Question about syncing fitbit and mfp and using TDEE

kgirlhart

I am trying to be in maintenance. I reached my goal weight in July of 2016, but I have continued to lose (and lowered my goal about 15 pounds) since then. I have determined that my Fitbit One is underestimating my calories by approximately 200 calories per day because when I eat what fitbit says I'm burning I continue to lose. I really like using mfp for my calorie goal and eating more on days that I am more active and less on days I am less active. I usually eat an average of around 1950 - 2050 calories per day and fitbit shows that I am burning around 1750 -1850 per day. If I set a goal of 2100 on mfp (which is what I have determined my TDEE to be using my own data) should I unsync fitbit and mfp? If I leave them synced then do I look at my net calories, or do I just try for the 2100 each day and ignore the fitbit adjustment? I like having them synced because I use trendweight and it is linked to Fitbit and I only have to enter my weight once when they are all synced together. I know I am just overthinking things, but I am frustrated because even though it is slow, I am still losing weight. I don't even know if this makes any sense because the more I think about it, the more confused I get. I have a desk job so I am sedentary for about 6 hours per day. I do yoga about 30 minutes 5 times per week and I run 4 days per week about 18-20 miles per week. I have tried adjusting my activity level around, but that really just changes the size of my exercise adjustment and not my overall calories.

TL/DR If I use the TDEE method to set my calorie goal should I unsync Fitbit and mfp? If I do keep them synced do I look at my net calories, or just look at the calorie goal I set and ignore any fitbit adjustment?

Thanks!

heybales

If you manually set a goal based on weekly avg TDEE, then you have to unsync to avoid MFP's desire to do daily adjustments, based on a device giving daily TDEE.

Or sync, and just memorize your number, 2100 isn't that hard hopefully. Little daily math is always good. But sounds like MFP will always be pulling it down depending on where you start.

Do you have a workout that could be reason for the 200 cal off on Fitbit - perhaps that could be corrected, though it could mean manual entry for workouts.
Or perhaps daily activity estimate is off because distance and step stride length is off - if corrected might change that.


You could also figure out which MFP activity level happens to cause your maintenance to be at 1900, what Fitbit thinks avg TDEE is.
Then any Fitbit adjustments to that will be added to your manually set eating goal of 2100.
Up and down.
So the discrepancy doesn't matter then.

What is your MFP shown BMR in the Tools section?

kgirlhart

Thanks for you help!

Mfp has my BMR as 1154. Sedentary gives me 1430, LA: 1600, A: 1830 and VA: 2060.

The workouts that I do are yoga. Fitbit gives me ~60 - 75 calories for that. I also run. I track my runs on Strava and it gives me ~70 - 100 calories more than Fitbit does depending on the length of the runs. I track the runs in both Strava and Fitbit. I suppose that my stride length could be off. I hadn't really thought of that.

heybales

How does the Fitbit distance compare to Strava?

Because Strava is known for sometimes inflating running. And underestimating biking.

But stride length setting on walking is important for daily life figures - should be at your average daily pace, not grocery store shuffle, not exercise pace - purposeful office walk pace perhaps.

Running of course could be improved too at that avg pace.

Strange those daily burn figures don't work out to the math MFP is supposed to be using, unless their rounding errors have gotten worse. (BMR x 1.25, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8)

Anyway - if you selected maintenance at the Active level it appears - MFP would deal with adjustments based on 1830 expected daily burn.

And then set manual eating goal of 2100, the following would happen.

So if Fitbit synced and showed more than 1830 was going to be burned, any adjustment would be added on to the 2100 eating goal.
If a slower day and less than 1830 looked to be the daily burn, negative adjustment would be taken from the 2100.


Or - keep them unsynced.
Confirm you correct Fitbit for activity whenever needed.
Keep a running 3 week average of Fitbit weekly TDEE - if it was indeed an average week, no sick weeks, no extra busy weeks, stuff like that.

Weekly set your MFP eating goal to that figure you get. (which would be good to update with other method anyway)

Depends on if you'd prefer eating the same daily no matter what - makes it easier for planning perhaps.
Or prefer daily adjustments depending on changes to activity level.

kgirlhart

Fitbit and Strava are very close when I run on a track or a straight out and back route. When I run a route with more turns or curves then I usually get a little more distance from Strava than from Fitbit. I mostly started using Strava because I have a Fitbit one and so I track the runs with the app on my phone. Several times I have accidentally deleted my run from Fitbit. Not sure if it is sweaty hands or not being able to see the screen and hitting the wrong button, but I haven't had that problem with Strava.

I think I will set mfp to Active for now and see how that goes. My activity is a lot more consistent now than it was when I first started on mfp. But I do like the idea of eating more on busy days and less on less busy days.