Fitbit logging

ninakir88
ninakir88 Posts: 292 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I recently got a fitbit and I was just wondering from what time to what time does the logging starts?

For example, if I reset it at 6 AM, when do I end the day and claim that for the calories burned for the day?
Or do I add my calories I sleep on top of that day?

How does that work exactly?

Replies

  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    Fitbit's "day" is midnight to midnight, and you have no control over that, as far as I know.
  • wisegirl_k
    wisegirl_k Posts: 38 Member
    Your fitbit will "reset" at midnight. When you wake up in the morning it'll already say you've burned calories, don't freak out, you burn calories while you sleep. You burn calories just being alive and your fitbit counts those. Then throughout the day, it'll continue adding calories burned depending on your activity. If/when you log your exercises into your MFP diary, it'll deduct those calories from the FitBit adjustment. The link between MFP and Fitbit is pretty smart.
    You don't have to log your sleep calories either. Just log when you do an exercise like normal and if Fitbit thinks you've burned more than MFP says, it'll give you a little bit more of an adjustment.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    you don't "reset it". Not sure how you are even doing that (if you are). The logging happens 24x7 and the calories it shows that you burned at midnight are how many calories you burned in the last 24 hours (assuming it is 100% accurate, which it isn't always). So, if you look at your log from yesterday, the number of calories it shows is how many you burned from midnight to midnight and you should have eaten whatever deficit your goal is from that.

    So, how do you know how many you are going to burn that day so you don't go over? It learns your schedule over time and tries to estimate your calorie burn for the rest of the day. For me, I find it easiest on my final meal of the day to look at the number on the fitbit, subtract my deficit, and then add about 90 calories per hour (that number will be different for you) until midnight and that is how many calories I can have that day.

    For example:
    at 9pm, I have burned 2300 calories on my fitbit and I know I am not going to be doing anything else that night. I have eaten 1700 and my deficit is 500. So, 2300-500+3*90=2070 calories for the day. I can eat an extra 370 as my snack.

    Some things that make it less accurate are typically non-walking exercises like biking, rowing, ellipticals (because of the resistance and it doesn't detect an altitude change), etc.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    btw, make sure your MFP goals and Fitbit goals are the same. If not, change them in MFP to match fitbit. Otherwise your adjustments will be off.
  • ninakir88
    ninakir88 Posts: 292 Member
    Thanks for the advice!
  • ekaplan1020
    ekaplan1020 Posts: 16
    Do you just mean the weight goals in both should be the same? I notice that I have my fitbit plan which sets the calories based on activity for the day and MFP which just sets it at a specific calorie goal. I see that you can put in a specific calorie goal in fitbit.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    Do you just mean the weight goals in both should be the same? I notice that I have my fitbit plan which sets the calories based on activity for the day and MFP which just sets it at a specific calorie goal. I see that you can put in a specific calorie goal in fitbit.

    Fitbit and MFP both calculate your base calories by estimating your BMR and assigning an activity factor. The only difference is when you are active and wearing a fitbit, fitbit adjusts your calories to account for the activity. So, what I was saying is that your base calories (before fitbit makes adjustments) should be the same, and it is much easier imo to change it in MFP to match what fitbit says.
  • ekaplan1020
    ekaplan1020 Posts: 16
    OK. Thanks for clarifying and congrats on the weight loss. Very impressive.
  • papate
    papate Posts: 67 Member
    btw, make sure your MFP goals and Fitbit goals are the same. If not, change them in MFP to match fitbit. Otherwise your adjustments will be off.

    Thanks, did not know that......
  • papate
    papate Posts: 67 Member
    OK, help - I can't find on Fitbit where to set my calorie goals? (yes, I admit, I am electronically challenged)
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    You probably have it already set up. It calculates your calorie goals based on your age, height, weight, and sex in your profile settings. That is why I was saying that whatever it says your calorie goal is in fitbit (before any activity) you should change your MFP goal (in MFP) to match that.

    In other words, on my dashboard in fitbit, unthe the "food plan" section, the little magnifying glass says my estimated burn for today is 2344 - 500 calorie deficit so 1844. I don't have any activity adjustment yet, so I would change my calorie goal in MFP to be 1844.
  • papate
    papate Posts: 67 Member
    yes, I see, on MFP I was able to change the calorie goal to what I wanted, which is much more limited and forcing me to stay on and lose weight. I see the Fitbit with it's high numbers and
    so I work my way, and gotta watch what I say here. But thanks.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    no idea what you just said!
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    You don't need to worry about doing that. As far as MFP is concerned, it only uses the FitBit to calculate your actual calories burned for the day; if the FitBit says you burned more than MFP thinks you did, you get an adjustment. That has nothing to do with your goals for calorie *intake*.

