Confused about #s when syncing BodyMedia Fit with MFP

karaks
karaks Posts: 108 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
According to my BodyMedia Fit armband, I burn an average of 2900-3200 calories a day. I have been wearing it for like 8 months now and it continuously gives me around those numbers on the days I exercise. I usually eat around 2200-2500 calories a day, giving me (theoretically) a 500-1000 calorie deficit.

This week, I synced my armband with MFP and now MFP is giving me some crazy numbers.

I have my activity level set to sedentary on MFP since my exercise calories are now being added in automatically from my armband. With it set to lose 1 lb per week, MFP gives me 1440 calories a day to work with.

Yesterday I burned 2912 calories according to my armband. When I synced the two, by the end of the day, MFP had added in 1484 calories for exercise. Add that to the 1440 calories I would normally get to eat, and MFP gave me a goal yesterday of 2924 calories to consume. That's 12 more calories than I actually burned, according to my armband.

Is this a glitch in how the two programs are linking together? Or am I missing something? I'm thinking I should unlink the two and just add in my exercise calories manually like I used to....

Replies

  • karaks
    karaks Posts: 108 Member
    Bump. Any ideas? :smile:
  • Starlage
    Starlage Posts: 1,709 Member
    i'm guna bump too because it's confusing me also.....
  • sarah44254
    sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
    I synced mine the first day and it set MFP to what the body media claimed I burned all day (2200).

    That isn't so good because that creates a 0 calorie deficit. So I started eating with the goal of 500 green calories remaining.

    Then one day out of the blue I plugged in body media and MFP only gave me a couple hundred calories, changing my goal from 1500 to 1700 or so. I looked on the body media site and it said I had burned 2200 that day (giving me a 500 deficit if I ate 1700)

    from that day forward, MFP would take the total burn from body media, apply the weekly weight loss I asked for when I set up MFP (1 lb per week) and result in 500 calories less than my burn stated on the bodymedia.

    I hope this works the same way for you because it really has made it super simple for me to use both in conjunction with each other. It did take a few days to a week to work but I'm not sure if that was a period of trial or if it was just wonky because the syncing option had just been added.
  • tdfarmer
    tdfarmer Posts: 176 Member
    I use to use fitbit and it was always giving me extra calories that if I ate back would have gained, so I just use my HRM.
  • Starlage
    Starlage Posts: 1,709 Member
    I saw another thread that said to set your MFP food goal to your bodymedia calories consumed goal and let it adjust the extra depending on your activity. it's still giving me extra calories though. hmm...

    BAH. So confusing. They need a step by step attached to the app page on both sides as to how to use them together.
  • Starlage
    Starlage Posts: 1,709 Member
    OR. I've read to use MFP purely for the large food database and let it sync with bodymedia, and use the bodymedia data since it will show your MFP logging.

    Argh.
  • Snoozypaws3000
    Snoozypaws3000 Posts: 133 Member
    I've got the Ki-Fit [UK version of the Bodymedia] and had so many problems with synching that I have had to unsynch the accounts.

    The UK Ki-Fit site is useless for anything other than the most basic of foods so I was logging the food here on MFP and it was [accurately] transferring the data over to the Ki-Fit site

    So far....so good

    BUT

    When it came to the exercise the figures went all over the place and I couldn't work out exactly what I had left to work with.

    So, now I am logging my food on the Ki-Fit site and just adding the total calories eaten to MFP...bit annoying having to faff about so much.

    Would be great if there was a step by step IDIOTS guide to say exactly what you should do to get both sites showing the same data.

    Sky x
  • Starlage
    Starlage Posts: 1,709 Member
    so far so good today!! It's dinner time for me, I just plugged my bmf in to sync to see where the day's at. My projected burn in about 2860 and so far it's seamlessly synced my mfo logged foods to the bmf activity manager.

    Yesterday I set BOTH mfp and bodymedia to the same things. For me thats:

    Calorie intake goal of 2155 (I set a custom level on the mfp diary)
    Very active
    lose 1/2 a pound a week.

