Do you Use MFP or FitBit's Calorie Allowance

karirenae
karirenae Posts: 106 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So, my fitbit shows I have, for example, 218 calories left to be "in the zone". I have ate 775 calories and burned 1533. MFP shows I have 781 calories left. It is set at 1200 and I only let fitbit log the exercise. I do NOT understand which one I should go by. I feel that if I go by FitBit, I will be straving by the end of the day, if i use MFP, I will feel like a cow! ANy suggestions is helpful. I dont know which I should use :( BTW, I am sedentry, have a desk job, average about 10k steps a day, at most, on work days.

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Follow MFP's food goals. Fitbit works differently and starts extremely low, adding as you move. That said, you are NOT sedentary if you get 10,000 steps a day. You may want to evaluate if 1200 calories (plus your adjustment from Fitbit) is an appropriate goal for you.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Agree with malibu. The two systems use different algorithm's so you likely will never get them to match. You also need to understand how the two work together - which I've had good success in trusting the data when both of them are synced.

    You enter your stats, a goal weight, an activity level and a goal rate of loss in MFP. It provides a calorie estimate for you which is excluding exercise. If you exercise, you should add in and eat back at least some of those calories. That's where FitBit comes in.

    You enter similar information in FitBit but instead of providing an activity level - it measures how active you are from your steps, your heart rate, etc. It counts not only your exercise, but all of your activity for the day. It sends periodic updates to MFP telling it how many calories you've burned in total, and the exercise adjustment you see from MFP is the difference between what MFP thought you'd burn based on your original inputs, and what FitBit says you actually burn. If you are seeing higher adjustments than you thought you would, it means you are more active then MFP is expecting.

    If you are averaging 10K steps/ day, you are not sedentary. You are at least lightly active.

    The numbers you provided suggest that while your original goal in MFP is 1200, FitBit is saying that you've been active enough today that your adjustment is 356 calories, right? So your updated goal would be 1,556 calories and eating this amount would enable you to still lose weight at the desired rate of loss.

    This doesn't sound unreasonable to me at all - what are your stats, how much weight are you trying to lose, and what rate of loss did you select?

    For reference I'm 5'2, also with a desk job, and lost most of my weight (~35 lbs) with a FitBit synced to MFP and eating 1600-1900 cals/day.



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