To All Fitbit Users I Need Help!

annAsami
annAsami Posts: 53
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey there! So I have my fitbit linked to MFP to better track everything. I honestly do not think it is working or maybe I am doing something wrong. Yesterday my fitbit tracked; 12,441 steps, 10 floors climbed, 5.29 miles, and 2,261 calories burned. For yesterday MFP said; fitbit calorie adjustment - 178 calories burned...Today, so far; 3,911 steps today (with jogging included), 4 floors climbed, 2 miles, and 1,007 calories burned. My MFP says; fitbit calorie adjustment - 0 calories....WTH...I just don't know what I am doing wrong. Also, the MFP fitness tracker (when you input your exercise) always said I burned more calories than what the fitbit said I did. Has anyone else had this problem? Which is more accurate? I just want to make sure I am getting the right info.

*Should I just use the fitbit dashboard to track everything? Since I have it synced it transfers the food diary over. It also has this cool chart that shows how much you burned vs how much you eat and a place of where you should be to balance it. I just dont know*

Replies

  • annAsami
    annAsami Posts: 53
    Guess there are not many people on here who also use fitbit :(

    I might just stop using the fitbit since one says something dif than the other
  • Louiseisme
    Louiseisme Posts: 73
    MFP already has calculations based on your activity level that you set it for....It then sees your fitbit activity and makes adjustments based off of it. If you have activity listed as Sedentary and you move alot during the day there will be a calculation of extra cals burned. if you have light activity and you only walk 5000 steps and you dont have it set to show negative numbers then it will say 0 cals from fitbit. Hope this helps.
  • annAsami
    annAsami Posts: 53
    Yea it does help a bit. Maybe I need to double check the settings because right now fitbit says I ate to much and I need to burn 180 calories while MFP says I have 200 calories left to eat....
  • niknokd
    niknokd Posts: 127 Member
    I've noticed the past few days my calculations have been seem in inaccurate. Usually besides that it seems pretty accurate. Maybe the site is having issues?
  • Seminolegirl97
    Seminolegirl97 Posts: 306 Member
    It will only adjust your calories if you have walked a certain amount of steps. It considers you sedentary if it's low. Look in the Help section it will tell you where to go to see that your Fitbit synced. Mine won't adjust my calories until I'm over 6000-7000 steps. There is nothing wrong you just have to move more.
  • chickkee
    chickkee Posts: 3 Member
    I also use the Fitbit religiously. And yes myfitnessspal always gave me more calories burned than what I really did. I feel the fit bit is pretty accurate though. When I have been on a machine and set the calories it matched fitbit. I use the calories burned from fitbit and log food through myfitnessspal. I think it's what works best for you.
  • syrklc
    syrklc Posts: 172 Member
    I have fitbit and I am not syncing with MFP. I am going to get an HRM. The fitbit is great for tracking steps..
  • DavidC1857
    DavidC1857 Posts: 149 Member
    What Louise said is right on. If you have MFP set to an activity level, it added that amount of calories into your TDEE when you set your goals. If you don't burn that many according to FitBit, you either get a zero or negative adjustment, depending on the setting. I've also read many people who say that the MFP calorie counts for a lot of exercises are too high.

    I log my food in MFP, and my activity in FitBit. So, if I'm walking, I just let Fitbit do it. If I'm riding the exercise bicycle, mowing the grass, digging a ditch, or anything else, I use the FitBit timer and then turn those Activity Records into Activity Logs. This should make the Fitbit estimation of calories burned as accurate as possible. Fitbit's activity database has about everything you can imagine in it and I think their calorie database is pretty reasonable.

    For strength training, I log the actual reps, sets and weights in MFP for my reference. MFP doesn't really do anything with that data. Then I log the time I spent as "Weight lifting, light or moderate effort" on the Fitbit sight. You don't get a lot of calories from it, but every calorie counts, hey?

    As far as food goes, I just go by MFP and pretty much ignore the Fitbit.
  • misifer
    misifer Posts: 114 Member
    What is your Fitbit goal set to? I have MFP set to custom calculations (TDEE -20%) and then I told Fitbit that I want to lose 1 lb/week, so they calculate that as -500 calories/day.

