Fitbit sync question

Tumbles617

My Fitbit syncs my steps to mfp. When I workout I hit the exercise button and when I’m done I shut it off. Since mfp updates from my steps from my workout from the Fitbit
Do I have to also input my exercise and calories burned?

For example I burned 330 calories working out. When I did the sync it gave me 274 calories from the steps.
Do I also enter the calories burned from the workout manually ?

janejellyroll

No, if you have a synced device you don't need to log your workout manually on MFP. The Fitbit will do all the adjustments for you.

Note: the Fitbit adjustment you're seeing isn't your total calorie burn from your workout. It's adjusting for the difference between the activity MFP assumed you'd be doing given the activity level you set and your *actual* activity determined by the Fitbit. This is why many people find that their adjustments are smaller than the total workout burn. This is a good thing because it prevents you from "double dipping" into calories.

Tumbles617

Thank you for your reply
I realized I put this in the wrong category lol

I don’t eat my burned calories but I like to see them.
Do you think it would be more accurate to not sync the Fitbit and just manually enter my calories burned (the amount on my watch)

Or should I just use the Fitbit sync and be done with it?

I was bummed because the sync only gave me 274 calories burned but my watch said 331 lol

janejellyroll

I would consider it to be much more accurate to sync the Fitbit. The "missing" calories are calories that you already had in your base calorie allowance due to the activity level you entered in MFP, but you haven't "earned." If you decide to manually enter 331 instead, you're "double dipping" into your calories.

Example: I tell Fitbit I am lightly active and get a calorie allowance of 1,600 calories a day (these numbers are completely made up, just to illustrate the point). I do a workout and Fitbit tells me that I've burned 300 calories from the workout.

But on this particular day, let's say, I'm NOT lightly active. Other than my workout, I pretty much stick around the house because there's a global pandemic and I'm stuck in my apartment. I burn fewer calories than I estimated, so MFP and Fitbit do the adjustment together and they give me just 150 extra calories. Why? Well, because those other 150 calories were already given to me at the beginning of the day because MFP thought I was going to be more active today.

If I overrode that and ate the additional 150 calories, I'd be consuming more than I need on this particular day. For one day, no big deal. But happening regularly, this could be enough to result in slower-than-expected weight loss (if I'm in a deficit) or even weight gain (if I'm trying to maintain). The goal is to get as close to the number of calories I'm actually using as possible.

You're still "getting" the 57 calories, but you didn't earn them through your workout. They were given to you at the beginning of the day with your base calorie goal and you didn't move enough to actually "earn" them on top of what you already have.

I hope this makes sense, it can take a bit to understand how Fitbit and MFP actually work together. It's trying to give you a more holistic view of how many calories you're actually using throughout the entire day. The activity level that you enter into MFP is going to play a big role in when you see adjustments and how big they are.

Tumbles617

This was extremely helpful and yes it is confusing lol

I chose sedentary because I want the least amount of calories... also because I’m trying to change habits and I’m not very consistent with purposeful exercise and I have a desk job