Do any of you implement your activity/fitness tracker in this way?

beulah81

I posted this on the Fitbit forum. Thought posting it here might be helpful as well.
I've been reading quite a few negative comments/frustrations on some activity trackers (mainly Fitbit in my case) and MFP not syncing, not linking and such. I relate to that as well. Is there an advantage of having the tracker linked to MFP besides seeing the adjustments? I can just as easily see my TDEE summary on my tracker app and adjust my eating accordingly on MFP without dealing with the technical problems between the two apps.

Lietchi

With my Garmin, there is always 50 calories or so difference between what MFP tells me I have left and what Garmin says I have left (difference in BMR calculations, I'm guessing).

I can see how it could be a workaround if the sync was buggy. But it does require a bit more mental math: having to subtract your desired deficit from your TDEE (which also requires knowing the deficit equivalent to the desired weight loss).

Also, looking at the TDEE when the day isn't over yet, how do you deal with that? Do you know by heart how many BMR calories per hour you need to add to your calories burned so far to arrive at your TDEE for the whole day? I look at my active calories in Garmin when the sync is buggy, which tells me how many more calories I can eat above my base calorie goal in MFP, but I'm not sure how that works for other brands of trackers.

nanastaci2020

I think this is one of those things where each figures out what works for them.

Personally I've used a Fitbit for years and I use my personal data to set my goals. Such as my current goal is to burn 1900 daily (according to Fitbit) and get in at least 10k steps. Those 2 details work pretty well together for me.

I use that information to set my calorie goal. Which presently my focus is on toning & building a strength training program, yet I still have some pounds/fat to lose. So my nutritional goal is to eat 1400 minimum calories (nothing too extreme in way of deficit) and take in at least 100 grams of protein daily.

I log all my food as accurately as possible at MFP, but I don't rely on MFP to tell me what I need to do to reach my real life fitness, weight goals.

Keep in mind: the Fitbit app shows your calories based on what you've burned so far & what it expects you to burn for the rest of the day. But it does not assume you'll continue to move. So the rest of the day projection is just BMR. Right now Fitbit shows that I have prelogged 1524 and that I have '197 calories left'. *I have Fitbit set to maintain so essentially calories left for me is my deficit.**

That means if I did nothing else for the day, that my end # would be 1721 calories burned. So at any give time, I can look at this and know if I'm satisfied for the day. (It is only 10:31am for me, I will move plenty to burn what is needed to hit my 1900 goal, but I did start the day with a 3.5 mile walk.)

Duck_Puddle

Sure. If you like doing a bunch of math and you’re really good at guesstimating what your total daily TDEE will be based on what you’ve burned by noon-then there’s no need for the two to be linked.

I’ve been on mfp for just shy of 9 years. I’ve logged my food and exercise almost every one of those days. I’ve had a Fitbit connected for about 6 (Garmin for 2-3).

Are there occasions where one or both of those are not functioning properly? Of course

Is it often enough that it’s more than a tiny blip in the landscape? Not really.

I’m aware there have been 2 or 3 times in the last couple of months that Fitbit wasn’t syncing properly with mfp for a day or 2. That’s still 54-58 out of 60 days that it was. And the remaining days caught up once the sync was restored.

I’m not into doing math I don’t need to do. And I’m not good at guessing how much I’ll burn for the rest of the day based on my history. I’m more than willing to accept that just sometimes, things might not work exactly correctly every single second of every single day. Heck-mfp Itself is down more often than the Fitbit sync.

But you do you. If those few days are too bothersome, then you can do all the math yourself.

HorsesRock9999

I am also frustrated with my fitbit and how it shows up on MFP.

beulah81

Thank you @Lietchi, @nanastaci2020, @Duck_Puddle and @HorsesRock9999 for your replies! My main issue is that my Fitbit and MFP rarely(maybe once a week?!) sync at the end of the day at 11:59 p.m. I set it to "All Day sync" hoping it would sync at the end of the day by itself. I usually manually sync Fitbit before I go to bed around 10:00 p.m. Most of the time it's the last sync of the day and the final adjustments for the day are "recorded" based on that last sync. When I sync my Fitbit the next day I check MFP's previous day Fitbit's adjustments and they are always based on 10 o'clock-ish sync. I know my BMR and end up doing the math to adjust for that. Overtime I learned my Fitbit's TDEE when I hit my step goal or above, so that's not an issue to know how much to eat. I am in maintenance and regularly bank calories. I guess it would be nice if two apps synced at 11:59 so I would have to just look at one for my NET weekly goal without doing the math. 😊

nanastaci2020

I'm still in weight loss mode so the specific #s are not important to me. Whether my deficit yesterday was 553 (according to MFP) or 520 (according to Fitbit) is not consequential.

For me it really helps though that first I set my TDEE goal, and derive my calorie goal from that. That should work when I return to maintenance as well. Of course, if I have a day where I allow myself to take it easy/not hit the TDEE goal, I can either eat less or have a smaller deficit that day.

Personally I do like the #s aspect of it, and figuring it out & understanding it for myself.

beulah81

nanastaci2020 wrote: »

I'm still in weight loss mode so the specific #s are not important to me. Whether my deficit yesterday was 553 (according to MFP) or 520 (according to Fitbit) is not consequential.

For me it really helps though that first I set my TDEE goal, and derive my calorie goal from that. That should work when I return to maintenance as well. Of course, if I have a day where I allow myself to take it easy/not hit the TDEE goal, I can either eat less or have a smaller deficit that day.

Personally I do like the #s aspect of it, and figuring it out & understanding it for myself.

Exactly. Sorry, I should've mentioned from the beginning that I am in maintenance. I am a numbers person too. I do set a manageable TDEE eating goal and if I end up more active than goal I bank those calories for future use. BTW, I am thankful for your participation on this forum! You give sound advice!

nanastaci2020

Thank you - very nice of you to say.

beulah81 wrote: »

Exactly. Sorry, I should've mentioned from the beginning that I am in maintenance. I am a numbers person too. I do set a manageable TDEE eating goal and if I end up more active than goal I bank those calories for future use. BTW, I am thankful for your participation on this forum! You give sound advice!