Confused about Calculations

__Roxy__

I am confused about how Fitbit calculations decide the number of exercise calories awarded in MFP.

For example:

Today I took 15178 steps, burned 3770 cals and had 216 mins of increased heartrate. This converted into 1504 exercise calories in MFP.

Yesterday I took 20198 steps, burned 3893 cals and had 116 mins of increased heart rate. This converted into 1384 exercise calories in MFP.

Why, when Fitbit says I stepped less and burned less, would MFP award me MORE exercise calories?

I did have a longer period of increased heartrate today, but the Fitbit calculated calorie burn wasn't actually higher??

Anyone able to help me understand how it works?

heybales

Fitbit doesn't calculate anything. It merely reports daily calorie burn for MFP to do that math.

The steps and HR is confusing your math, only the calories matters - 3770 & 3893.
Obviously those others result in certain calories.
You also have to consider what did you manually log in MFP, that effects how much adjustment calories was left.

You can have a hard workout and be very lazy rest the day - and get no positive adjustment.
You could be very active and no workout - and get a big adjustment.
So could have a ton of grocery store shuffle steps and not many calories.
You could have few jumping steps and many calories.
Steps doesn't not equal an exact number of calorie burn.
And that's why they are called an adjustment, not actually exercise calories, even though the math has to treat them as such.

You could do a medium workout during a time you'd normally do a lot of steps - so overall increase isn't that great.

HR-based calorie burn should only be used during exercise - if Fitbit is applying that formula during daily activity then it's inflated calorie burn.
If meds or medical condition cause inflated HR - then you should turn it off.

If you want to see how the math works - read the FAQ, section 2.

If you really wanted an answer with your figures - you'd need to provide the extra info given on that Fitbit adjustment when you click the "i" or hold down on the field on app.
That page has the needed details to do math with.

__Roxy__

I never manually log anything in MFP. Does that matter?

heybales

Makes it easier for the math.

Fitbit daily burn - MFP estimated daily = adjustment

Eating goal + adjustment = new eating goal

Only thing would be if not looking at math for really end of day - hence the requirement for that More Info screen of data saying what the figures are the math is based on.
Time stamp there too required.

rfrenkel77

I can’t make heads or tails out of your conversation. Here is what works. Got mfp; use it to keep your food diary, it’s more advanced and informative then Fitbit food diary. Disable exercise in mfp so it’s not subtracting anything. Done.
Set your goals in Fitbit app, don’t use Fitbit meal input, link it with mfp and it will transfer daily food log into Fitbit. That’s it. Fitbit is your main app that sees calories, the food portion will be provided by mfp and your Fitbit plate will show balance between what you ate and calories burned. If Fitbit app is not updating food close and reopen both apps. They refresh and sync up

Jumi1907

rfrenkel77 wrote: »

I can’t make heads or tails out of your conversation. Here is what works. Got mfp; use it to keep your food diary, it’s more advanced and informative then Fitbit food diary. Disable exercise in mfp so it’s not subtracting anything. Done.
Set your goals in Fitbit app, don’t use Fitbit meal input, link it with mfp and it will transfer daily food log into Fitbit. That’s it. Fitbit is your main app that sees calories, the food portion will be provided by mfp and your Fitbit plate will show balance between what you ate and calories burned. If Fitbit app is not updating food close and reopen both apps. They refresh and sync up

how did you disable the exercise in MFP? Thank you!

heybales

Jumi1907 wrote: »

rfrenkel77 wrote: »

I can’t make heads or tails out of your conversation. Here is what works. Got mfp; use it to keep your food diary, it’s more advanced and informative then Fitbit food diary. Disable exercise in mfp so it’s not subtracting anything. Done.
Set your goals in Fitbit app, don’t use Fitbit meal input, link it with mfp and it will transfer daily food log into Fitbit. That’s it. Fitbit is your main app that sees calories, the food portion will be provided by mfp and your Fitbit plate will show balance between what you ate and calories burned. If Fitbit app is not updating food close and reopen both apps. They refresh and sync up

how did you disable the exercise in MFP? Thank you!

Must buy premium.

But if using Fitbit for what was described for calories left to eat - then exercise appearing on MFP doesn't really matter, it's meaningless.

Because the MFP math for eating level does not go over to Fitbit, so it's unnecessary step if the goal is as described - using Fitbit instead of MFP to tell you how much is left to eat for the day.
MFP is only used for logging food.

rfrenkel77

No I don’t have a premium account. Try logging into the full website, it has more setup options. I don’t see that feature thru my phone. Heybales is correct, the exercise in mfp is meaningless since Fitbit does not see it. I remember disabling exercise because at one point mfp was subtracting by default. I don’t think it’s on default anymore.

malibu927

rfrenkel77 wrote: »

No I don’t have a premium account. Try logging into the full website, it has more setup options. I don’t see that feature thru my phone. Heybales is correct, the exercise in mfp is meaningless since Fitbit does not see it. I remember disabling exercise because at one point mfp was subtracting by default. I don’t think it’s on default anymore.

You can't disable exercise unless you're a premium member. What I think you're talking about is the negative calorie feature, which will subtract calories if you are less active for the day than MFP expects.