Benefits of Syncing Fitbit Steps with MFP - need some info

GerryD1221

Hi everyone, I’ve been using MFP for just over a week. A couple days ago I added my Fitbit steps to my calorie count for the day. How accurate is this process as it seems to give me a lot more calories to intake. I’m not using them all. Is anyone else doing this or can provide information on its accuracy...thx. G

QuilterInVA

It is very accurate. The recommendation is only eat back half hour exercise calories.

nanastaci2020

Accuracy will depend on the person...

Your Fitbit estimates your total calories burned in a day, based on your movement & your stats. This would include step-based activity, and other activity/exercise your Fitbit picks up. (Some models register more things.)

MFP estimates total calories burned for the day based on your stats and your stated activity level. Then you log exercise...

If you connect the 2, you can let Fitbit calculate all the calorie data and send it over to MFP. (No longer a need to log exercise @ MFP.) If Fitbit says you burned more in the day than MFP expected, you earn extra calories.

Only time will tell if your Fitbit is accurate for you on the calories burned #. Some people (myself included) feel they are very accurate. Others, not so much. You can tell over time by judging your results. If you lose at the rate expected, and your food logging is highly accurate: the Fitbit must be pretty accurate also.

If you're not sure, and without data you can't really be, then feel free to leave some of those calories 'on the table'. Judge by how you feel (satiation and energy levels) in the meantime.

GerryD1221

Thank you very much for those comments. I feel a bit better now, and yes I will leave some calories “on the table”. Good pun nanastaci2020.

janejellyroll

The advice to leave some calories "on the table" is to give you time to figure out how accurate your calorie adjustments are. It is, by no means, an advice to only eat half no matter what. If you decide to eat, say, 50% of your adjustments, then evaluate after a few weeks. If you're losing as you expect, then congratulations -- you've hit on the right amount to eat. If you are losing faster than expected, then you can begin eating back more of your calories. If you're losing slower than expected, you will want to eat a lower percentage of your adjustments.

Some people do find that their adjustments are accurate. I eat back 100% of my adjustments and it works well for me.

julie0benner

I don't trust my Fitbit Cal's completely so I devide Cal's burned in half to be on the safe side

nanastaci2020

julie0benner wrote: »

I don't trust my Fitbit Cal's completely so I devide Cal's burned in half to be on the safe side

Do you mean you cut the adjustment in half? Or that you think Fitbit doubles your total daily burn?

PAV8888

MFP guesses I will spend 50,000 Cal in a day because during setup I declared myself to be a 25ft tall 2500lb sedentary male.

Fitbit detects that I "actually" spent 55,000 Cal today based on the activity my device "detected" and based on the same initial expectations as MFP.

This is because my activity as "detected" (more correctly: estimated) by Fitbit, indicated to them that I was actually somewhat closer to lightly active than sedentary--though not quite 100% MFP lightly active which would have been at 56,000 Cal

My "exercise adjustment" will be 5,000 Cal because the Fitbit exercise adjustment has nothing to do with exercise! It is just an accounting mechanism that replaces MFP's 50,000 guess with the 55,000 Fitbit "detected".

As such it is relatively meaningless to try to establish a fixed eat back percentage of the 5,000 Cal adjustment.

A meaningful eat back percentage would have to be based on the totality of my TDEE as determined by Fitbit.

That said, the experimental procedure detailed by others above (eating back either some or all and re-evaluating and adjusting 4 to 6 weeks later)... will get you close enough!

I'm another one of the contingent where Fitbit comes up with total burns well within the usable range when comparing actual results to the expectation of results. It helps that I do log my food fairly diligently, that I use a weight trend app to determine my weight, and that I engage in "Fitbit friendly" activities, while being relatively... average!)

GerryD1221

Thank you Pav8888, a thorough explanation. Based on this and past comments regarding this, I’m keeping an eye on my calorie gains from Fitbit to monitor my weight loss.

heybales

Ditto's to emphasis that just because the Fitbit adjustment happens to be put on the Exercise diary page and math done with it under the Exercise category, does not mean it has anything to do with exercise.