    For example:
    MFP is set to 2030 calories/day
    Fitbit is set to burn 2600/day
    If my burn today per Fitbit is 2600, it adds 170 to MFP and says I can eat 2200 (2600-500).
    If my burn today per Fitbit is 2400, it subtracts 130 from MFP and says I can eat 1900 (2400-500).

    I log all food in MFP and I let Fitbit calculate my daily burn with the exception of cycling which I log separate. The food totals and biking syncs back to Fitbit.
  • Trent1612000
    Trent1612000 Posts: 57 Member
    I thought I read somewhere NOT to log your activity of the fitbit site if you are syncing as it caused issue with the MFP.
  • 7djt
    7djt Posts: 38 Member
    When you go to 'Track Exercise' and look under 'Cardiovascular' there is an information 'i' that explains how Fitbit and MFP are creating your numbers. The Fitbit adjustment will not be applied if it will put you below your daily calorie minimum. See my information for today as an example:

    Fitbit Calorie Adjustment
    You're using Fitbit to measure your actual activity level throughout the day.

    To accurately reflect any extra calories you're burning, we use this data to adjust your daily MyFitnessPal calorie goal.

    This is how we calculate your calorie adjustment:

    Fitbit Calories Burned
    Full Day Projection
    (Based on 1600 calories burned as of 9:24 pm) 1804
    MyFitnessPal Calories Burned
    1885
    Fitbit Calorie Adjustment
    Your adjustment has been reduced to keep your goal above our daily 1200 cal. minimum. 0

    To learn more visit our FAQ page
  • annAsami
    annAsami Posts: 53
    Oh wow! There are a lot of good answers here! It is starting to make much more sense now! Im going to double check my settings!

    I agree with a lot you who said you use MFP for food and fitbit for exercise. I do the same thing and I think MFP is easier and better for the food diary!

    Thank you all!
  • donnareadman7
    donnareadman7 Posts: 56 Member
    MFP already has calculations based on your activity level that you set it for....It then sees your fitbit activity and makes adjustments based off of it. If you have activity listed as Sedentary and you move alot during the day there will be a calculation of extra cals burned. if you have light activity and you only walk 5000 steps and you dont have it set to show negative numbers then it will say 0 cals from fitbit. Hope this helps.

    I just saw tis on a video too, best way to et the most accurate reading is to set mfp to sedentary.... don't know how true it is but makes sense to me :-)
  • katibug98
    katibug98 Posts: 1
    I have both MFP *and* Fitbit set to sedentary. I log everything on MFP *food and exercise*. I don't log anything on fitbit.
  • Ladyslippers
    Ladyslippers Posts: 186 Member
    Are you tracking food on Fitbit as well as on MFP? There's a Fitbit forum I joined last year when I first connected my Fitbit and MFP and one of the suggestions from Fitbit was to use MFP to record (manually) all your food and exercise and NOT on Fitbit too. What you enter on MFP will carry back to Fitbit if you've got them linked. I can't find the post now but everything has been working well for me.

    There's a difference in the way Fitbit calculates energy expenditure vs. how MFP does it, and that will give you your difference in end-of-day calorie adjustments. Check out the Fitbit forums--you might find more information over there too.
  • Ladyslippers
    Ladyslippers Posts: 186 Member
    I log my food in MFP, and my activity in FitBit. So, if I'm walking, I just let Fitbit do it. If I'm riding the exercise bicycle, mowing the grass, digging a ditch, or anything else, I use the FitBit timer and then turn those Activity Records into Activity Logs. This should make the Fitbit estimation of calories burned as accurate as possible. Fitbit's activity database has about everything you can imagine in it and I think their calorie database is pretty reasonable.

    For strength training, I log the actual reps, sets and weights in MFP for my reference. MFP doesn't really do anything with that data. Then I log the time I spent as "Weight lifting, light or moderate effort" on the Fitbit sight. You don't get a lot of calories from it, but every calorie counts, hey?

    As far as food goes, I just go by MFP and pretty much ignore the Fitbit.

    What he said. :)
  • benalexe
    benalexe Posts: 19 Member
    I have my settings on Sedentary. All of my logging goes on myfitness pal not on fitbit. Most days I earn way more calories then I eat. Since Jan I have lost 38 lbs. doing it this way. My step goal is 6,500 steps per day. I usually do about 8,000 steps. I always end up being under on my calories but I know if I need a little something extra I can take it. I think you need to log your stuff on MFP try it a few days and see what happens.

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