit says I burned, even if I subtract my TDEE from what my fitbit says, it seems like a high number...or should I just not log it at all...and consider those cals bonus cals burned? But then I am tight on going over my suggested calorie limit for the day? (And I do change my activity level depending on if it's a work or non work day)

Sorry so long...but any suggestions would be great

StaciMarie1974

I think I understand what you're saying/asking.

One thing you could do is to go into your phone app, remove your Fitbit device from your Fitbit profile, and log out. Then create a new Fitbit profile, write down the info (would need to use a different email address), and sync that to MFP. Though there should also be a reset password option for Fitibit?

If you don't want to lose your existing Fitbit history though, you can manually adjust. For a moment, set MFP to maintain. This will tell you how many calories MFP thinks you will burn in a day. Lets say its 2000. If Fitbit says you burned 2500 calories yesterday, then that's an additional 500 that you earned.

There are 2 ways (that come to mind) for how to use this information. 1) you can use yesterday's 'adjustment' today. This is the easiest way, because the other option is 2) to calculate what you are going to end up at according to Fitbit and adjust your estimates as the day goes on. I will explain further...

Fitbit's shows calorie burn so far. Right now mine says I have burned 579 and its 9am, I've not done much yet. I can project that my BMR is roughly 50/hr, so BMR will burn 50 x 15 hours remaining for me or 750. I will do some misc grocery shopping, moving around thru the work day but its a desk job, stuff around the house tonight so perhaps another 150 there total. I will also walk for 45 minute at lunch and probably 30 minutes tonight so 75 minutes of walking will get me about 4 cals per minute BEYOND my BMR so that would put me around 1780 cals burned for the day. Which is not enough (according to me) so I'll probably need to turn that 30 minute walk into a 30 minute run which will burn about 3-4 cals per minute more than walking would. And so forth.

To figure out today's adjustment as you go, you need to think about what you're going to do yet for the day. OR set a calorie burn/TDEE goal and make sure you hit it.

iwtbt170

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

I think I understand what you're saying/asking.

One thing you could do is to go into your phone app, remove your Fitbit device from your Fitbit profile, and log out. Then create a new Fitbit profile, write down the info (would need to use a different email address), and sync that to MFP. Though there should also be a reset password option for Fitibit?

If you don't want to lose your existing Fitbit history though, you can manually adjust. For a moment, set MFP to maintain. This will tell you how many calories MFP thinks you will burn in a day. Lets say its 2000. If Fitbit says you burned 2500 calories yesterday, then that's an additional 500 that you earned.

There are 2 ways (that come to mind) for how to use this information. 1) you can use yesterday's 'adjustment' today. This is the easiest way, because the other option is 2) to calculate what you are going to end up at according to Fitbit and adjust your estimates as the day goes on. I will explain further...

Fitbit's shows calorie burn so far. Right now mine says I have burned 579 and its 9am, I've not done much yet. I can project that my BMR is roughly 50/hr, so BMR will burn 50 x 15 hours remaining for me or 750. I will do some misc grocery shopping, moving around thru the work day but its a desk job, stuff around the house tonight so perhaps another 150 there total. I will also walk for 45 minute at lunch and probably 30 minutes tonight so 75 minutes of walking will get me about 4 cals per minute BEYOND my BMR so that would put me around 1780 cals burned for the day. Which is not enough (according to me) so I'll probably need to turn that 30 minute walk into a 30 minute run which will burn about 3-4 cals per minute more than walking would. And so forth.

To figure out today's adjustment as you go, you need to think about what you're going to do yet for the day. OR set a calorie burn/TDEE goal and make sure you hit it.

Yeah unfortunately I don't remeber which email I used either so I can't just reset my password. If I set the two to sync, will all the info transfered over be correct? Maybe I will just set MFP to maintain and do it that way..it's so hard because I am having to change MFP setting every couple days because my work schedule is so goofy, there is such a drastic difference between work days and non work days. To bad I can't just quit working to make things easier lol. I am going to play around with your suggestions and see if I can find one that works, I've heard/seen alot of people say that the fitbit doesn't really "translate" calories over very well. .meaning either too high or to low. I have been just using MFP to track my calories and then adding that into my fitbit and letting that let me know if I am over or under, and that has been working but on work days my calorie intake is sometimes higher that my "calorie goal" so maybe on work days I will set it to maintain...I know it's silly, but I hate seeing that "over calorie goal"...thanks for your advice...again sorry so long winded!

StaciMarie1974

When I log out of the phone app, and then select to log in again, it shows my email address and I only have to enter password. There is a Forgot Password? link.


I think most of the complaints/confusion is from people not understanding how the Fitbit & MFP sync works. MFP predicts what you'll burn in a day using your stated activity level. Fitbit calculates it based on movement. The adjustment is the difference between predicted (MFP) and actual (Fitbit).

You could look at your Fitbit history, and get an average total burn for work days vs non work days. And use that to set your calories in goal. Such as if you burn 2000 on nonwork days and 2500 on work days, you could aim to eat 1500 / 2000 depending on the sort of day.

iwtbt170

Ohhhh awesome...wasn't sure if it held my email or not, I was afraid to log out incase it didnt...I am SO HORRIBLE with emails...I only use them for aps, and that's it so I don't use them enough to remember lol