MFP vs FitBit Calories

jody664

I'm having a hard time making sense of which calories I should be following. For example, MFP says I have 506 calories left to eat for the day; FitBit says I have 630 calories left for the day. Also FitBit is saying I'm over on calories in vs. calories burned, i.e., I'm not in the "zone."

I never know which one to trust! Also, it's a pain because I work out in the evenings, so I burn anywhere from 400-600 calories in the evening and find it hard to eat that much after I get home from my workout at around 9 or 9:30pm.

Does anyone have any suggestions to make sense of all this? Which site would you follow? And how would you handle the extra workout calories in the evening?

jody664

shameless bump

lorcart

I'd love to say I know, but it seems no matter WHAT I do anymore FB takes calories AWAY from me on MFP, so apparently I'm just a lazy bum who isn't supposed to eat...EVER!

sawiemken

I was going by MFP and was not really doing so well so I started this week going by my FB to see if that helps. I am not sure how you can make up the late night burn but I have only been in the "zone" once but I kinda think if I am under I'm ok still I'll just lose at a faster pace hopefully.

Does anyone have in idea's on that, if we are under will we lose faster?

Kristalmyah

Remember that just because you have the calories does not mean that you have to eat them! As long as you are eating a minimum of about 1,200, the less you eat the faster you will lose weight.

When tracking calories, if I am using a machine that I have to enter my weight into, I figure the machine is going to be most accurate tracking calories burned because only it knows how intensely I am actually working - MFP does not. Otherwise I usually adjust and enter whichever says the least calories burned to ensure I am not going to eat too much.

jody664

I actually use a heart rate monitor when i work out (usually weights and some cardio), so I get a pretty accurate burn from that (although some people think HRMs aren't all that accurate either).

I do believe in eating at goal, not going under (or not by too far under anyway). Yes, I may lose faster if only 1200 calories a day but 1) I would wreck my metabolism and 2) I'd gain it all back the minute I went back to eating over 1200. I work out hard and if I only ate 1200, I'd only net 600 calories. I'd be too weak to lift any kind of weight heavier than my purse with that. LOL.

I'm happy losing slowly.......0.5 to 1.0 pounds per week. I just never know which figures to trust. I've thought about setting my calorie goal to TDEE-20% on MFP and letting it go at that.

Any thoughts?

RawCarrots

I've thought about setting my calorie goal to TDEE-20% on MFP and letting it go at that.

This is what I'd do, especially if your exercise is pretty consistent over a week. You can use FitBit to get the TDEE and set your deficit in MFP based on that

jody664

I've thought about setting my calorie goal to TDEE-20% on MFP and letting it go at that.

This is what I'd do, especially if your exercise is pretty consistent over a week. You can use FitBit to get the TDEE and set your deficit in MFP based on that

Thanks! I've been using FitBit for a 2 weeks, and I think I have a pretty good idea now of what my true TDEE is. Thinking I will try that for a few weeks and see how I do.

Do I need to make any changes to my FitBit profile?

Kimsied

I'm having a hard time making sense of which calories I should be following. For example, MFP says I have 506 calories left to eat for the day; FitBit says I have 630 calories left for the day. Also FitBit is saying I'm over on calories in vs. calories burned, i.e., I'm not in the "zone."

Are both set for the same rate of loss? And the same current weight? Usually my problem is the MFP allowance is lower than fitbit when set for a one pound a week loss, but that is because my net goal is at the mfp minimum of 1200. If your mfp net goal is 1200 then your allowances would be different because MFP wouldn't allow the full deficit you asked for. This, I am not sure. It might be because of your calorie burn at the last sync between MFP and fitbit. MFP calculates the fitbit adjustment by comparing your fitbit calorie burn to what MFP expects you should have burned at that point in the day. MFP also does some predicting what your fitbit calorie burn will be based on what you have done so far, your stated activity level, and how much time is left in the day.

