Fitbit/MFP goals and logging help

Re: goals - Personal preference. Basically what will happen is this - you set your goals on MFP, either guided or custom. Let's say that you input that you're lightly active, which gives an estimated TDEE of 2000 calories, and you'd like to lose 1 lb/week. So, your goals are set to 1500 calories/day with a 500 calorie deficit. What Fitbit will do is anytime it estimates that you burned MORE than 2000 calories in a day (or more than your goal plus what MFP shows as your deficit if you have a more custom goal) it will credit you with exercise calories. There's also a setting where if you burn LESS than 2000 (or whatever) calories, it can give you "negative" exercise calories and reduce your calorie goal for the day (that's within your diary settings). It's entirely up to you if you want to use that.

Re: exercise - log them in MFP. Just make sure that you hit the start/stop button on your Fitbit (do newer models have those? I have an Ultra which is older so hopefully this doesn't confuse you) and log the start time/duration in MFP exactly matching up with what you did on your Fitbit so the Fitbit site knows which calories (what part of your day) to override with what you enter in MFP.

Hope that makes sense!!!

Thanks! I am currently at 1500 calories per day and will keep it at that. I have the fitbit one which I think has a start/stop on it (I just got it today). I'll have to play around with it over the week to learn all the features!

The start/stop function is to record your sleep habits.

there's no need to "start/stop" the sleep function for exercising.

You just log the activity into MFP and you enter the exact start time and duration (for those new to fitbit - after you sync the two aps, MFP will show you a time wheel when you go in to log exercise). MFP will override that time period. Fitbit will adjust and additional (unlogged) activity outside that time period. but you MUST log the start time or MFP will count your measured fitbit activity PLUS what you log.

there's no need to "start/stop" the sleep function for exercising.

You just log the activity into MFP and you enter the exact start time and duration (for those new to fitbit - after you sync the two aps, MFP will show you a time wheel when you go in to log exercise). MFP will override that time period. Fitbit will adjust and additional (unlogged) activity outside that time period. but you MUST log the start time or MFP will count your measured fitbit activity PLUS what you log.

No, there's no REQUIREMENT to. The advantage is making sure that you're exact with your times. If I use the button, once I've synced I can go onto the Fitbit website and see that it logged an "activity" for 43 minutes starting at 7:04pm and ending at 7:47pm. That way when it's logged into MFP I can use 7:04 as my start time and 43 minutes for my duration and be 100% sure that it's overriding the exact correct time period. Just what I've found to be an extremely helpful step to keep you from having to remember that stuff, it only takes but a split second to hit the button, especially when clocks can be off by several minutes and such, it can make a big difference in 20-30 minutes of cardio - sure, you can check the time on your Fitbit to be sure you're on the same time, but if you're going to do that just hold down the button for one extra second and then you don't even have to think about it.

Um.

Ok, well to each their own, BUT what I meant by "must" was that **IF** a person were doing it the way I described, then you must make sure to log your start time in MFP to avoid an inaccuracy in the calorie number - I did not mean that you "must" or are required to do it the way I described. I'm sure either way is fine. I ssimply don't use the sleep feature for that because I actually use it for, um, sleep, and doing that would give me all kinds of crazy sleep logs.

there's no need to "start/stop" the sleep function for exercising.

You just log the activity into MFP and you enter the exact start time and duration (for those new to fitbit - after you sync the two aps, MFP will show you a time wheel when you go in to log exercise). MFP will override that time period. Fitbit will adjust and additional (unlogged) activity outside that time period. but you MUST log the start time or MFP will count your measured fitbit activity PLUS what you log.

No, there's no REQUIREMENT to. The advantage is making sure that you're exact with your times. If I use the button, once I've synced I can go onto the Fitbit website and see that it logged an "activity" for 43 minutes starting at 7:04pm and ending at 7:47pm. That way when it's logged into MFP I can use 7:04 as my start time and 43 minutes for my duration and be 100% sure that it's overriding the exact correct time period. Just what I've found to be an extremely helpful step to keep you from having to remember that stuff, it only takes but a split second to hit the button, especially when clocks can be off by several minutes and such, it can make a big difference in 20-30 minutes of cardio - sure, you can check the time on your Fitbit to be sure you're on the same time, but if you're going to do that just hold down the button for one extra second and then you don't even have to think about it.

Um.

Ok, well to each their own, BUT what I meant by "must" was that **IF** a person were doing it the way I described, then you must make sure to log your start time in MFP to avoid an inaccuracy in the calorie number - I did not mean that you "must" or are required to do it the way I described. I'm sure either way is fine. I ssimply don't use the sleep feature for that because I actually use it for, um, sleep, and doing that would give me all kinds of crazy sleep logs.

You don't get crazy logs. The Fitbit can "tell" the difference between sleep and activity, particularly if you're logging activity in MFP. I use it for both nearly every day and have never had such an issue as you describe. I suppose if you made a habit of logging naps as sleep you may run into an issue, but that would seem...odd. And the key to logging it accurately in MFP is not just having a start time, but that it has to be exactly the same as the time your Fitbit showed when you started - my way makes that unbelievably simple.

Edited to add: Not to beat a dead horse, but this link explains what I'm talking about a little more clearly (the Recordings and Tracking Sleep sections): http://www.fitbit.com/manual#section-recordings