Fitbit exercise vs daily activity calories earned

JuliBiGoolee

I have my profile set as exercise lightly (I'm a teacher, on my feet 8 hours, up and down stairs). Most days I am between 7k and 10k steps. So my Fitbit is synced to MFP and it gives me 400-1000 extra exercise calories simply in daily steps. As of now, I don't do much extra exercise, except maybe 2 mile walk pushing a stroller. My question is, do i eat those calories, some, or disregard since MFP already accounts for daily light activity?

malibu927

Eat them. That’s what MFP is designed for. The adjustment you get from Fitbit is what you’ve burned above your suggested maintenance calories. Just be cautious as some people aren’t able to eat back all of the calories...start with 50% to be safe and adjust after a month based on your loss.

Lillymoo01

I'd be cautious eating them all back. 1000 extra calories for 10000 steps seems way too generous.

Leannep2201

I’m also a teacher, and my Fitbit also gives me a lot of extra calories. I tend not to eat them back- but I’m losing at a good rate, so I suspect that I probably could eat some of them back, and still lose.
I agree with malibu.... maybe try eating just some of them back for a month or so, see what happens, and adjust up or down as needed.

Dani9585

I think 1000 calories for 10000 steps is a bit generous as well. I'd start at eating back 500-600 calories. Others may have a better idea on the amount though.

WinoGelato

Leannep2201 wrote: »

I’m also a teacher, and my Fitbit also gives me a lot of extra calories. I tend not to eat them back- but I’m losing at a good rate, so I suspect that I probably could eat some of them back, and still lose.
I agree with malibu.... maybe try eating just some of them back for a month or so, see what happens, and adjust up or down as needed.

Why have the two devices synced if you aren’t going to use them the way they are designed? Why ignore the information that your activity tracker is providing you?

People who distrust the FitBit adjustments often have underestimated their activity level (ie set at Sedentary when they average 7k or more steps/day) or they’ve chosen a very aggressive rate of loss and FitBit is trying to keep their calories up to a level representative of their total burn.

That’s all those adjustments are - a true up of what MFP thinks you would burn with no exercise, and what FitBit says you actually burn. Not eating any of them back could yield very low net calorie intakes which can have negative consequences. Losing weight too rapidly and not fueling your body with minimum amounts of calories and nutrition can result in loss of lean body mass, hair loss, fatigue, etc.

OP I have a FitBit and have been using it synced with MFP for about 4 years. I lost the weight I set out to lose and am currently in maintenance - I’ve always eaten back the calorie adjustments and it did not deter my progress.

WinoGelato

JuliBiGoolee wrote: »

I have my profile set as exercise lightly (I'm a teacher, on my feet 8 hours, up and down stairs). Most days I am between 7k and 10k steps. So my Fitbit is synced to MFP and it gives me 400-1000 extra exercise calories simply in daily steps. As of now, I don't do much extra exercise, except maybe 2 mile walk pushing a stroller. My question is, do i eat those calories, some, or disregard since MFP already accounts for daily light activity?

So you have your activity level set at lightly active? You called it exercise lightly and exercise estimates aren’t used on MFP to calculate a goal, so I just want to make sure we are talking about the same thing.

How much weight are you trying to lose?
What rate of loss have you chosen?
What calorie target did MFP provide.

As I mentioned above, yes you’re meant to eat back those calories because they are a true up of what MFP thought you’d burn based on the stats you entered, and what FitBit says you burned in total that day. If MFP thinks your NEAT calorie burn is 1700 cals, and you burn 1900, then you would get a 200 cal adjustment. It still accounts for your deficit as well. If you use the MFP app you can click on the exercise adjustment in your diary, click more info, and see how the math was calculated. Check it for a full day, check a couple of them and then compare it to the data in your FitBit app to make sure everything is aligned if you’re concerned.

Enabling negative adjustments helps keep things on track for days when you truly are less active - ill, lazy weekend days, long road trips, etc.

Good luck!

bfanny

Why have the two devices synced if you aren’t going to use them the way they are designed? Why ignore the information that your activity tracker is providing you?

People who distrust the FitBit adjustments often have underestimated their activity level (ie set at Sedentary when they average 7k or more steps/day) or they’ve chosen a very aggressive rate of loss and FitBit is trying to keep their calories up to a level representative of their total burn.

That’s all those adjustments are - a true up of what MFP thinks you would burn with no exercise, and what FitBit says you actually burn. Not eating any of them back could yield very low net calorie intakes which can have negative consequences. Losing weight too rapidly and not fueling your body with minimum amounts of calories and nutrition can result in loss of lean body mass, hair loss, fatigue, etc.