    As of now, I just exercised (and I also use endomondo to track my runs, that also syncs to mfp) so endomondo and mfp synced together and added my running calories, bodymedia added a calorie adjustment for my day (I have a really actie job) and my calorie goal on my mfp diary has adjusted to 2600 (which if you remember my projected burn of 2860 for today will leave me about a 250 cal deficit, so a 1/2 pound loss according the numbers if I kept that up all week).

    So far so good! So the key is to make sure your mfp diary is set to the same goal that bodymedia gives you. They work together perfectly!
  • tdfarmer
    tdfarmer Posts: 176 Member
    Maybe I'll try fitbit again!
  • bikinibeliever
    bikinibeliever Posts: 832 Member
    I synced mine and I am loving it. It has been working fine for me.
  • yustick
    yustick Posts: 238 Member
    I'm OK with how it syncs. It uses exercise calories to adjust your calorie goal in MFP to your calorie burn on BodyMedia (it will use your projected calorie burn during the day)...If I want to lose two pounds/week, then I need to shoot for 1,000 each day. There is a slight variance (up to 15 calories), but I see that on my BodyMedia display too...not really a big deal.
  • Snoozypaws3000
    Snoozypaws3000 Posts: 133 Member
    so far so good today!! It's dinner time for me, I just plugged my bmf in to sync to see where the day's at. My projected burn in about 2860 and so far it's seamlessly synced my mfo logged foods to the bmf activity manager.

    Yesterday I set BOTH mfp and bodymedia to the same things. For me thats:

    Calorie intake goal of 2155 (I set a custom level on the mfp diary)
    Very active
    lose 1/2 a pound a week.

    As of now, I just exercised (and I also use endomondo to track my runs, that also syncs to mfp) so endomondo and mfp synced together and added my running calories, bodymedia added a calorie adjustment for my day (I have a really actie job) and my calorie goal on my mfp diary has adjusted to 2600 (which if you remember my projected burn of 2860 for today will leave me about a 250 cal deficit, so a 1/2 pound loss according the numbers if I kept that up all week).

    So far so good! So the key is to make sure your mfp diary is set to the same goal that bodymedia gives you. They work together perfectly!

    Thanks for posting this as I've only been on MFP for a fortnight and didn't realise I could alter the calorie intake figs etc
    Will have another try now
    Sky x
  • sparkyval
    sparkyval Posts: 32
    Hey there...I did not read all of the responses yet but I wanted to say that this confused me at first, but in the end, go with the MFP numbers for the loss...they seem to be hitting it dead on regarding what is needed for seeing results. Remember their numbers are dynamic and so will not be sealed until the end of the day. You know like when you hover over your burn in your activity manager and it estimates what your total burn will be? MFP does the same thing based on the data from the activity manager ...so if you don't reach the estimate...it will dynamically adjust when you sync.
    At first it seemed off to me but in the end, however they figured it...it seems to work out accurately. :smile:

    23730643.png

    Well I just read my post over and it doesn't really make a lot of sense so if you don't understand what I meant you can email me...I am currently ill with the flu and so I can't seem to communicate well.
  • 6size6
    6size6 Posts: 10
    Hey there...I did not read all of the responses yet but I wanted to say that this confused me at first, but in the end, go with the MFP numbers for the loss...they seem to be hitting it dead on regarding what is needed for seeing results. Remember their numbers are dynamic and so will not be sealed until the end of the day. You know like when you hover over your burn in your activity manager and it estimates what your total burn will be? MFP does the same thing based on the data from the activity manager ...so if you don't reach the estimate...it will dynamically adjust when you sync.
    At first it seemed off to me but in the end, however they figured it...it seems to work out accurately. :smile:

    23730643.png

    Well I just read my post over and it doesn't really make a lot of sense so if you don't understand what I meant you can email me...I am currently ill with the flu and so I can't seem to communicate well.

    I'm still having issues syncing mine. maybe I need to start over.

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