Updating caloric needs automatically with fitbit

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torjunk12
torjunk12 Posts: 11
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey MFP community!

Hoping I can get some help here. I'm at the point in my body composition goals that I want to start adding some muscle to my frame. I would like to be able to use MFP to help me calculate my caloric needs, as it's been great during the weight loss portion of my diet.

I'm having some trouble however with adding calories to my app, as it doesn't seem to have a way to always keep my calories needed above my calories burned. It seems to only be able to set a generic goal for calories. (even very active under the profile setting only gives me 2500, and I burn 2700 without exercise on avg. per day)

For example, let's say I want to always eat 250 calories a day more than I burn, is there a way I can set MFP to increase the calories needed by 250 as my exercise increases the calories burned throughout the day. I should add that I'm using the fitbit one via syncing to track my calorie burn.

The problem I'm seeing is that my calories burned will obviously be different every day, I guess I'm looking for a way for MFP to always be 250 calories per day over my caloric output, is this possible? Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks all in advance and good luck with everyone's goals!

Replies

  • torjunk12
    torjunk12 Posts: 11
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    /24 hour bump, still need help! Even a "MFP can't do that" would be fine. :)
  • Blitz_40
    Blitz_40 Posts: 110 Member
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    Have you tried customizing the calorie goals?
  • torjunk12
    torjunk12 Posts: 11
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    That does work to a point, but only if I manually enter every day, and as the day progresses so do the numbers, which would mean I would be having to manually change my calorie needs every time my fitbit syncs with my MFP. It's currently what I'm doing but kinda a pain in the butt, was hoping for an auto-correct function that would just keep my calories ahead of my output consistently.

    The MFP app isn't designed for those with weight gain in mind I realize, but I'm hoping there's a way to use it for that purpose as well since it's been great during the weight loss portion over the last 8 months.
  • Blitz_40
    Blitz_40 Posts: 110 Member
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    I wonder what would happen if you disabled the calorie estimation in the Fitbit settings? I'm just trying to think of ways......:smile:
  • Willbenchforcupcakes
    Willbenchforcupcakes Posts: 4,955 Member
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    I've found setting my mfp profile to gain 1/2lb a week is working.
  • torjunk12
    torjunk12 Posts: 11
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    Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'm still struggling to get this to work correctly, as wobbspsfl said setting my profile does set me ahead 250 calories from the "very active" setting (around 2550 calories), but unfortunately I burn more than the very active setting tells me without any "set" exercising, thus rendering it incorrect for me on the totals, especially when I input my set exercises manually in addition. I think you should be able to set what "very active" means, as it's probably different from person to person (age, gender, specific daily activity, etc.)

    What I need/would like MFP to do is let me set a positive net calorie total incorporating my fitbit adjustments (i.e. if fitbit says I'm burning 2700 calories MFP would bump me up to 2950 or whatever amount I wish to stay ahead of). I'm probably asking for the moon, but would be nice! :wink:

    If anyone else has this problem, the best solution I've found is to turn off negative fitbit adjustments, find your average calorie burn over a length of time (2 weeks + I would recommend, I'm using 30 day report through the fitbit website) and set MFP to a specific calorie goal (+250 of whatever my average is in my case). The rest is just monitoring and adjusting as needed based off best guess scenarios. Hope this helps anyone else looking to manage their intake while bulking! :smile:
  • RM10003
    RM10003 Posts: 316 Member
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    What I need/would like MFP to do is let me set a positive net calorie total incorporating my fitbit adjustments (i.e. if fitbit says I'm burning 2700 calories MFP would bump me up to 2950 or whatever amount I wish to stay ahead of). I'm probably asking for the moon, but would be nice! :wink:

    Isn't that what it does? I mean yes, you do have to wait until you've done the activity for Fitbit to count it and feed it over to MFP. But if you know you burn 2700 without even doing anything, just give yourself that 200 in your mind/meal planning every day since you know you're going to get it anyway.

    Also a little confused why you'd have negative Fitbit adjustments on in the first place if you always burn more than your activity level suggests you should. It sounds a bit like overthinking to me, but then again, I'm losing, not bulking, so we do have different needs from Fitbit/MFP.
  • torjunk12
    torjunk12 Posts: 11
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    What I need/would like MFP to do is let me set a positive net calorie total incorporating my fitbit adjustments (i.e. if fitbit says I'm burning 2700 calories MFP would bump me up to 2950 or whatever amount I wish to stay ahead of). I'm probably asking for the moon, but would be nice! :wink:

    Isn't that what it does? I mean yes, you do have to wait until you've done the activity for Fitbit to count it and feed it over to MFP. But if you know you burn 2700 without even doing anything, just give yourself that 200 in your mind/meal planning every day's since you know you're going to get it anyway.

    Also a little confused why you'd have negative Fitbit adjustments on in the first place if you always burn more than your activity level
    suggests you should. It sounds a bit like overthinking to me, but then again, I'm losing, not bulking, so we do have different needs
    from Fitbit/MFP.


    I had negative on during my loss phase, was just making sure others knew to turn it off as part of the process. MFP doesn't adjust to the positive for calories the same way it does for negative, or burned. If you need more calories it doesn't have the ability to show you that unless you monitor/change them yourself manually, if you outburn their preset activity levels.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
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    I don't know anything about the fitbit, but you need to set you mpf goal to gain .5lb/wk. It will give you extra calories on gain, regardless of activity level set, but will also add extra calories as you enter the exercises you do an the calories burned. I never rely on the activity setting to give me my total calories for the day, I enter them manually in exercise. Even though I am very active, I set my activity setting to sedentary (basically my BMR), then log all intentional exercise.
  • torjunk12
    torjunk12 Posts: 11
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    I don't know anything about the fitbit, but you need to set you mpf goal to gain .5lb/wk. It will give you extra calories on gain, regardless of activity level set, but will also add extra calories as you enter the exercises you do an the calories burned. I never rely on the activity setting to give me my total calories for the day, I enter them manually in exercise. Even though I am very active, I set my activity setting to sedentary (basically my BMR), then log all intentional exercise.


    This is a good suggestion, thank you! The fitbit basically does what you do manually for me automatically (logs steps and provides calorie burn through body composition/age calculations) It provides an adjustment to MFP if I go over the calories burned MFP sets up automatically for me. The problem lies in the fact that when it does that, MFP doesn't adjust their +250 calorie (1/2 pound per week) accordingly and you still end up just having to do the mental math to make up the difference. Not a huge pain, but just something I wish MFP would be able to do for me.

    1st world problems I know, right?

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