very very lost with MFP and calorie adjustment levels...

mollykrichard

hello all!

i just got a new fitbit zip and i totally love it. I have logged so many steps and I find it super motivating.

However -

I set MFP to "lightly active". I manually log my "active minutes" in MFP from my fitbit. In MFP at the end of a day I have 56 Calories left and in FitBit I have over 500 calories left. I feel like the only way to make them match is if I log myself as Active or Very Active....would this be fair to do? The two devices are linked.

Ugh, thanks so much in advance!

Best,
Molly

Kimsied

If your accounts are linked you don't need to manually log your active minutes. The minutes don't come over to MFP, but the extra calories burned do come over if your fitbit burn is higher than MFP expects for lightly active. You don't need to log walking or incidental steps. If you do log it on MFP, MFP then logs it to fitbit again replacing what fitbit already estimated. It is crucial that it is logged for the correct time if you do this. But I really do not understand why you would. Usually people manually log activities that fitbit may not count well such a cycling, swimming, weight lifting, etc. Sometimes people who use heart rate monitors log all their exercise using their HRM calorie burn. I am not sure what the benefit of logging fitbit tracked activity to MFP (who then logs it to fitbit overwriting it).

You might be more active than "lightly active", I don't know enough about your specifics to comment. I would suggest leaving it at that level for a week or so and each morning check your previous day's MFP diary (food and exercise). If you are ending with negative adjustments (if enabled) or 0 adjustments (if you didn't enable negatives) then lower it to sedentary. If you are seeing large adjustments, you could try "active" and try that for a week.

Did you set your Fitbit food plan for the same rate of loss? It kind of sounds like MFP may be set to lose 1 pound a week and fitbit might be left to maintain? If so, that would explain the large difference you are seeing. Weight loss settings/goals on MFP are not transferred to Fitbit, and goals on Fitbit are not transferred to MFP either.

peacockcj

Hey - I'm suffering the same problem - MFP doesn't seem to be linking in with my fitbit to tell me what I've got left. So as of this morning MFP says I only have 679 calories remaining, but my fitbit has it at 1,428.

Have put them both at the same rate of weight loss, but it appears that MFP isn't syncing with the steps am doing with fitbit.

Any ideas?

editorgrrl

If your accounts are linked you don't need to manually log your active minutes. The minutes don't come over to MFP, but the extra calories burned do come over if your fitbit burn is higher than MFP expects for lightly active. You don't need to log walking or incidental steps.

^^^This.

Connect your accounts: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/show/30

Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Log non-step exercise (like swimming or biking) in Fitbit or MFP—never both. Follow your MFP calorie goal, eating back your Fitbit adjustments.

MFP doesn't seem to be linking in with my fitbit to tell me what I've got left. So as of this morning MFP says I only have 679 calories remaining, but my fitbit has it at 1,428.

Have put them both at the same rate of weight loss, but it appears that MFP isn't syncing with the steps am doing with fitbit.

I ignore Fitbit's calorie goal and follow MFP's. Have you connected your accounts & enabled negative calorie adjustments?

If so, you should have an adjustment. Click on it to see the calculations MFP used—your adjustment is your full-day Fitbit burn minus your MFP activity level.

The adjustment info also includes the time of the last sync between MFP & Fitbit. There have been communication problems on & off since November.

peacockcj

thanks editorgrrl - yep have done both of these but MFP doesn't seem to change at all. It remains static at 1,550 and doesn't change no matter what I do with my fitbit - so despite ticking for calorie adjustment it isnlt doing it.

My fitbit is recording everything I imput into MFP but it doesn't seem to be happen them other way round (fitbit to MFP)

Any ideas?

editorgrrl

As I said, MFP & Fitbit have been having problems communicating on & off since November. There's a monster thread in the Feedback forum about it.

Far as I know the only workaround is to disconnect & reconnect your accounts to force a sync.

Kimsied

peacockcj, how long ago did you link your accounts? I think sometimes it takes a while before changes to your MFP account are applied. But if your MFP input is showing up on Fitbit, it sounds like they should be synching. Do you have negative adjustments enabled on MFP?

So MFP does calculate the fitbit adjustment by comparing what MFP expects you to burn to your fitbit burn at that time. What MFP expects is your BMR, some general activity based on the activity level you chose plus any exercise you log on MFP. So the fitbit adjustment is really just correcting your MFP activity level to account for activity MFP has no way of knowing about or correcting when you do not meet your activity. You can see the BMR + activity by looking in your MFP goals page for "calories burned from normal daily activity" (or something like that). By the end of the day, to see a positive fitbit adjustment, you need to burn more than your "calories burned from" + all MFP logged exercise calories. Oh, during the day, the BMR/general activity ("calories burned from daily activity") is prorated by the hour since 12am so you may see an adjustment earlier in the day if you burned more than what MFP expected for that time of day by MFP's calculatation. If you were exactly as active as your stated activity level + logged exercise then you would see a zero adjustment, but I think a true zero is rare a small positive or small negative probably more common if you more or less burn what you indicated. You can check how your numbers compare, in the MFP exercise diary, if you click on the little "i" next to the word "fitbit adjustment", it shows you the comparison and time of sync.

