Fitbit Adjustments Too Confusing

I recently started using my fitbit to try and help speed my weight loss progress along a bit more and hopefully get a more accurate idea of what I'm actually burning throughout the day.

I work at a camp and am constantly walking to different activities and sometimes I run for about 10 minutes (if I even have the energy after camp) afterwards. Lately my Fitbit adjustments on MFP have been leaving my net lower than 1000 calories and I'm not sure why because on my fitbit, it says that I am eating enough with only 200 or so calories leftover.

My question: Should I be trying to eat more of my fitbit calories back to get my MFP net cals high enough even if that would mean going over what my fitbit says that I've burned? This doesn't really make sense..

Replies

  • daw0518
    daw0518 Posts: 459 Member
    When I first got my Fitbit, the advice was to turn off calorie estimation on Fitbit and turn on negative calories on MFP. That seemed to help it be pretty consistent between websites. I also have my MFP set to sedentary.

    Also make sure you have your info the same on both websites. For example, if you have MFP set at a 1 lb per week loss, you also need to have Fitbit set at that. I think this is probably where your issue is coming from, because when I just went to look at my Fitbit food tile it said I still had like 900+ calories left [but I actually only have 557 according to MFP] because it was set at Maintenance, not 1 lb/week loss like MFP.

    In general, after you have the info synced up, I wouldn't be too worried about then syncing perfectly. Just pick one & go with it. It's not going to matter that much in the long run. After I fixed them both to 1 lb, my Fitbit says I have 406 calories left while MFP still says 557. I think that Fitbit estimates how many calories you will burn by the end of the day [midnight] based on your activity so far, while MFP gives you how many calories you have if you ate them all right at this minute. So, if I were to eat all my MFP calories right now but stay sitting in front of my computer til midnight, I would be OVER my calorie goal by the end of the night because it keeps adjusting until then & takes away calories because I'm doing nothing. Does that make sense?
  • Yes! A lot actually. Thank you so much for your help :)