Fitbit Exercise Calorie Adjustments

dracupg

Hi, I have a new Fitbit Charge 6 and I want to make sure I'm not double counting the calorie adjustments. I have an elliptical trainer (legs only) that I do about an hour a day on. This isn't captured on my Fitbit step count, so I manually enter it on MyFitnessPal.
I want to check that the Fitbit calorie adjustment is just based on the step count so that I'm not double counting calorie adjustment.
See attached screenshot. Any advice appreciated.
Gordon

Lietchi

Just based on the numbers alone, it looks like double counting: that's a huge calorie adjustment.

Your Fitbit sends over your total calorie burn for the day and, very specific to Fitbit, it will never send out individual workout info to MFP (you'll only see a total adjustment in your exercise diary, but it does include workout calories).
From your numbers, I would assume that it's detecting your elliptical session via your heart rate (steps aren't the only metric Fitbit uses), or that your device is overestimating so much that adding your exercise on top of that is too much: nearly 1000 calories is a huge calorie adjustment for just over 5000 steps.

Also: elliptical with legs only: are you standing up on this thing, or is it one of those things you can pedal on while sitting at a desk? The choice of 'elliptical' may or may not be appropriate.

Personally, I would never log exercise manually on MFP with a fitness tracker synced. Perhaps log the exercise via Fitbit directly? (I don't know your device and what it can do)

Final bit of advice: trackers and MFP just give estimates based on population averages. So choose a strategy for logging your exercise and eating back those exercise calories or not, do that for 4 to 6 weeks and then compare your actual weight evolution to how much you should have lost. And adjust if necessary. Real data trumps estimates from devices 🙂

BCLadybug888

If you are wearing the Fitbit while you exercise on the elliptical, it is counting the activity even if not the steps, so no need to add it manually into MFP.

dracupg

Thank you for your answers. Yeah, it's a bit annoying and it looks like it's double counting.
I've tried logging the activity on the Fitbit app, but it doesn't allow me to adjust the calories burned - it just seems to calculate calories based on time and activity, which doesn't take into consideration resistance or incline.
My elliptical isn't compatible with my Fitbit, as that would probably have been the ideal solution. It's one of these https://graysfitness.com.au/buy/precor-efx-546i-cross-trainer/
I'm thinking that the calories burned from the Fitbit may be pretty accurate and is basing it on HR even though there are no steps being logged. Best option may be to not manually log anything and just rely on the Fitbit calculation.
Thank again