Fitness tracking

shalenemassie

I have a Fitbit connected that is tracking my steps. I also have MapMyRun connected. If I log a run and also my steps are being tracked, is that double adding my exercise? When I am jogging, I know I’m burning more calories then just my steps from the Fitbit tracking. Do I just need one connected for an accurate assessment?

UltraRunnerGale

I found this to be a problem as well. Only connect one device or app and add anything extra by hand.

4legsRbetterthan2

It shouldn't double count as long as the start time for your run in correct, shouldn't be a problem if its syncing through mapmyrun but if you put it in manually be careful.

BrianSharpe

shalenemassie wrote: »

I have a Fitbit connected that is tracking my steps. I also have MapMyRun connected. If I log a run and also my steps are being tracked, is that double adding my exercise? When I am jogging, I know I’m burning more calories then just my steps from the Fitbit tracking. Do I just need one connected for an accurate assessment?

Yes, you'd be double dipping by counting both. I also find it troubling that activity trackers treat moving around the office, buying groceries and other day-to-day activities as exercise when they should be already accounted for in your activity level and only purposeful exercise should be logged.

FWIW running burns roughly double the number of calories per mile than walking does (unless you're race walking)

heybales

No you won't be double counting - because Fitbit is a replace-only system.

So Fitbit will have it's stats for the block of time with start time X and duration Y.

MMR will send a workout to MFP, which will then send it to Fitbit with same start time X and duration Y (if time zones are correct) - and replace whatever Fitbit had.

The big problem I see is that MMR has been shown to have some very inflated calorie burns.

So you'll be replacing the potentially more accurate Fitbit calorie burn with the inflated one.

But I'd confirm that Fitbit sees your running distance correct for your average pace.
Then you can keep the Fitbit estimated calorie burn.

And if you get lots of steps - confirm walking a known distance of 1/2 mile or longer at average daily pace (not grocery store shuffle, not exercise level) to confirm your stride length is correct.

Since it's distance that gives calorie burn for daily activity level stuff - that correction could be needed.

You can review your 24 hr charts to confirm no calorie burn spikes or assumed workouts are occurring as described above - which is the issue if HR and steps spike high enough for long enough then Fitbit assumes a workout started and does HR-based calorie burn.
Which is inflated for daily activity.

But for average person with no medical issues causing inflated HR all the time, that doesn't happen.
That's why Fitbit and others monitor for resting HR, to get a clue when the exercise level HR is starting.