But with the fitbit numbers, there are two things going on... There is the calories in vs. out. This is simply what you have burned so far vs. what you logged. Your calorie burn is not complete until the day is complete and all 24 hours are synched to fitbit. It is common if you look after you log dinner to appear to be over at that time, but you might have 5 or 6 hours left in the day (depending when you eat or log it). For following this, I think it can be helpful if you have in mind roughly what an hour of your BMR would be. I think fitbit uses a similar equation to the Mifflin formula MFP uses (for me it is two calories different). So if you run your stats through the Mifflin BMR calculator in the APPS section of this site, divide your total by 24 to get your hourly BMR. Most likely this is the least calorie burn you would see on fitbit for the hour (if you are moving around it will be higher). So if you know there are 5 hours between when you log dinner and 12am--multiply your hourly by five and add that to your current calories burned. Would that put you in or close to your goal? If so, you are probably on the right track. If you are quite active in the evening this will be a very low estimate. But if sedentary or sleeping much of that remaining time it might get you really close to where your total will end up.

The other thing going on is your fitbit allowance. This will end up calories burned vs calories eaten after all 24 hours are in place. But it starts you with an estimate and adjusts from there throughout the day. How it estimates depends whether you chose sedentary or personalized for your plan. If personalized, every day after 12am fitbit calculates your ":average calorie burn" over the past several days. Then it subtracts your requested deficit from that number. If your activity level is consistent this should put your allowance pretty close to where it ends up. But if you are sedentary after a string of active days your "personalized" allowance will be a little high that day. I like this method because it is kind of working with a TDEE based specifically on your recent activity history. It will evolve with your changing activity level, so someone who works their way up from 4,000 steps to 10,000 steps will see an increase in allowance to fit their improved activity (maybe, depending on how quickly they lose weight, they might just see a slower decrease in allowance than they would have if their activity stayed where they started).

Kimsied

Does anyone have in idea's on that, if we are under will we lose faster?

Maybe, maybe not. Whether you are over or under is relative to the goal you set for yourself. It gives a choice between .5 pounds a week loss, one pound a week loss, 1.5 pounds a week loss, and 2 pounds a week loss. Which goal is appropriate for you is kind of variable depending in part on how much fat you have to lose and how high your calorie burn is. If you are set for a half pound a week loss, but your body would be fine with 1.5 pounds a week loss, then being under goal would help you lose faster. Assuming you are not eating too little to take in good nutrition for your body. If you are set for 2 pounds a week loss, and your body would prefer 1.5 pounds a week loss, then it might be an issue. So it is hard to say.

ETA: I don't mean to say that people on very low calorie diets for their bodies do not lose weight. They do, just look at famine victims. But they don't always lose weight in the healthy way that we want to. Usually we want to preserve our bone density, muscle mass, hormone balance, and metabolisms as well as we can and to do that we need to take in enough good nutrition for our bodies.

jody664

I'm having a hard time making sense of which calories I should be following. For example, MFP says I have 506 calories left to eat for the day; FitBit says I have 630 calories left for the day. Also FitBit is saying I'm over on calories in vs. calories burned, i.e., I'm not in the "zone."

Are both set for the same rate of loss? And the same current weight? Usually my problem is the MFP allowance is lower than fitbit when set for a one pound a week loss, but that is because my net goal is at the mfp minimum of 1200. If your mfp net goal is 1200 then your allowances would be different because MFP wouldn't allow the full deficit you asked for. This, I am not sure. It might be because of your calorie burn at the last sync between MFP and fitbit. MFP calculates the fitbit adjustment by comparing your fitbit calorie burn to what MFP expects you should have burned at that point in the day. MFP also does some predicting what your fitbit calorie burn will be based on what you have done so far, your stated activity level, and how much time is left in the day.

But with the fitbit numbers, there are two things going on... There is the calories in vs. out. This is simply what you have burned so far vs. what you logged. Your calorie burn is not complete until the day is complete and all 24 hours are synched to fitbit. It is common if you look after you log dinner to appear to be over at that time, but you might have 5 or 6 hours left in the day (depending when you eat or log it). For following this, I think it can be helpful if you have in mind roughly what an hour of your BMR would be. I think fitbit uses a similar equation to the Mifflin formula MFP uses (for me it is two calories different). So if you run your stats through the Mifflin BMR calculator in the APPS section of this site, divide your total by 24 to get your hourly BMR. Most likely this is the least calorie burn you would see on fitbit for the hour (if you are moving around it will be higher). So if you know there are 5 hours between when you log dinner and 12am--multiply your hourly by five and add that to your current calories burned. Would that put you in or close to your goal? If so, you are probably on the right track. If you are quite active in the evening this will be a very low estimate. But if sedentary or sleeping much of that remaining time it might get you really close to where your total will end up.