Also, MFP syncs to your fitbit account not your fitbit device. Sometimes people think it syncs to the device itself. So, just checking, you are syncing your fitbit device to your fitibt account, right? If not, there may appear to be no activity when your MFP and fibit accounts sync. You don't need to sync obsessively. I sync in the morning and the evening before bedtime, and usually after significant activity or a walk (to make sure it is included as soon as possible), I often sync around meal times too. I sync through my phone so it is convenient to sync often, but you don't need to sync quite that often.

peacockcj

Thanks Kimsied - have worked my way through what you've said and still no joy.

"how long ago did you link your accounts?" - when I got my fitbit approximately 2-3 weeks ago

"Do you have negative adjustments enabled on MFP?" - yup I checked the box it requested

"You can check how your numbers compare, in the MFP exercise diary, if you click on the little "i" next to the word "fitbit adjustment", it shows you the comparison and time of sync." - cannot see anywhere where it "fitbit adjustment" - I assume this could be the problem???

"So, just checking, you are syncing your fitbit device to your fitibt account, right?" - I assume I am... am looking at the dashboard on my desktop computer and everything seems right - is there something I can do to check this is all ok?

I use my phone and it seems to sync perfectly fine. When I have imputted some food into MFP it updates my Fitbit, but it never adjusts the calories in my MFP at all - ever!

Any other advice? I won't be beaten by the machines.... I am going to get this work to its best potential!!

Thanks again!

peacockcj

Sorted, got an incredibly quick email back from MFP. Here goes;

First log into your account on www.myfitnesspal.com and open the apps tab.
Next select the fitbit app's icon in the app gallery, and then click Disconnect Accounts

Next Log into Fitbit.com and click the Settings Icon (Looks like a gear) and choose "Settings".
Then on the left side, click the Applications tab and locate MyFitnessPal
The option to "Revoke Access" will show in blue if your account is still linked.

Finally, return to myfitnesspal.com follow the previous steps except this time you will click Connect accounts.

New activity should reach myfitnesspal.com within 15 minutes of it showing up in your account dashboard on fitbit.com. From there syncs down to our app on your phone.

Be sure and reselect your fitbit as your source for step tracking by opening the Menu, selecting Settings, then Steps, and click on fitbit to make your step source.

haeden

Sorted, got an incredibly quick email back from MFP. Here goes;

First log into your account on www.myfitnesspal.com and open the apps tab.
Next select the fitbit app's icon in the app gallery, and then click Disconnect Accounts

Next Log into Fitbit.com and click the Settings Icon (Looks like a gear) and choose "Settings".
Then on the left side, click the Applications tab and locate MyFitnessPal
The option to "Revoke Access" will show in blue if your account is still linked.

Finally, return to myfitnesspal.com follow the previous steps except this time you will click Connect accounts.

New activity should reach myfitnesspal.com within 15 minutes of it showing up in your account dashboard on fitbit.com. From there syncs down to our app on your phone.

Be sure and reselect your fitbit as your source for step tracking by opening the Menu, selecting Settings, then Steps, and click on fitbit to make your step source.

the last part are you talking about doing that on myfittnesspal? I don't see where to do that on the settings on mfp.

heybales

Sorted, got an incredibly quick email back from MFP. Here goes;

First log into your account on www.myfitnesspal.com and open the apps tab.
Next select the fitbit app's icon in the app gallery, and then click Disconnect Accounts

Next Log into Fitbit.com and click the Settings Icon (Looks like a gear) and choose "Settings".
Then on the left side, click the Applications tab and locate MyFitnessPal
The option to "Revoke Access" will show in blue if your account is still linked.

Finally, return to myfitnesspal.com follow the previous steps except this time you will click Connect accounts.

New activity should reach myfitnesspal.com within 15 minutes of it showing up in your account dashboard on fitbit.com. From there syncs down to our app on your phone.

Be sure and reselect your fitbit as your source for step tracking by opening the Menu, selecting Settings, then Steps, and click on fitbit to make your step source.

the last part are you talking about doing that on myfittnesspal? I don't see where to do that on the settings on mfp.

It's in the MFP app - it'll attempt step counts now.

heybales

Sorted, got an incredibly quick email back from MFP. Here goes;

First log into your account on www.myfitnesspal.com and open the apps tab.
Next select the fitbit app's icon in the app gallery, and then click Disconnect Accounts

Next Log into Fitbit.com and click the Settings Icon (Looks like a gear) and choose "Settings".
Then on the left side, click the Applications tab and locate MyFitnessPal
The option to "Revoke Access" will show in blue if your account is still linked.

Finally, return to myfitnesspal.com follow the previous steps except this time you will click Connect accounts.

New activity should reach myfitnesspal.com within 15 minutes of it showing up in your account dashboard on fitbit.com. From there syncs down to our app on your phone.

Be sure and reselect your fitbit as your source for step tracking by opening the Menu, selecting Settings, then Steps, and click on fitbit to make your step source.

So notice real closely, because I'm doubting this is over.

Note what you did right before it breaks again.

Like updating via the MFP or Fitbit app?
Did sync go one direction but not the other?
Or is one app basically view only, no data input?

I've never had any issues - and I use neither apps.

peacockcj

Definitely all working fine now - when I contact MFP about it they explained there was a fault on my account and by doing what I did - it would fix it.

Has done now and works great.