Maths was never my strong point

hartk001

Help me understand this. I have Fitbit and MyFitnessPal tied together. After putting in all the relevant information MFP set me a target of 1500 calories per day to loose 1.5 lbs per week. I have set my own goal in Fitbit to the 1500 calories.

At the time of writing 22.40 Fitbit is showing me 1573 calories in, as is MFP, that's 73 over my daily total. That's fine. However Fitbit is also showing that I burned 2780 calories. So am I not 1207 calories to the good? ( 2780-1573)

Hop over to MFP and I'm presented with the figures Goal 1500; Food 1573; Exercise 757; Remaining 684. MFP also shows a calorie adjustment of 757

I don't understand the relationship between the 1207 calories in Fitbit and the 684 that MFP shows as remaining!

My main exercise today came from 15000 steps. Can you help me understand those figures?

Kevin

lorrpb

Go by one or the other because each estimates the cals differently. Also keep in mind that the way MFP us set up you should eat back about half your exercise cals.

hartk001

lorrpb wrote: »

Go by one or the other because each estimates the cals differently. Also keep in mind that the way MFP us set up you should eat back about half your exercise cals.

I'm using Wed figures.

Let me see if I've got this right. I can understand that both apps count the figures differently; a bit like Celsius and Fahrenheit? Up to now I've been running with MFP, my intention would be to stick with them. So MFP is showing my exercise as 1015. Divide that by 2 and you'll get 507.5. I'm using exact figures just to understand, I appreciate you'd round up/down

So I add back 507.5 calories to the food I've eaten (2363 cals ) that would leave the count in MFP 2363+507.5 = 2870.5, within 1.5 of Fitbit's calorie burn (2872). Am I figuring that correctly ?

For clarification is MFP saying I should eat back about 507 calories? Do I then ignore the figure 152 Remaining that it shown at the top of the food dairy, or is that in reality what I can eat back? Is the 507 just, so to speak, just like conversing C to F only this time it's MFP to Fitbit? Very confusing.

stanmann571

hartk001 wrote: »

lorrpb wrote: »

Go by one or the other because each estimates the cals differently. Also keep in mind that the way MFP us set up you should eat back about half your exercise cals.

I'm using Wed figures.

Let me see if I've got this right. I can understand that both apps count the figures differently; a bit like Celsius and Fahrenheit? Up to now I've been running with MFP, my intention would be to stick with them. So MFP is showing my exercise as 1015. Divide that by 2 and you'll get 507.5. I'm using exact figures just to understand, I appreciate you'd round up/down

So I add back 507.5 calories to the food I've eaten (2363 cals ) that would leave the count in MFP 2363+507.5 = 2870.5, within 1.5 of Fitbit's calorie burn (2872). Am I figuring that correctly ?

For clarification is MFP saying I should eat back about 507 calories? Do I then ignore the figure 152 Remaining that it shown at the top of the food dairy, or is that in reality what I can eat back? Is the 507 just, so to speak, just like conversing C to F only this time it's MFP to Fitbit? Very confusing.

Now I'm confused.

Fitbit shows your exercise/active calories as 1207 for a total of 2780
MFP shows them as 757 for a total of 2257

Where are you coming up with 1015 and 507.5.

tinkerbellang83

If you have your Fitbit synced and you're receiving a calorie adjustment in MyFitnessPal, eat back half the calorie adjustment on top of your normal calorie allowance.

So if you have 1500 to start with and your calorie adjustment is 757 you would eat 1878 calories for that day.

If after 4-6 weeks you find you are losing weight faster or slower than the rate you have set in MFP adjust how much of the calorie adjustment you eat accordingly.

hartk001 wrote: »

At the time of writing 22.40 Fitbit is showing me 1573 calories in, as is MFP, that's 73 over my daily total. That's fine. However Fitbit is also showing that I burned 2780 calories. So am I not 1207 calories to the good? ( 2780-1573)

The 2780 is your total burn for the day including all steps, exercise and calories burned through normal life.
The 1573 is the food you have consumed which you have entered in MFP.
So per Fitbit you are in a 1207 deficit for the day which is TDEE - Food Eaten

hartk001 wrote: »

Hop over to MFP and I'm presented with the figures Goal 1500; Food 1573; Exercise 757; Remaining 684. MFP also shows a calorie adjustment of 757

Kevin

So you have eaten 1573 calories of actual food.

The exercise total is the calorie adjustment which is the difference between your perceived level of activity from the stats you put into MFP and the actual burn that Fitbit has given you.

The remaining amount is Goal - Food + Exercise (in your case 1500-1573+757 = 684)

The reason 50% comes into play is because trackers can be inaccurate and rather than gaining weight as a result of overestimating your exercise, 50% is a good starting point to find out how accurate it is. So you would eat half the adjustment for a few weeks and then review.

WinoGelato

As others have said, you'll never get the bunbers in the two systems to match exactly, they use different algorithms: I've used FitBit and MFP for about 4 years now, successfully losing weight and now maintaining trusting the two systems to work together.

It helps if you understand what they are measuring and how they adjust your cals accordingly.
First, MFP. It's a NEAT calculator, meaning when you put in your stats, a goal weight, an activity level and a target rate of loss, it calculates a calorie goal for you that doesn't include exercise. You said you were aiming for 1.5 lb/week and MFP gave you a goal of 1500. That means MFP thinks your maintenance cals are 2250, that's what MFP estimates you normally burn without exercising.
Now FitBit. It's an activity tracker meaning it measures all your step based activity and heart rate (some models) and based on the stats you entered, it calculates a total calorie burn for you. You said yesterday that was 2780 at the time of writing but you can go back and look at the final number.
They work together in that FitBit sends info over telling MFP how much you've burned, and MFP gives you an adjustment based on the difference or what it thinks you will burn in a day (2250) and what FitBit says you've burned so far, and it even predicts what it thinks your full day burn would be (so you might see adjuetments go up and down through the day). Enabling negative adjustments means until you reach that 2250 mark of predicted total calories burned, you'll see a negative cal adjustment, but It will increase as the day goes on.

So the 757 adjustment you saw yesterday was FitBit telling MFP at that time that it thought you'd burn roughly 3000 cals by the time the day was Over.

How much should you eat? I always eat back all my cals as I've found regret two systems to. E accurate and reliable. You might start with half, so about 350, and adjust over time based on your actual results.

Last point, is 1.5 lb/week the right goal for you? Do you have 50-75 lbs to lose?

hartk001

I have the knack of confusing people

pondee629

hartk001 wrote: »

Help me understand this. I have Fitbit and MyFitnessPal tied together. After putting in all the relevant information MFP set me a target of 1500 calories per day to loose 1.5 lbs per week. I have set my own goal in Fitbit to the 1500 calories.

At the time of writing 22.40 Fitbit is showing me 1573 calories in, as is MFP, that's 73 over my daily total. That's fine. However Fitbit is also showing that I burned 2780 calories. So am I not 1207 calories to the good? ( 2780-1573)

Hop over to MFP and I'm presented with the figures Goal 1500; Food 1573; Exercise 757; Remaining 684. MFP also shows a calorie adjustment of 757

I don't understand the relationship between the 1207 calories in Fitbit and the 684 that MFP shows as remaining!

My main exercise today came from 15000 steps. Can you help me understand those figures?

Kevin

Akin to that ancient proverb: "A person with one watch, knows what time it is. A person with two is never sure."