MFP/Fitbit Remaining Calories

catnlabs

It's been a few years but I'm returning to MFP to regain control of my body. I'm too embarrassed to mention my weight. Anyway, I'm 10 day into this and still motivated. I dusted off my Fitbit Surge and synched it to MFP. I don't understand my remaining calories. Today for example: My goal is 1470, Food is 1480, Exercise is 1782, Remaining is 1772. In my opinion, Fitbit is being overly generous with the exercise. This is simply steps from being at work, then I went for a 25 minute (1 mile) walk with the dogs. Help! What the heck is up with the 1772 extra calories? Only phone it doesn't show a Net but on the laptop is shows Net as -222.
Should I just disconnect the Fitbit and use it as a motivator to count steps and keep MFP to log in my food & exercise manually?
One more question: Is it worth upgrading to MFP Premium?

Thank for helping. : )

Cat

stargirlhorse

That sounds super glitchy! I have an Apple Watch and once it had the opposite problem, not registering steps. I just disconnected and reconnected it, and it ended up working for me. (*insert "did you try turning it on/off?" and "did you put it in rice?" meme*)

I'm not on MFP premium so I can't speak there.

Jacq_qui

Just to say there is a fitbit forum and some good faq's. It does sound like it's worth disconnecting as the above poster suggested

nanastaci2020

Do you have your activity level set correctly in MFP? How many steps do you take in an average day and did you select sedentary or lightly active or something else as your MFP activity level?

MFP and Fitbit both estimate your calories burned in a normal day based on your height, weight, age, gender. MFP does it by asking you for your activity level. Fitbit does it by estimating your actual movement. So those values are going to differ.

When you sync Fitbit to MFP, Fitbit sends over your 'actual' (according to Fitbit) burned so far for the day, and MFP adjusts its prediction based on that. So if you told MFP you're sedentary but your daily activity has you moving constantly, you're going to have a larger adjustment on a regular basis.

Example.

Lets say your BMR is 1800 which is 75 per hour.
You tell MFP you are sedentary. MFP uses a mutliplier (I'm not sure of the exact value) but lets go with 20%. So 20% of your BMR is 15 meaning MFP expects you to burn 90 cals per hour, or 2160 per day. You say you want to lose 1 pound per week so MFP says to eat 1560.

You use a Fitbit, and it tracks using BMR and established formulas for some things, and its own formulas (which may have errors). Looking at my data, I think they use BMR for when you're not moving.

Let's say you wake up at 6am and sync. Fitbit says you have not moved, you have burned 75 (BMR) x 6 hours = 450 cals so far. MFP says well you should have burned 90 x 6 (because MFP does not know when you are awake and when you are asleep and assumes a level rate) so you should be at 540. If you have negative adjustments enabled, you'd see a -90 on your 'adjustment'.

To continue with the example, you putter around doing misc around the house stuff to get ready for your day from 6-7am and you go for a run from 7am to 7:45 am then shower and by 8am Fitbit registers this activity (which is a combination of daily activity and exercise) to say you've burned an additional 410 calories so now you're at 860 burned so far as of 8am. MFP thinks you should have burned 8 x 90 or 720 so now you're at +90 adjustment.

Every time you sync, Fitbit sends a total calories burned as of RIGHT NOW # to MFP and MFP compares to what you should be at, and the adjustment updates.

So if you say you are sedentary (but you're pretty active thru your day) then you will get a lower starting calorie intake goal from MFP but a bigger adjustment. If you say you're active then your starting goal will be higher and your adjustment will be less.

Nothing wrong with assuming Fitbit has some rate of error, at least until you have data of your own to determine how close it is for you. And leave some of your adjustment 'uneaten' each day.

yirara

How many steps are you walking during work? Are you constantly on your feet?
Fitbit, and other trackers can overestimate calorie burns in people that have a higher than average heartrate. I get those numbers when I'm walking about 15-17km. Though I'm a at maintenance weight. Calorie burns are higher the heavier you are.

catnlabs

I am up and down on my feet throughout the day. It really varies between an office day and a moving around day. Fitbit says I have 7k yo 10k steps a day.
I have over 100 pounds to lose. I have myself marked as sedentary but it sounds like I need to change it to light active. I have been walking one mile almost daily. I hope to build up to more miles. Gyms aren’t open normal hours yet but I’ll probably join there when they open up.
Thanks for all the help, it’s very helpful. I’m going to reread all this and figure it out.

Strudders67

Your activity level in MFP should be based on what you typically do day-to-day in your job; purposeful exercise gets added / logged on top of that. If you're 50/50 between office / moving around, maybe you're the level above Sedentary, which is the setting for people who just sit at a desk all day.

heybales

That calorie adjustment is based on MFP correcting itself to what would normally be a better estimate than you picking from 4 rough levels.

But Fitbit could be wrong too.

Or if this is your first day using it synced - forget the numbers.

You've had a new day since yesterday - how did today look?

ETA - you did update your stats in your Fitbit account since long used - and synced your device before you started using for the day?