Fitbit with MFP

ralevin
ralevin Posts: 131 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Happy Day of Candy Temptation! :)

So I just got a Fitbit One yesterday, and have already synced it up with MFP and everything. My question is on how it calculates how many calories I have "left" as it syncs. It seems like it adds ALL of the calories I've burned to MFP (even the calories I burn when I'm sitting down doing nothing), which is something I've never done. Should I just avoid the "calories remaining" number and just try to match the burned vs. eaten numbers?

Thoughts?

Thanks!

EDIT: Maybe I should clarify: It has actually added a negative number of calories burned so far for today (bringing my calories remaining number down). I'm just a bit confused about how it calculates it all.

Replies

  • ralevin
    ralevin Posts: 131 Member
    shameless bump :ohwell:
  • truddy6647
    truddy6647 Posts: 519 Member
    ok let me understand what you are asking.....are you asking how many calories a day you should have (because MFP changes with your activity levels)? If so are you looking to lose weight, maintain, or gain?
  • Sooze_1975
    Sooze_1975 Posts: 89 Member
    Side question: Where did you get yoru FitBit One? I want one of those, but the site says that you can only 'Pre-Order' them. Did you find it in a store somewhere?

    Thanks!
  • truddy6647
    truddy6647 Posts: 519 Member
    I seen them on amazon
  • Sooze_1975
    Sooze_1975 Posts: 89 Member
    I just checked out Best Buy online and they seem to have them in the store. I know where I'll be going today :-)
  • truddy6647
    truddy6647 Posts: 519 Member
    never would have thought best buy would have them, I'll have to check their price to see if they are cheaper than amazon, as on amazon it is free shipping for me without taxes
  • therealangd
    therealangd Posts: 1,861 Member
    I notice it does that when I sync first thing in the morning.

    By the time lunch time rolls around it's ok.

    I think it has something to do with averaging.
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
    There are many posts on here about the issue with the negative numbers. It does not necessarily become positive later in the day (though it might). And if you manually log exercise on MFP, it will basically negate all or part of that exercise with a negative adjustment. Many of us have unlinked the two because it's inaccurate and frustrating.
  • prairiedawg2014
    prairiedawg2014 Posts: 367
    i just ordered a Mio active connect online....much like the fitbit i think only its a watch. im curious to see how it works.
    i'll have to keep an eye on the suggestions of this post so i know what to do lol.....bump
  • BeSexy
    BeSexy Posts: 94
    I have one... mine does that too. From what I understand it takes away calories burned for being INACTIVE, such as siting for a while.
  • abbeyarmygirl
    abbeyarmygirl Posts: 7 Member
    I love my fitbit. I think that it gives me a much more accurate way to track my calories. When I start off in the morning I have less calories to eat, but if I keep moving then I get to eat more. I have a very sedintary job, so if I sit all day then my fitbit lowers my calorie goal for the day. Generally I see that I am not getting to eat as much, so I try to fit in some walking or plan to do a few minutes of cardio so that I can eat more. I LOVE IT!
  • ralevin
    ralevin Posts: 131 Member
    To respond to most of those responses so far (and thank you for them!!):
    I'm hoping/needing to lose weight.
    I struggled with delayed shipping from Amazon, ordered for in-store pickup from Best Buy, later got an email that it wasn't in stock, walked in to the same best buy I planned to pick it up from (I thought I would get the ultra and return it when I got the One), and pulled the One off the shelf.

    So you're recommending that I un-sync the two, and just mentally strive to make sure I burn more than I eat?

    Thanks so much!
  • JenniferSpindel
    JenniferSpindel Posts: 56 Member
    From my understanding, the fitbit has gone through a bit of a change.

    For example:

    In my job I am walking a LOT. So when I signed up for MFP, I put "moderately active" in my settings to get the estimated number of calories I burn per day. Everyone has their set number of calories they burn everyday if they do NOTHING other than live and breathe. For me,and my weight, this number was around 1900 cals a day. Add in the setting of "moderately active" at work and I'm looking at the fact that I'm burning about 2500 cals a day.