    The FitBit website also has features related to telling you how many calories to eat, but as far as I know, if you're here on MFP, you're ignoring that part of what FitBit does.
  • ekaplan1020
    ekaplan1020 Posts: 16
    I found that Fitbit has me at 2434 estimated calories burned. So I should change my MFP calorie goal to 1934? What do I do then if I end up jogging or lifting later? Do I still just try to net the 1934?

    Thanks for your help
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    I found that Fitbit has me at 2434 estimated calories burned. So I should change my MFP calorie goal to 1934? What do I do then if I end up jogging or lifting later? Do I still just try to net the 1934?

    Thanks for your help

    No, do not adjust your goal. MFP will take care of that for you by giving you the fitbit calorie adjustment in your Cardio exercise log, IF that 2434 calories burned is higer than what MFP estimated.
  • ekaplan1020
    ekaplan1020 Posts: 16
    So I just set my goal in MFP using their guided setting and then make sure I net the calories MFP suggests and it will adjust for my fitbit activity?
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    OK, so I think I confused everyone - and maybe I am wrong - but here is what I was trying to say using a scenario where you don't adjust your MFP base calories to match your fitbit base calories and the adjustment. This is how I understand it to work, but maybe the apps are smarter than I gave them credit for, but I could swear that this happened to me once before I changed mine and I accidentally overate because I thought I had more calories than I actually did

    Fitbit
    Base Calories Burned Estimate 2500
    Deficit 500
    Activity Adjustment 350

    Net Estimated Calories you can Have 2200

    MFP
    Base Calories Burned Estimate 2500
    Deficit 500
    Activity Adjustment 350

    Net Estimated Calories you can Have 2350


    Now, maybe I misunderstand how the apps interact, but if you don't change you MFP goals to match fitbit, then your adjustment would be too big and you would eat an extra 150 calories.

    Correct me if I am wrong! If so, that is one less thing I have to worry about!
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    So I just set my goal in MFP using their guided setting and then make sure I net the calories MFP suggests and it will adjust for my fitbit activity?

    Correct. You'll wind up eating more because FitBit will credit you with "exercise", causing your net calories consumed to go down.
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    OK, so I think I confused everyone - and maybe I am wrong - but here is what I was trying to say using a scenario where you don't adjust your MFP base calories to match your fitbit base calories and the adjustment. This is how I understand it to work, but maybe the apps are smarter than I gave them credit for, but I could swear that this happened to me once before I changed mine and I accidentally overate because I thought I had more calories than I actually did

    Fitbit MFP
    Base Calories Burned Estimate 2350 2500
    Deficit 500 500
    Activity Adjustment 350 350

    Net Estimated Calories you can Have 2200 2350

    Now, maybe I misunderstand how the apps interact, but if you don't change you MFP goals to match fitbit, then your adjustment would be too big and you would eat an extra 150 calories.

    Correct me if I am wrong! If so, that is one less thing I have to worry about!

    I'm not sure what you're getting at with those numbers, but either way, it's wrong. MFP does not know or care what your weight loss / calorie intake goals are set to on the FitBit side. The only data points it collects from FitBit are calories burned, steps taken and sleep minutes.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    My point exactly. So the calorie adjustment that it sends over to MFP is too big or small if the numbers don't match.
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    My point exactly. So the calorie adjustment that it sends over to MFP is too big or small if the numbers don't match.

    FitBit doesn't send an adjustment. It sends the raw "this is how many calories you've burned today" data, and MFP calculates the adjustment based on your MFP profile.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    you sure about that? Because my numbers never match exactly. For example, yesterday fitbit says I burned 2739, so it says I have a daily calorie goal of 2239. MFP (after the fitbit adjustment) says I had a calorie goal of 2231.

    Granted, the difference is small, but I assumed it was only small because I adjusted my MFP goals to be similar to fitbit. Seems that if all it was doing was sending the raw "this is how many calories you've burned today" data, that they would match exactly.
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    Positive. All that information is available in the Help / FAQ sections on MFP. The numbers on MFP and FitBit don't need to match, as you're supposed to be ignoring the "eat this many calories" part of FitBit anyway.

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