Fitbit calories

roobe18

So, I just bought a Fitbit for the first time in my life and I'm a bit confused about how the calorie tracker incorporates with MFP.

According to my Fitbit I burned 472 calories just on my walk (which I'm not sure I believe... It was only 2 miles). But then when it synced to MFP it only put in 307 calories based on the total steps taken for the day. To make it even more confusing, MFP calorie calculator puts calories burned for that walk to about 200. What do I believe?!

malibu927

It's going to take a few weeks to get a feel for your actual adjustment. But since Fitbit counts your movement throughout the day, what you get is the estimated calorie burn past maintenance.

Poisonedpawn78

roobe18 wrote: »

So, I just bought a Fitbit for the first time in my life and I'm a bit confused about how the calorie tracker incorporates with MFP.

According to my Fitbit I burned 472 calories just on my walk (which I'm not sure I believe... It was only 2 miles). But then when it synced to MFP it only put in 307 calories based on the total steps taken for the day. To make it even more confusing, MFP calorie calculator puts calories burned for that walk to about 200. What do I believe?!

It is my understanding that since MFP is already calculating a level of exercise based on your input (sedentary, lightly active ect) that when you sync a fitbit up it will subtract the exercise it assumed you would do and is already being counted.

So the 472 down to 200 means MFP assumed you would have burned 272 calories at whatever activity level during that time period(so it wont double count it). the 307 for the total steps is the total activity you did above your MFP settings (again so it doesnt double count it)

CyberTone

I would recommend reading through the first three posts in this thread on the MFP Fitbit Users group...

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

Decten1988

Fit bit charge 2 is a very good pedometer watch but if you want to calculate your calories you have to wait
for a week to get a accurate result. i use it all the time at first i thought the watch is not accurate but if you use it everyday you will get use to it and will get the accurate result.

roobe18

Thanks for your reply!

SusanMFindlay

roobe18 wrote: »

So, I just bought a Fitbit for the first time in my life and I'm a bit confused about how the calorie tracker incorporates with MFP.

According to my Fitbit I burned 472 calories just on my walk (which I'm not sure I believe... It was only 2 miles). But then when it synced to MFP it only put in 307 calories based on the total steps taken for the day. To make it even more confusing, MFP calorie calculator puts calories burned for that walk to about 200. What do I believe?!

The 472 calories you burnt on your walk includes the calories you would have burned anyway even if you were sitting or lying down. Depending on how long it took you to walk the 2 miles and your height/weight, that could be anywhere from about 25 calories (if you're very small and it only took you half an hour to walk the 2 miles) to 100 calories (if you're quite large and it took you an hour to walk the 2 miles). So, Fitbit's "calories burned" for a particular exercise will always seem a bit high - but it's not really. It's just a different way of counting, and you need to know not to add *all* of that number to your daily burn. Let Fitbit tell you your daily burn at the end of the day.

The adjustment to MFP is done in such a way to account for that. Basically, you pick an activity level on MFP. For example, if you pick "sedentary", MFP calculates your BMR (calories you'd burn in a coma), multiplies by 1.25 and says "you are expected to burn ____ calories today". It then subtracts your deficit from that number to give you your calorie goal.

When your Fitbit syncs to MFP, it tells MFP how many calories you've burned so far. MFP compares that number to how many you *should* have burned so far (according to the formula described in the last paragraph). If you've burned more calories than it thinks you should have, your calorie goal goes up. If you've burned less calories than it thinks you should have, your calorie goal goes down (assuming you have negative adjustments enabled; do this). Every time your Fitbit sync, this calculation happens again. MFP always assumes that you will be exactly as active as the activity level you picked for the hours that haven't happened yet.

Because these are two completely different approaches, the "calories burned" for the workout on the Fitbit app will never match the calorie adjustment on MFP. You will generally find it best to pay attention to the MFP adjustment and ignore the number on the Fitbit app. At midnight, Fitbit and MFP will agree about your daily calorie burn.

After you've been using your Fitbit for a few weeks, you'll start to learn what your end-of-day numbers generally look like for different kinds of days. Then you can go by that and mostly ignore the "as the day progresses" updates.