Fitbit Manual Logging

Nativestar56

I spent 5 hours working on my allotment today. It was light constant activity, no sitting down. My fitbit didn't track this and I think has underestimated my steps for today which is fine, its not cardio and its not step based activity.

So I've tried to manually log the activity on the app (I estimated 450 calories) and I've gone from a calorie adjustment of -30 to +208! How does manually adding 450 calories result in having 238 less calories?! I've only had my fitbit a month and I've figured out most things but this is really confusing me.

PAV8888

Your manually logged activity REPLACES what Fitbit detected during the *same time frame* to avoid double crediting you for the same activity.

Not only my that but your adjustment is the difference between what Fitbit knows and what mfp knows.

If MFP "knows" you will spend 2k calories and Fitbit knows 2.5 you get a 500 adjustment.

If MFP knows 2.5k and Fitbit knows 2.5k you get a zero exercise adjustment.

GottaBurnEmAll

A better idea is to go to your Fitbit account, click the log tab, and select Activities. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and search for Gardening.

It will then ask you to enter the time you started and stopped working and give you credit for that exercise during that time.

Nativestar56

@PAV8888 sorry, I wasn't clear in my post. I used the Fitbit app to add the activity not MFP. But that that's still useful to know, thank you.

@GottaBurnEmAll thanks for the suggestion, is that on the website dashboard? I tried that too but it gave me a +500 adjustment on MFP.

GottaBurnEmAll

Nativestar56 wrote: »

@PAV8888 sorry, I wasn't clear in my post. I used the Fitbit app to add the activity not MFP. But that that's still useful to know, thank you.

@GottaBurnEmAll thanks for the suggestion, is that on the website dashboard? I tried that too but it gave me a +500 adjustment on MFP.

Well, that's close to what you were looking for, wasn't it? A 450 calorie burn that you estimated, right? Looks like you were pretty close.

Nativestar56

No, I was after a -450 adjustment, meaning if I ate 2000 calories I would only net 1550. What I got was 2000 calories plus 500 and therefore my net was 2500.

PAV8888

Nativestar56 wrote: »

No, I was after a -450 adjustment, meaning if I ate 2000 calories I would only net 1550. What I got was 2000 calories plus 500 and therefore my net was 2500.

Either you're confused or I'm confused. But confusion reigns supreme as of right now
Some of it may be that we each understand something different by what we're each saying.

So, here's a pretend example based on how I understand the various terms.

My eating goal is 2000 Cal for a 500 Cal a day deficit. My MFP NEAT = 2500 and my eating goal = 2000 NET calories to be consumed

MFP, after considering the input from Fitbit, thinks that I will end my day at 2470 Cal (Thus Fitbit TDEE=2470. Because Fitbit TDEE trumps MFP's NEAT based pre-estimate MFP adjusts to the Fitbit TDEE).

And thus I get a -30 adjustment because my actual TDEE of 2470 is lower than my MFP pre-selected activity setting of 2500.

My eating goal for the day is now 1970 Cal. My original 2000 goal plus -30 as an adjustment yielding 1970 Calories and preserving my 500 Cal deficit which would have otherwise shrunk to 470 Cal.

After I muck around with various settings and activities, MFP, after considering the new input from Fitbit, thinks that I will end the day at 2708 Cal.

I now get a +208 Cal adjustment because my actual TDEE is projected at 2708, which is higher than my pre-selected activity level of 2500.

My eating goal for the day is now 2208 preserving the originally selected 500 Cal deficit instead of allowing for a potentially undesirable larger deficit (sized at 708 Calories) to be created.

Using the terms as per my example... could you re-describe what happened to you?

PAV8888

The explanation as to why fitbit tdee would only increase by 208 when you enter a 450 Cal exercise has already been given: the 450 exercise REPLACES activity that was detected during that time interval so the total for the day will change by 450 less what was there already

GottaBurnEmAll

I thought I posted a reply similar to yours Pav, but I guess I didn't. I'm as confused as you are.

PAV8888

I am curious if @Nativestar56 ever figured this out? Was it a glitch? misunderstanding? Different time zones in MFP and Fitbit?

Orphia

Nativestar56 wrote: »

No, I was after a -450 adjustment, meaning if I ate 2000 calories I would only net 1550. What I got was 2000 calories plus 500 and therefore my net was 2500.

Could be because you're supposed to eat your exercise calories.

Nativestar56

@PAV8888

Sorry for the delay in replying. I think I was explaining it poorly. And I'm also leaning towards it being a glitch because none of these numbers really add up like your example.

My MFP NEAT = 2190 and my eating goal = 1940 NET. Fitbit says I actually ended the day on 1852.

On the homepage (MFP) I had 2,283 (food) - 31 (exercise) = 2252 (net)

This doesn't accurately reflect how active I was. So I tried to log 450 calories of gardening on fitbit's app then came back to MFP to find it had changed to:

2283 (food) + 208 (exercise) = 2491 (net)

So by logging 450 calories worth of activity it is now saying I've been less active by an extra 208 calories!

I just had a fiddle today by logging a dummy 300cal of gardening and fitbit immediately gave me 300 more calories to eat which is what I expected on Sunday. So I really think something weird was going on.