Activity Level and Fitbit Integration

spookiekabuki

Here is the thing: I do all of that. I pick a system, I pay attention, and I know what works and what doesn't. I am getting results, and that's all that matters.

The point of asking this question is out of curiosity, not concern.

CM9178

It is definitely odd, I give you that.

In the end, I usually just end up looking at my calories burned on Fitbit and compare it to what I ate that day on MFP. I also then keep a spreadsheet so I can easily see the numbers and deficit for each day and the week.

CM9178

spookiekabuki wrote: »

Here is the thing: I do all of that. I pick a system, I pay attention, and I know what works and what doesn't. I am getting results, and that's all that matters.

The point of asking this question is out of curiosity, not concern.

@spookiekabuki I was just thinking.. so from that day you gave us the stats at 11pm, can you look back and see how many calories Fitbit said you had burned?
Then we can figure out which setting is the more accurate, because you should've eaten 1000 calories less than that number (if that's your deficit goal).

In your test, you had eaten 3270 calories already.
At sedentary it was telling you to eat 70 more and at lightly active it was telling you to eat 310 more.
If we know how many calories you actually burned, then we can tell which one of these is more accurate.

Also, seeing as you had one hour left in the day, at sedentary if it was telling you to eat 70 more, then that means MFP thought you were going to burn an additional 70 calories in that hour (1.16 calories per minute, which makes sense).
At lightly active, it was giving you 310 more for an hour, which works out to 5.16 calories per minute. That kind of makes sense, doesn't it? Assuming you didn't do anything active in that last hour of the day, I would think that Fitbit would've then made a final adjustment at midnight to reflect that.

spookiekabuki

OK I am now certain that either the interface is flawed, or I have no idea what I am talking about.

I just changed my activity level around to test. I chose each of the 4 options from Sedentary to Very Active. After I made the change for each, I then went into custom and set my goal to specific calorie goal. Each time I did this, my remaining calories would change for the day. The more active I set it to, the fewer calories I then had left, even though after every time, I set manually set the goal to a calorie number.

Setting the activity level somehow communicated with Fitbit, or alters Fitbits integration, EVEN IF you choose the same calorie goal. This doesn't make sense to me. The fitbit should be telling MFP how active I am, not the other way around.

WilsonFilson

Just read this whole thread. Exhausting. @spookiekabuki was pointing out something that made total sense and basically only one person thought hard enough about it to answer meaningfully. Thanks @CM9178. MFP should be setting your activity level based on the input from FitBit. Especially if the user has a Surge, in which case calorie burn measured by FB should be pretty accurate.

editorgrrl

spookiekabuki wrote: »

I set my goal to specific calorie goal. Each time I did this, my remaining calories would change for the day. The more active I set it to, the fewer calories I then had left, even though after every time, I set manually set the goal to a calorie number.

Setting the activity level somehow communicated with Fitbit.

Do not use a custom goal. Set your goal to .5 lb.per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, choosing an activity level is a matter of personal preference. When you increase it, you start with more calories in the morning but get smaller adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

If you use these two settings, your adjusted goal will always be TDEE minus an appropriate deficit for your size. You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users