Loving MFP but confused by Fitbit Flex calories

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  • Shaselai
    Shaselai Posts: 151
    I am not sure if mine is right or not in terms of calorie burning. but i average 11,400 steps a day and burn ~1000 carlories from the activties (taken from my fitbit)...
  • vanginmi
    vanginmi Posts: 41
    I walk 10, 000 - 11, 000 steps a day and fitbit consistently has been adjusting to about 500 calories. I think that is a bit high since I rarely break a sweat when walking. I have tried both hands too. I think I will try placing it on my ankle - that seems to be a good idea :) Either that or I just may only count half of what the fitbit calculates as adjustment.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Edited to add that everybody's different, and the size of your Fitbit calorie adjustments depends on your activity level, not just your step count.

    Yes. Because of how MFP describes the activity levels, a lot of people think they should say sedentary when they are in reality not sedentary as MFP uses it. The Fitbit adjustment seems to correct for this.

    I used to worry that the adjustment was too much, but I calculated my TDEE after a month and the Fitbit is right on or even a bit low, whereas MFP is way low (if I were to add exercise but not the Fitbit adjustment), indicating that I'm not really sedentary.

    It sounds like your adjustments are similar.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    I walk 10, 000 - 11, 000 steps a day and fitbit consistently has been adjusting to about 500 calories. I think that is a bit high since I rarely break a sweat when walking. I have tried both hands too. I think I will try placing it on my ankle - that seems to be a good idea :) Either that or I just may only count half of what the fitbit calculates as adjustment.

    It really doesn't matter if it's a hard workout for you or not, that just indicates you are in shape, at least for walking.

    You still burn calories walking, probably more than you think.

    And the big adjustment, if daily, just means you picked the wrong MFP activity level, increase it up.

    Plus as mentioned above, that adjustment is not just the walking, but other aspects of daily life you probably didn't think of.

    And no, ankle is not good idea - the formula's for the gyroscope were not based on that location, I'll bet it makes the calorie count go up, because it will see you coming down harder though it's only your foot. If you came down harder, you must have been in the air more. If in the air more you must have been jogging. Jogging is bigger calorie count than walking.

    Bad idea.

    You might see how many calories you really do burn walking, if you have a sense of pace you go. Gross is what MFP database, HRM, or treadmill would be reporting, as well as Fitbit on their site for that block of time. So use that option.

    http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html

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