FitBit steps to calories

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danap1973
danap1973 Posts: 3 Member
in Getting Started
Yesterday I had just over 10,000 steps and MFP gave me 800ish calories. Today I walked just over 10,000 again and MFP gave me 33. Huh? Is this a known issue? An 800 calorie deficit is a huge discrepancy!

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  • savannahs21
    savannahs21 Posts: 364 Member
    edited July 2019
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    My mom and I have had the same issue but after a few times of refreshing the page it worked itself out. It took a few hours though.
  • danap1973
    danap1973 Posts: 3 Member
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    So about 10 mins ago it jumped to 2300!!! And now it’s 30. Thirty. What?? Hopefully they fix this soon...
  • kdplaskon
    kdplaskon Posts: 7 Member
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    There seems to be a recent (past few days) issue with how MFP is applying extra calories from working out or activity. A few minutes ago MFP showed 461 extra calories after 7000 steps and an hour’s workout. Now it’s dropped to 19 extra. Yesterday with An hour of weights plus 20k steps I had an extra 790 calories. This mornings yesterdays log shows -19 extra calories. It also keeps changing the allocation as the app syncs. I think MFP has a recent issue in their algorithm.
  • U4RiiA
    U4RiiA Posts: 1 Member
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    I almost cried when I saw that my 10,000 steps today still weren't enough to earn a beer tonight! Then I looked through the week and noticed that my previous steps generated much fewer calories as well. I'm glad I'm not the only one - that means they'll likely know about the issue and work on it soon. Until then, have fun estimating, everyone!
  • linigh
    linigh Posts: 1 Member
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    I’m having the same problem. I got something like 30 calories added in for 7000 steps. Today 5600 steps gave me no calorie adjustment. Most days I’m not getting any calorie adjustment for steps. This is different from the past. Not sure what’s wrong
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Does someone having the issue feel like taking a picture of your Exercise Diary showing the Fitbit Adjustment?
    And then tap and hold on it - and take a pic of the details screen.

    How do those details compare to Fitbit - is calories burned so far matching, or close for the time stamp anyway?
  • audreypawdrey
    audreypawdrey Posts: 130 Member
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    @heybales Here are my snapshots for the day. I included my Apple Watch for comparison. I logged workouts (4 miles walking, strength, and yoga) on my Apple Watch. It doesn’t sync with MFP. I did not log workouts on my Fitbit, and it does sync with MFP. Steps are close between the Applenwatch and The Fitbit. I don’t think I actually had that many extra calorie burned as my Fitbit!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    So the Apple is tad difficult because they don't put everything together, and different timestamp.

    But their Move calories is above Sedentary, so 1078 daily activity above sedentary, not including exercise I think on that screen.
    So those workouts would be more yet calories above sedentary.

    MFP is saying you had 1935 estimated daily activity burn (FB 4681-2746 Adj) - if that is set for Sedentary, than:

    1935 + 1078 AW Move = 3013 + workouts you logged, which may have been less than the 4681 Fitbit is estimating you burned.
    That's just conjecture since not enough info available.

    MFP math is easy.

    Fitbit burn 4681 - 1935 MFP estimated daily - exercise 0 = 2746 Adjusted calories.

    base eating goal 1200 + 2746 Adjustment + 0 exercise = 3946 new eating goal.

    You've eaten 1505, so 3946-1505 = 2441 remaining.

    Some more math is done in there for 1.5 hrs to the day left, but won't worry about that since not enough details available.

    Now - you didn't give the details of the Adjustment on the Exercise Diary screen, so I'm assuming the 2746 and calculating the 1935 are based on 10:30 timestamp, but probably close enough. (Fitbit only syncs when new daily burn is 100 higher than last sync).

    So could almost 7.5 miles of activity and 18K steps with those workouts really burn 2746 more than Sedentary at about 4K steps and minimal distance?

    Your device probably inflated the strength and perhaps yoga if HR went up high enough - but unless it was for over 1 hr total, even 50% inflated isn't that many total calories, not out of rest of the active day.

    The distance for all those steps may be incorrect too, and that's what that calorie burn is based on - distance.

    Hence the reason for having accurate stride length setting when you get lots of steps.
    Very good tweak to have.

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