    When I first got my fit bit, not only was I burning these 2500 cals a day, but it was ALSO counting the calories I was burning wearing the fitbit at work, so in fact it was DOUBLE COUNTING my calories burned.... and I noticed when it said I'd burned somethign along the lines of 4500 cals on day but hadn't done anything different!

    So, I adjusted my MFP settings to say that I was "sedentary" in the workplace. That way I wouldnt' double count my calories all day.

    However, Fitbit picked up on this little piece of work and adjusted the settings so that as you go along in your day, and you're doing nothing, it will start to add up negative numbers. Yesterday I forgot to wear my fitbit when I went to work and came home to about -200 cals on my fit bit. I was able to readjust my MFP settings to say that I'm "moderately active" in the workplace again :)

    If you do not wear your fitbit, or you are extremely sedentary throughout the day, you will see a negative number. It's accounting for the moving that you SHOULD be doing.

    Once I got that figured out, everything worked out ok and my calories have even backed out. I know that if I ever see negative numbers on the webpage that I'd better get my hiney in motion!

    Hope that helps (and even makes sense!)
  • ralevin
    ralevin Posts: 131 Member
    I notice it does that when I sync first thing in the morning.

    By the time lunch time rolls around it's ok.

    I think it has something to do with averaging.

    So if MFP says I'm supposed to eat 2060 calories a day (and I assume fitbit calculates something near that) then the +/- of calories is based on how much I SHOULD be burning? In other words, let them sync and just follow the numbers at the end of the day?

    I'm sorry I'm so confused about this.
  • ralevin
    ralevin Posts: 131 Member
    From my understanding, the fitbit has gone through a bit of a change.

    For example:

    In my job I am walking a LOT. So when I signed up for MFP, I put "moderately active" in my settings to get the estimated number of calories I burn per day. Everyone has their set number of calories they burn everyday if they do NOTHING other than live and breathe. For me,and my weight, this number was around 1900 cals a day. Add in the setting of "moderately active" at work and I'm looking at the fact that I'm burning about 2500 cals a day.

    When I first got my fit bit, not only was I burning these 2500 cals a day, but it was ALSO counting the calories I was burning wearing the fitbit at work, so in fact it was DOUBLE COUNTING my calories burned.... and I noticed when it said I'd burned somethign along the lines of 4500 cals on day but hadn't done anything different!

    So, I adjusted my MFP settings to say that I was "sedentary" in the workplace. That way I wouldnt' double count my calories all day.

    However, Fitbit picked up on this little piece of work and adjusted the settings so that as you go along in your day, and you're doing nothing, it will start to add up negative numbers. Yesterday I forgot to wear my fitbit when I went to work and came home to about -200 cals on my fit bit. I was able to readjust my MFP settings to say that I'm "moderately active" in the workplace again :)

    If you do not wear your fitbit, or you are extremely sedentary throughout the day, you will see a negative number. It's accounting for the moving that you SHOULD be doing.

    Once I got that figured out, everything worked out ok and my calories have even backed out. I know that if I ever see negative numbers on the webpage that I'd better get my hiney in motion!

    Hope that helps (and even makes sense!)

    THIS.... explains it so well. Thank you so much!
  • Melo1966
    Melo1966 Posts: 881 Member
    If you are going to use fibit you need to have all of your setting as lowest activity as possible MFP calories factors in daily activity like walking from your parking space to your desk and walking to the fridge, fibit wants to count these too.

    For more actual results you need to go by what your body burns by doing nothing which is 10x your weight then you can count the fibit then minus what you want to lose such as 500 cal per day for 1lb a week loss.

    Example if you are 185X and want to lose 1lb per week and the fibit says you burned and extra 650cals.
    1850-500+650=2000 cals to consume for that day.
  • sgthaggard
    sgthaggard Posts: 581 Member
    Go to <My Home> at the top and click on <Goals>. On the right hand side, under <Your Diet Profile> you will be able to see your expected calories burned from normal daily activity. That number will depend on what you have your activity level set as. I'm set as 'Sedentary', so my calories burned from normal daily activity is 1530 - that's my BMR + a bit of moving around.