OP I have a FitBit and have been using it synced with MFP for about 4 years. I lost the weight I set out to lose and am currently in maintenance - I’ve always eaten back the calorie adjustments and it did not deter my progress. [/quote]

@WinoGelato (love your username )

Awesome reply!!!
May I ask you, when you were losing how did you set your activity level on MFP? Is it true that you get less “credit” from Fitbit if you set it as Active? Is it better to say you are “lightly active” get less Daily Cals (1,240 VS 1,500) and then eat what you get extra for being Active?
That’s where I get confused!

WinoGelato

bfanny wrote: »

Why have the two devices synced if you aren’t going to use them the way they are designed? Why ignore the information that your activity tracker is providing you?

People who distrust the FitBit adjustments often have underestimated their activity level (ie set at Sedentary when they average 7k or more steps/day) or they’ve chosen a very aggressive rate of loss and FitBit is trying to keep their calories up to a level representative of their total burn.

That’s all those adjustments are - a true up of what MFP thinks you would burn with no exercise, and what FitBit says you actually burn. Not eating any of them back could yield very low net calorie intakes which can have negative consequences. Losing weight too rapidly and not fueling your body with minimum amounts of calories and nutrition can result in loss of lean body mass, hair loss, fatigue, etc.

OP I have a FitBit and have been using it synced with MFP for about 4 years. I lost the weight I set out to lose and am currently in maintenance - I’ve always eaten back the calorie adjustments and it did not deter my progress.

@WinoGelato (love your username )

Awesome reply!!!
May I ask you, when you were losing how did you set your activity level on MFP? Is it true that you get less “credit” from Fitbit if you set it as Active? Is it better to say you are “lightly active” get less Daily Cals and then eat what you get extra for being Active?
That’s where I get confused![/quote]

When I first got my FitBit about 6 months after starting on MFP I had my activity level set at Sedentary. I was getting pretty big adjustments and I was also skeptical. I got good advice on these boards that since I was averaging about 8k steps/day that wasn’t Sedentary. So I changed my activity level to lightly active, my baseline cals from MFP went up, and my exercise adjustments were lower which was fine, I felt it more representative of my actual exercise. Enabling negative adjustments keeps it realistic when I’m more Sedentary than normal. Now, a few years later, I average 12-15k steps a day and I’m set at active. I’m in maintenance now but my baseline cals from MFP are about 1850. Since my total cal burn from FitBit is usually around 2100-2300 I get adjustments of 250 or more and I usually eat them all back.

Hope that helps.

bfanny

@WinoGelato
It helps! That makes more sense...My Daily steps are 12k and above 6 days/week, and like you said at “lightly Active” I get a lot of extra cals, that make me doubt, I tried not eating all of them but knowing that they are “available “ I end up eating most = Plateau or Maintenance!
I think my Fitbit app knows better...I’m always over my target My new week starts tomorrow, I’ll make the adjustments and see what happens, maybe I’ll be able to lose “the last 5”
I’m excited..Thank you!!!

WinoGelato

bfanny wrote: »

@WinoGelato
It helps! That makes more sense...My Daily steps are 12k and above 6 days/week, and like you said at “lightly Active” I get a lot of extra cals, that make me doubt, I tried not eating all of them but knowing that they are “available “ I end up eating most = Plateau or Maintenance!
I think my Fitbit app knows better...I’m always over my target My new week starts tomorrow, I’ll make the adjustments and see what happens, maybe I’ll be able to lose “the last 5”
I’m excited..Thank you!!!

I never look at available cals in FItBit. They use different algorithms. Also with just 5 lbs to lose, an expectation of 0.5 lb loss per week is reasonable and will help you transition into maintenance: The good news is that since you have a FitBit and some data from an extended period of time, you have a good estimate of your TDEE - the total cals burned average will give you a great start at estimating your maintenance cals.

bfanny

@WinoGelato I think I Got it!
My TDEE according to my Fitbit is between 2,000-2,300 I can’t believe that I could eat that many cals and maintain!
I want to cut 500 from my daily to be safe you know “miscalculations” or a Splurge here and there...Maybe 1,500 - 1,600 would get me “there”

Sorry OP I hijacked your thread

PAV8888

Over 3+ years of data, admittedly with fairly careful logging and using my trending weight from trendweight.com for my calculations, I have no three month or longer time period where my (as evidenced) TDEE was not not at least 96% of the TDEE shown by Fitbit, with no single monthly period failing to reach 90%

The adjustment corrects the pre-selected mfp caloric value to the final Fitbit provided value. A higher starting point means less of an adjustment and vice versa.

debrag12

I average between 12000 - 17000 steps a day. What would be seen as too big an adjustment?

WinoGelato

debrag12 wrote: »

I average between 12000 - 17000 steps a day. What would be seen as too big an adjustment?