And it has absolutely nothing to do with the exercise database that MFP and other sites use that can appear to give inflated calorie burns that led to the whole 50% recommendation.

pav8888 just made something click - if someone happened to pick say lightly-active or active as their MFP level, and almost exactly hit the same daily calorie burn Fitbit was reporting - there would be NO adjustment to even take 50% of.

NovusDies

PAV8888 wrote: »

MFP guesses I will spend 50,000 Cal in a day because during setup I declared myself to be a 25ft tall 2500lb sedentary male.

Fitbit detects that I "actually" spent 55,000 Cal today based on the activity my device "detected" and based on the same initial expectations as MFP.

This is because my activity as "detected" (more correctly: estimated) by Fitbit, indicated to them that I was actually somewhat closer to lightly active than sedentary--though not quite 100% MFP lightly active which would have been at 56,000 Cal

My "exercise adjustment" will be 5,000 Cal because the Fitbit exercise adjustment has nothing to do with exercise! It is just an accounting mechanism that replaces MFP's 50,000 guess with the 55,000 Fitbit "detected".

As such it is relatively meaningless to try to establish a fixed eat back percentage of the 5,000 Cal adjustment.

A meaningful eat back percentage would have to be based on the totality of my TDEE as determined by Fitbit.

That said, the experimental procedure detailed by others above (eating back either some or all and re-evaluating and adjusting 4 to 6 weeks later)... will get you close enough!

I'm another one of the contingent where Fitbit comes up with total burns well within the usable range when comparing actual results to the expectation of results. It helps that I do log my food fairly diligently, that I use a weight trend app to determine my weight, and that I engage in "Fitbit friendly" activities, while being relatively... average!)

Nice.

Now I have to add some columns to my spreadsheet!!

I did a quick compare though. MFP NEAT + AW Exercise value via Pacer VS Results Calculated TDEE is 0.0183% different. AW Health EE vs Results Calculated TDEE is 0.0131%. MFP is lower and AW is higher than the results.

The amazing part to me is how my logging ends up in the middle because I do cut a few corners here and there. I have guesses in there of course. I know I forget to log an item here and there. I also know I log a few things too high. It is crazy how it balances out.

Onedaywriter

One thing to be careful of.... some cell phones count steps and sync to MFP. So be sure you’re not double counting. I don’t have Fitbit but stick my iPhone in my pocket when I’m taking a walk

nooshi713

I find my Fitbit calorie burn estimate to be very accurate.

callsitlikeiseeit

mine is pretty accurate. much more so than the mfp exercise calorie calculator. I still enter exercise in mfp, but change the calories burned to 1. I just want the log of it in here. And because i know my logging habits, sometimes its super accurate, sometimes not, I do not typically eat back many exercise calories. I lose at an expected, steady rate most weeks.

heybales

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

mine is pretty accurate. much more so than the mfp exercise calorie calculator. I still enter exercise in mfp, but change the calories burned to 1. I just want the log of it in here. And because i know my logging habits, sometimes its super accurate, sometimes not, I do not typically eat back many exercise calories. I lose at an expected, steady rate most weeks.

Just for others reading this, since it's about using a tracker and entering the exercise into MFP still.
Only because I've seen others that don't know the system doing this without understanding the implications.

Unless you know what you are doing - do NOT enter 1 calorie for an exercise put into MFP if you are syncing an activity tracker.

With most trackers that workout will go back to the tracker account if synced and replace that chunk of time with 1 calorie burn.
Even if only 1 min was used - that is last breath about to die rate of calorie burn (probably not even that, I'll bet when clinically dead you burn more with final processes), which is obviously very incorrect.
And you will have no correct numbers that you are using.

If using MFP with a TDEE method and no tracker syncing, fine and dandy. (I thought 0 could be entered a while back)