FitBIt Syncing with MFP

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footballgirlie4life
footballgirlie4life Posts: 1
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Ok I need help! I just bought a fitbit and love it so far. I just finished my first workout (kickboxing) with it on and based off of how many calories I had burned before I started and how many it said I had burned when I was done, I burned about 500 calories in that 55 minutes. MFP thinks that if I do kickboxing for 55 minutes, I should burn about 780 calories. When I entered the workout in MFP, the numbers in my fitbit changed to show I burned nearly 300 more calories than it said before... am I not supposed to enter my workout in MFP? If fitbit thinks I only burned around 500 calories, shouldnt I go with that number rather than the 780??

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  • emsal13
    emsal13 Posts: 2
    Fitbit isn't a heart rate monitor, so even though it can sort of tell how vigorously you are stepping during a workout, it can't necessarily judge accurately how many calories you burn in activities besides running and walking (I think.) I would enter the activity into the fitbit website under "log activities" and override the data the fitbit collected for that time period. This input will also sync to myfitnesspal. This is just my opinion, but it seems to be accurate from what I've read/observed.
  • chicadejmu
    chicadejmu Posts: 171 Member
    You aren't supposed to log your exercise on both fitbit and MFP. Just MFP and be sure to enter a start time. That fitbit adjustment is based on your average activity levels over the last 11 hours or so. I have found that mine decreases by about 250 calories at the end of the day - so I've started adding the 250 in as quick calories to make sure I stay under my total calories. Hopefully that helps answer your question some.

    And, btw - I would think that fitbit has a pretty good estimation of calorie burn because it does monitor how vigorously you're moving around. A lot of people have said that MFP tends to overestimate calorie burn.
  • Sheila_Ann
    Sheila_Ann Posts: 365 Member
    I have a fitbit and love it. Check out the info under tools/fitbit ultra. That about explains it all to you.

    Good luck!
  • snowdrop_diva
    snowdrop_diva Posts: 142 Member
    You aren't supposed to log your exercise on both fitbit and MFP. Just MFP and be sure to enter a start time. That fitbit adjustment is based on your average activity levels over the last 11 hours or so. I have found that mine decreases by about 250 calories at the end of the day - so I've started adding the 250 in as quick calories to make sure I stay under my total calories. Hopefully that helps answer your question some.

    And, btw - I would think that fitbit has a pretty good estimation of calorie burn because it does monitor how vigorously you're moving around. A lot of people have said that MFP tends to overestimate calorie burn.

    ^^
    This

    Everything you post on MFP get's auto posted to the fitbit site when they are linked, so this info would be the same on both sites.
    The "Fitbit Adjustment" that shows up in your MFP exerise section represents the Additional calories you have burned, above and beyond the MFP original estimate. Because this value is recalculated every time your FitBIt uploads new data, you should expect this value to change over the course of the day.

    Check out the Help section, it lets you know what does and doesn't happen between the sites when syncing. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help
  • aegisprncs
    aegisprncs Posts: 236 Member
    I'm addicted to my fit it for running, walking,etc. Although I keep it on, I don't use it for any other type of workout... that's not its intended use. As the above poster mentioned, I delete the 250 (this varies) that fitbit transfers over. To me this is normal every day activity.
  • snowdrop_diva
    snowdrop_diva Posts: 142 Member
    Fitbit isn't a heart rate monitor, so even though it can sort of tell how vigorously you are stepping during a workout, it can't necessarily judge accurately how many calories you burn in activities besides running and walking (I think.) I would enter the activity into the fitbit website under "log activities" and override the data the fitbit collected for that time period. This input will also sync to myfitnesspal. This is just my opinion, but it seems to be accurate from what I've read/observed.

    When syncing the fitbit you are told to ONLY post on the MFP so that there are no double entries. Otherwise you'll have the wrong stats all the time, and would spend a majority of time trying to sort out things.

    MFP entries get cross-posted to Fitbit, but just a calorie adjustment get's sent from Fitbit to MFP. As long as you Always enter an activity start time and duration to your MFP exercise log the FitBit calorie adjustment will be pretty accurate. =)
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