A question for those that use a Fitbit..

rzslc

once youve synced your fitbit with myfitnesspal it adds another line to your cardioon MFP...TIME STARTED. you enter the time you started anything other than walking and running and put in your minutes doing what youre doing just like before your fitbit. then MFP adjusts your fitbit for you. this takes care of elliptical, or yoga or whatever else you're doing.

Deltafliers

1.) Know your BMR. Once you know that, eat back the 1200 calorie baseline, and then at the very least eat your workout calories till your total daily calories equals your BMR. From the toics that explain eating to your BMR, this is how I understand it: your body need BMR to survive (1200 calories is most likely under), and any deficit will cause you to lose weight. If your body is not getting what it needs to survive it will start using our muscle mass to supply the energy needed--if your body is getting BMR it will have no reason to use muscle mass and will burn fat instead. I have learned by eating at least to my BMR, I am rarely hungry or starving.

2.) I believe MFP is higher with it's calorie count, and the fitbit closer to accurate; therefore, if I chose to enter my workout on MFP, I replace their calorie count with the fitbit count (keep in mind, when burning calories by just walking the fitbit also takes altitude in to account). Make sure every time you enter an exercise into MFP you remove your fitbit numbers--the calorie count will adjust the next time the sites sync.***I believe the fitbit is more accurate because it takes my pauses into account, or in a class it takes the pause for the teacher's instruction...MFP is designed for workout straight across the board I beleive.

3.) I don't have a HRM. If I am working on exersice equipment, I start the stop watch on my fitbit, and when completed I stop the stop watch and use my phone to take a picture of the machine's stats and calorie burn. When I get home, I insert the machine's count into the specified activity time. If I work on more than one machine, I start/ stop for each specific machine...the fitbit can't figure in speed of activity if you are using a stationary piece of equipment.

4.) Both sites are set to sedintary, and I am at a -750 deficiet (1.5#/wk). There is a differnce in the food goal on the sites; however I am on MFP more often so I go by their count...and if a day I go a bit over I don't squabble-- a 500 deficit is still 1#/wk. At the begining of April I was 169.2 at the end I was 162.9. A 6.2# loss, divide by 4wk = -1.55# per week, almost spot on with MFP site.

5.) the fitbit doesn't just figure calorie burn from steps. It takes into account your altitude increase, And the speed at which you are moving. The calorie burn will be different for everyone because it is adjusted according to weight. The heavier you are the higher the burn, the lighter you are the lower the burn (your BMR drops too as you lose weight so keep it updated). Don't be surprised if you lose weight and realize the exercise you once did is not burning as many calories as it once was.

Wow, that is a lot to digest! Hope you find it helpful. Also, anybody here, if they would like to add me to this or the fitbit site, just message me. I feel it is safer than just throw my email out there. )

LRH64

I have had my Fitbit for about two months. Anytime I am doing "exercise" Zumba, bike riding, tkd, I start the timer on my Fitbit for an activity record. Remeber the Fitbit works best for step-based activites like Zumba, walking/running but not so well for bike riding or TKD. I still log in my excersise on MFP and then the activity record I set on the Fitbit adjusts accordingly. I am on maintence now and the Fitbit has really helped. Feel free to add me as a friend.

belindab10

My job is having a healthy challenge starting this month and sending all of us who have signed up a Fitbit. I'm glad to have found this post cause I was confused on how it works. Is it good with counting calories for cardio exercise or weight training?

Deltafliers

My job is having a healthy challenge starting this month and sending all of us who have signed up a Fitbit. I'm glad to have found this post cause I was confused on how it works. Is it good with counting calories for cardio exercise or weight training?

Not weight training, use MFP for that, nor exercise machines, use their numbers since those machines are specifically designed to figure mathmatically what values should be. Weight training and stationary equipment (treadmill, elliptical) are the only things I enter manually. I let the fitbit just transfer everything else.

kjbbdoll

Thanks everyone, you have helped a lot!

poledancing_ninja

I agree with it not working well for non-step based exercises. It goes completely psycho when I hula-hoop when on MFP it's the lowest calorie burning exercise I do.