The other thing going on is your fitbit allowance. This will end up calories burned vs calories eaten after all 24 hours are in place. But it starts you with an estimate and adjusts from there throughout the day. How it estimates depends whether you chose sedentary or personalized for your plan. If personalized, every day after 12am fitbit calculates your ":average calorie burn" over the past several days. Then it subtracts your requested deficit from that number. If your activity level is consistent this should put your allowance pretty close to where it ends up. But if you are sedentary after a string of active days your "personalized" allowance will be a little high that day. I like this method because it is kind of working with a TDEE based specifically on your recent activity history. It will evolve with your changing activity level, so someone who works their way up from 4,000 steps to 10,000 steps will see an increase in allowance to fit their improved activity (maybe, depending on how quickly they lose weight, they might just see a slower decrease in allowance than they would have if their activity stayed where they started).

Thanks for this explanation. I guess I didn't realize the "calories in vs. calories out" was sliding thoughout the day. Today, I had breakfast that was about 350 calories and it showed I was "over." Now I see that as I'm burning calories throughout the day, it's "in the zone." I guess this might be useful for meal timing, but I hate seeing it as "over" all the time when I have 800 calories left in the day!

I do have my MFP and FB profiles set to match (same height, weight and 1 lb/week weight loss), so I'm assuming it should even out as the day goes on.

Good suggestion on the BMR/24 idea. That will give me an idea if I'm really over on calories in vs. out or not. I think I might have "analysis paralysis!!" LOL I love data and I think the FitBit is giving me too much at the moment!

s50s

bump

intothepavement

Remember that just because you have the calories does not mean that you have to eat them! As long as you are eating a minimum of about 1,200, the less you eat the faster you will lose weight.

When tracking calories, if I am using a machine that I have to enter my weight into, I figure the machine is going to be most accurate tracking calories burned because only it knows how intensely I am actually working - MFP does not. Otherwise I usually adjust and enter whichever says the least calories burned to ensure I am not going to eat too much.

After 3 days of going absolutely insane trying to figure out this calorie thing, I think I'm just gonna go with this ^ . :ohwell:

Luthien007

I'm having a hard time making sense of which calories I should be following. For example, MFP says I have 506 calories left to eat for the day; FitBit says I have 630 calories left for the day. Also FitBit is saying I'm over on calories in vs. calories burned, i.e., I'm not in the "zone."

I never know which one to trust! Also, it's a pain because I work out in the evenings, so I burn anywhere from 400-600 calories in the evening and find it hard to eat that much after I get home from my workout at around 9 or 9:30pm.

Does anyone have any suggestions to make sense of all this? Which site would you follow? And how would you handle the extra workout calories in the evening?

I love my fitbit for the data it gives me but following the calories left to eat during the day is too much of a moving target for me.

I keep track of my 30 day averge tdee (in your profile) and keep an eye on my weekly and two weekly daily average calories in and out.

If I feel good eating at my recent averages I just keep,on going. I roughly work out my total deficit and the expected loss using 3500 cals per pound. It keeps my expectations realistic

Sailorwind

OK, I think I finally figured this out. Maybe. Hoping you guys can help me out. So my BMR according to MFP is 1460. I set both apps to lose 1lb/week (-500 cal). This puts my MFP at 1330. As to when my FB starts adding in extra calories to that, I have a "calorie goal" thing on my dashboard. I don't remember what it was originally set to, but apparently it is the amount of calories you want to burn that day. I have it set to 1960, 500 cal above my BMR. After I burn 1960 cals it adds any extras I burn into my pot of calories I need to eat. The thing I'm not sure about is that it's adding that number to the already lowered MFP number. Is this good? Should I lower the number on the FB dash?

jackierybeck

So if it says I'm "in the zone" - that means "in the zone" for losing at the pace we set up when I synced it to my computer?
-

heybales

In the zone means for that second that you looked at the gauge, your total eaten, and total burned, up to that point in time, was within 50 cal or so of your eating goal for the deficit you had selected.

Pretty worthless actually, just look at the actual numbers of eaten and burned, do quick mental math, or use another tile or page for like goal eating level, to see how many calories you have left for the DAY, not that moment in time.

Or better yet - don't try to follow 2 roads to the same destination - just asking for problems.
- Fitbit for what you burn, MFP for eating levels based on what Fitbit says you burn.
- Just look at your MFP eating goal through the day - done.