    If you take that number and divide it by 24 hours, you will see how many calories MFP expects you to burn per hour (63.75 calories/hour for me). If your Fitbit says that you have burned fewer calories than MFP expects, you will get a negative calorie adjustment, decreasing the amount you are allowed to eat. Typically, you will have a negative adjustment in the morning because you won't burn as many calories while you sleep.

    It's 12:30 here. If I take my 63.75cal/hr and multiply it by 12.5 hours, I get roughly 797 calories that MFP thinks I should have burned so far. My Fitbit says that I've actually burned 814. I should have a positive adjustment of roughly 17 (MFP says 13, close enough).
  • Brianabomb
    Brianabomb Posts: 87 Member
    bump
  • shewearsfunnyhat
    shewearsfunnyhat Posts: 24 Member
    I notice it does that when I sync first thing in the morning.

    By the time lunch time rolls around it's ok.

    I think it has something to do with averaging.

    So if MFP says I'm supposed to eat 2060 calories a day (and I assume fitbit calculates something near that) then the +/- of calories is based on how much I SHOULD be burning? In other words, let them sync and just follow the numbers at the end of the day?

    I'm sorry I'm so confused about this.

    Yes, thats how I do it. I sync mine up before dinner so I have some idea as to how many calories I have to spend. I then sync it up right before bed. If you do exercise that is not tracked using the fitbit like weight training then you need to enter it into the fitbit website. It will then get transferred over to mfp.
  • ChangingAmanda
    ChangingAmanda Posts: 486 Member
    The calorie adjustment is taking some time to get used to and to tweak. When I got home yesterday, it added about 100 cals to my goal. I then did 30DS w/out wearing the fitbit and logged it into MFP. Soon after my fitbit adjustment jumped to about 400 cals because it 'imported' the MFP exercise. So essentially I got double my exercise calories back since both the MFP and the fitbit entered adjustments. I removed the activity from the fitbit dashboard and it seemed to work out at that point. By the end of the night with a couple walks of the dog, I fitbit added back about 120 and MFP added back what I had entered there.
  • volamena
    volamena Posts: 30
    Hi,
    I set my activity level on "sedentary" on both mfp and fitbit. I try not to forget my fitbit when I leave in the morning and it's that easy!
    I log everything on mfp (food, activity) and depending on how active I am during the day I get a calorie adjustment or not.
    remember you have to press the start/stop button on your fitbit when you start/finish exercising such as running, swimming, cycling..
  • spikesmom
    spikesmom Posts: 441 Member
    I also log everything on MFP. Since both accounts are linked, they adjust back and forth amongst themselves. I do not turn my stop watch on or off when exercising because when I log the exercise on MFP, it will ask me for time of day and duration of exercise. Fitbit uses that information to back out my activity during that time to avoid double entry of exercise. It's a pretty smart tool!
  • ralevin
    ralevin Posts: 131 Member

    remember you have to press the start/stop button on your fitbit when you start/finish exercising such as running, swimming, cycling..

    Is this the same on the Fitbit One? There's only one button, and it just switches displays. If I hold it, it goes into sleep tracking mode.
  • RetiredAndLovingIt
    RetiredAndLovingIt Posts: 1,395 Member
    bump
  • volamena
    volamena Posts: 30

    remember you have to press the start/stop button on your fitbit when you start/finish exercising such as running, swimming, cycling..

    Is this the same on the Fitbit One? There's only one button, and it just switches displays. If I hold it, it goes into sleep tracking mode.

    I don't know about the one, I have the ultra but there's also 1 button. but yes it's like the sleep mode. then you have to log your activity on mfp, with start and finish time.
  • 2essie
    2essie Posts: 2,861 Member
    Bump
  • SunnyStef
    SunnyStef Posts: 22 Member
    I have a FitBit too and I love it. But I'm so confused! On my work days, I walk anywhere from 12,000 to 18,000 steps. Why should I have to use the sedentary setting?? I don't get it. I do not eat the extra calories it allows.

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