Fitbit question -- exercise calories

0somuchbetter0
0somuchbetter0 Posts: 1,335 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've done a search of past posts and can't find an answer to my question, so please bear with me if this has already been discussed.

I just got an Alta HR and started using it today. I went to a cycling class earlier, which I used to just log in MFP as "Spinning." When I went to the MFP app to log it, I see that the Fitbit has logged 5745 steps (560 calories) under exercise. Do I consider this my cycling class, or is this just part of my regular steps? If the latter, why is it logging it as exercise? I walk my dogs every morning...I walk to my car...I walk to the gym from work...but I don't count that as exercise. I don't want to assume that I have 560 "extra" calories if it's just regular walking, moving, and BMR calories. Should I just leave it alone and see how it plays out, or should I disable this feature and go back to logging my exercise manually?

Thanks for any insight or advice!

Replies

  • MonkeyMel21
    MonkeyMel21 Posts: 2,396 Member
    It will log any activity like walking/biking/etc done for at least 15 minutes as an exercise. You can change that in the settings if you like. It probably had such a high calorie count because you were actually working out and your heart rate was elevated. When I go for a 30 minute walk, my calorie burn is more like 120 calories. Also, it will have more accurate calorie counts after a couple weeks. Take everything it shows you for the first few days with a grain of salt.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Fitbit is logging all of your activity and making calorie adjustments based on that activity as compared to what you set your activity level to in MFP. All activity beyond your activity level setting counts
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    0somuchbetter0 wrote: »
    I've done a search of past posts and can't find an answer to my question, so please bear with me if this has already been discussed.

    I just got an Alta HR and started using it today. I went to a cycling class earlier, which I used to just log in MFP as "Spinning." When I went to the MFP app to log it, I see that the Fitbit has logged 5745 steps (560 calories) under exercise. Do I consider this my cycling class, or is this just part of my regular steps? If the latter, why is it logging it as exercise? I walk my dogs every morning...I walk to my car...I walk to the gym from work...but I don't count that as exercise. I don't want to assume that I have 560 "extra" calories if it's just regular walking, moving, and BMR calories. Should I just leave it alone and see how it plays out, or should I disable this feature and go back to logging my exercise manually?

    Thanks for any insight or advice!

    The Fitbit adjustment is an activity level correction.

    It includes any calories burned that are above what your MFP activity level is set to. This means it accounts for exercise and anything you do that is above what you set MFP to do.

    Specifically the math works out to be:

    Fitbit calorie burn - MFP estimated burn = +/- adjustment

    If you tap your Fitbit adjustment, it will take you to a new page. Tap the adjustment numbers one more time and it will take you to the math behind your adjustment.

    If you have MFP set to Sedentary, you will likely see a large adjustment that will only increase as the day goes on. All that walking you have going on will definitely put you well above Sedentary activity and Fitbit is going to adjust for that.

    If you are set at a higher activity level than the adjustment will decrease after periods of inactivity.

  • 0somuchbetter0
    0somuchbetter0 Posts: 1,335 Member
    I think I'm starting to understand -- thank you for the suggestions! I went into my settings (for the first time in a LONG time) and made a couple of adjustments -- it's allowing me to eat fewer calories now, but not a huge difference. Now that I'm back in my office and will spend the next two hours sitting at my desk, I'm curious to see how the adjustment changes.
  • ghudson92
    ghudson92 Posts: 2,061 Member
    If you have your fitbit and mfp synced then you don't need to log your exercises on the mfp app. Fitbit doesn't always recognise what exercise it is you're doing, ie it records my spin class as a run, but the main thing is that is records the calorie burn.
  • 0somuchbetter0
    0somuchbetter0 Posts: 1,335 Member
    ghudson92 wrote: »
    If you have your fitbit and mfp synced then you don't need to log your exercises on the mfp app. Fitbit doesn't always recognise what exercise it is you're doing, ie it records my spin class as a run, but the main thing is that is records the calorie burn.

    Yes, I get that. By the end of the day yesterday it had given me a calorie correction of over 650 calories, but I pretty much ignored that because I ate plenty and felt fine. I haven't yet worked out today -- sitting in my office -- and it's already logged 3500 steps but 0 adjustment calories, which tells me the Fitbit is smarter than I gave it credit for. Yesterday it noted that I put in a lot of "steps" (cycle class) in a short period of time, so it knew I was exercising, whereas now it knows that I'm just sitting here drinking coffee. :smile:

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