There’s not enough information here to make that assessment and even with more info (what activity level did you choose, what rate of loss, what baseline calorie target did you select, what does FitBit say your average total calorie burn is) it all depends on what results you are actually seeing as to whether the adjustments and the info provided is accurate for you.

JuliBiGoolee

I guess I'm confused by how the lightly active MFP level plays into how many calories I get? I'm set to lose 1.5 lbs a week, I'm currently 198 lbs. My calories per day, with a lightly active setting is 1,530. So is the 1530 already taking into account I'm lightly active? I'm not disregarding my Fitbit, I'm just not sure if it is the same as my lightly active calories added already, hence my question. To eat or not?

JuliBiGoolee

Also, I never look at the calories fit bit gives me, only MFP.

Maxxitt

JuliBiGoolee wrote: »

I guess I'm confused by how the lightly active MFP level plays into how many calories I get? I'm set to lose 1.5 lbs a week, I'm currently 198 lbs. My calories per day, with a lightly active setting is 1,530. So is the 1530 already taking into account I'm lightly active? I'm not disregarding my Fitbit, I'm just not sure if it is the same as my lightly active calories added already, hence my question. To eat or not?

quoting from a post from 3 years ago from @SezzyStef

"1) <5000 steps.d (sedentary);
2) 5000-7499 steps.d (low active);
3) 7500-9999 steps.d (somewhat active);
4) > or =10,000-12,499 steps.d (active); and
5) > or =12,500 steps.d (highly active)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14715035 "

What always worked best for me at the beginning of my weight loss journey when I had about 50# to lose was to set my activity level at "sedentary" and then take the calorie deduction as determined by my fitbit. Every 10# I lost I would re-set my MFP data AND my fitbit data. As I got lighter, the calorie deduction also lessened, and my personal data showed that the CI-CO equation was pretty accurate.

In the final analysis, it's ALL estimates, so what really matters is what your own data tell you. As an experiment, you could "eat back" 50% of the calories and re-assess after a month.

JuliBiGoolee

Maxxitt wrote: »

JuliBiGoolee wrote: »

I guess I'm confused by how the lightly active MFP level plays into how many calories I get? I'm set to lose 1.5 lbs a week, I'm currently 198 lbs. My calories per day, with a lightly active setting is 1,530. So is the 1530 already taking into account I'm lightly active? I'm not disregarding my Fitbit, I'm just not sure if it is the same as my lightly active calories added already, hence my question. To eat or not?

quoting from a post from 3 years ago from @SezzyStef

"1) <5000 steps.d (sedentary);
2) 5000-7499 steps.d (low active);
3) 7500-9999 steps.d (somewhat active);
4) > or =10,000-12,499 steps.d (active); and
5) > or =12,500 steps.d (highly active)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14715035 "

What always worked best for me at the beginning of my weight loss journey when I had about 50# to lose was to set my activity level at "sedentary" and then take the calorie deduction as determined by my fitbit. Every 10# I lost I would re-set my MFP data AND my fitbit data. As I got lighter, the calorie deduction also lessened, and my personal data showed that the CI-CO equation was pretty accurate.

In the final analysis, it's ALL estimates, so what really matters is what your own data tell you. As an experiment, you could "eat back" 50% of the calories and re-assess after a month.

Thanks, it seems my Fitbit adjusts my weight when I change it on MFP. I just looked on the Fitbit app and it has my most recent weight entered on MFP. Here's the thing, I've been logging religiously since 4/3/18, weighing/ measuring food, scanning bar codes, not earring out, keeping my macros in check, drinking my water. Kept my calories just under the daily limit of 1530 (completely igniting my earned exercise calories). I went from 205 on 4/3 to 198.6 last Sunday... same weight today. I'm not exactly melting away the pounds at this point. I'm afraid to eat more calories.

PAV8888

Connect trendweight.com to Fitbit.com. a single entry on Fitbit pushes the weight to all three apps including MFP. Look at your trend over 4 to 6 weeks to account for hormonal cycles.

Use MFP food report (or whatever you want) function to jot calories in on a spreadsheet. It currently has a maximum of 45 days, so you can do months

Use Fitbit.com export function to export your calories out and steps.

You can then come up with something similar to what I do for myself to gauge how reliably my recorded burns and intake match what my weight does and then take that into account when setting up goals.

Consistent logging helps with all that. Also I note that I do not enter exercise on MFP, only on fitbit. And that I only enter food on MFP, not on fitbit.

The size of divergence will vary among people, but a consistent measurement is all that is needed to make a general decision about the size of adjustment that you need to meet your goals.


https://v.gd/ukayiq

(link is to Google drive Sheet spreadsheet. if you use an incognito tab Google will not insist on knowing the Google account that is seeking access. This link will be broken in the future in the context of my occasional review of content I share)