Fitbit Calories v MFP Calories

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mandy_godfree
mandy_godfree Posts: 71 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I got a Fitbit at Christmas and have synced it with MFP (Although it doesn’t sync with the iPad App, only online and on phone app.)

I log food on MFP and exercise on Fitbit.

I have noticed that even with the Fitbit calorie adjustment there seems to be a discrepancy between the two apps. Fitbit usually allows 30 - 40 Calories per day more than MFP. I also note that they don’t sync the full information to each other. So in Fitbit I can’t see what I’ve eaten itemised, and in MFP I can’t see my exercise itemised. But then you can’t put the same info in both apps or it doubles it. I can live with it, but does anyone else find it all a bit irritating?

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  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,929 Member
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    Your current logging method (Food on MFP; exercise on Fitbit) is what makes the most sense to me.

    Your MFP Fitbit "exercise" adjustment @ MIDNIGHT is what equalizes the calories between the two apps. It is not an exercise, it is just the mechanism that passes your TDEE number as detected by Fitbit for the day to MFP.

    As such, if your deficit setting is the same on both apps, at midnight you would have the same eating target.

    Fitbit considers +50/-50 Cal to be in the zone. MFP does not offer a zone, just green and red values depending on whether you're below or above the target.

    The two companies are not associated with each other, and, if anything, probably heading towards direct competition given that Under-Armour is selling hardware and Fitbit seems to be enhancing the social media aspect of their app.

    As such I find their current level of co-operation... adequate.

    I am much more concerned that both of them have restricted our ability to access our old data without having to do multiple 30 or 45 day queries.
  • oat_bran
    oat_bran Posts: 370 Member
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    If I understood you correctly, I'm using the same system of calculating. I don't have to log anything into my Fitbit, it has a heart rate monitor and calculates the calories from there. And it is supposed to synch automatically with MFP. However, I get a much higher difference of calories between the two. Fitbit always tells me to eat at least 130 calories more, but sometimes even more than that. I'm not 100% sure where the difference comes from and if it's possible to fix it. I think it's because fitbit only sends the step count information to MFP and not the calorie burn estimates based on heart rate. But I don't think there's anyway around it.
  • capaul42
    capaul42 Posts: 1,390 Member
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    oat_bran wrote: »
    If I understood you correctly, I'm using the same system of calculating. I don't have to log anything into my Fitbit, it has a heart rate monitor and calculates the calories from there. And it is supposed to synch automatically with MFP. However, I get a much higher difference of calories between the two. Fitbit always tells me to eat at least 130 calories more, but sometimes even more than that. I'm not 100% sure where the difference comes from and if it's possible to fix it. I think it's because fitbit only sends the step count information to MFP and not the calorie burn estimates based on heart rate. But I don't think there's anyway around it.

    You're wrong. You only think that Fitbit only give step calories because that's what you see at a glance. If you click on the adjustment you see where it comes from. Fitbit sends over 2 main pieces of info: number of steps and total calories burned. MFP takes the calorie number and estimates your total burn up to midnight based on what you've burned so far. Then it subtracts your maintenance calories. That is the adjustment you see.

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