FitBit One calories Vs. MFP

MFP adds a Fitbit adjustment based on how many steps you have taken for the day. It shows up under exercise. I am still confused as to which one to follow though.

My MFP is currently showing a Fitbit adjustment of 231 calories that should be added to my day. This is from normal daily activities so I am not sure why I would eat those back. I don't understand why MFP wants us to eat them and Fitbit doesn't. Very confusing.

My MFP is currently showing a Fitbit adjustment of 231 calories that should be added to my day. This is from normal daily activities so I am not sure why I would eat those back. I don't understand why MFP wants us to eat them and Fitbit doesn't. Very confusing.

This is just what I've noticed. Sounds like MFP has underestimated your daily activity and as such you can effectively eat more.

Example:

MFP thinks I burn 2230 calories from normal daily activity. On MFP, I'm at a calorie deficit of 536 calories from the 2230 it thinks I burn. So my goal is 1694.

Fitbit on the other hand says this for today:

estimated total burn for the day 2138 (this could go up or down depending on what I do the rest of the day)
it is set to give me a 500 cal deficit
so fitbit says to eat 1628 for today (this could go up or down depending on what I do the rest of the day)

Unless you manually go in and tell Fitbit what your daily calorie goal should be (which you can do to match your MFP goal and eliminate confusion) then Fitbit will show you your remaining calorie allowance based on the calories burned at the time of its last sync, so if Fitbit says that you have only burned 1500 cals today and you have it set to subtract 1000 cals from your daily burn to lose 2lbs a week, then it will tell you that you can eat 500 cals today. If you had turned on the negative adjustment option on MFP then Fitbit and MFP would likely read the same amount because it is based on your current activity. However, that setting needs to be turned on and so MFP not go below whatever cals you set it for, and not change until you go over your projected daily burn. If you find that you are not losing at the rate you should be then its possible that your activity level on MFP is set too high. But if you normally exercise in the evenings or walk a lot in the evenings then I would go by your MFP total because Fitbit will catch up once you have done the activity.

Hope that clears things up.

ETA - There is a Fitbit group that you may want to consider joining. They are all very helpful at Fitbit's sometimes quirks.

how do i turn the negative adjustments?

Go to your food diary, select settings, scroll down until you see calorie adjustment

I mean to be honest i'm not so sure that this device is useful....it's so confusing to me....i eat below what i normally burn and still i don't list at a fast pace...it's so frustrating..

The device is awesome. It helps me keep my body moving. I do not rely on fitbit for my food, I let MFP do that.

If you do not have any friends on Fitbit to compete against, I highly suggest getting one or two. That is what makes it rock for us. My husband and I compete and it is a great deal of fun. I swear we love these things to the point that they are almost like pets.

Check what your goals are. If MFP is set to 1lb/week and fitbit is set to 2lb/week, you have your difference.

There's a little bit of a learning curve, yes, but once you get the hang of it it's not confusing at all and is a GREAT tool.

First, regarding the calories you have left for the day - yes, there may be a difference, depending on what your settings are and such. Double check that your deficit goals are the same in MFP and Fitbit. After that, always go by what MFP tells you - that calculation is based on how many calories you've burned as of your last sync and then estimates how many more you'll burn through the rest of the day to calculate your daily goal. However, don't be surprised if it changes a little depending on how active you are since the last time you synced. It might even go down if you did a big workout in the morning and then sat on your bottom for the rest of the day. So, just be prepared for that.

*Edited to add: If you're like me and don't sync at all til the end of the day (I can't sync at work, I have an Ultra and can only sync with the dongle thingy), then, yes, you might get lumped with a big chunk of calories at one time. MFP won't record an adjustment until you sync at least once in a day. You kind of just have to plan for that (you can keep an eye on your calories by just looking at your Fitbit unit and mentally kind of guess how many more you'll burn and subtract your deficit). Though, with the Fitbit One, you can sync through Bluetooth so hopefully you can sync to your phone and take care of that problem.

Second, you can eat back your "normal daily calories" that Fitbit credits you with because it's more accurately based on your actual activity level. For example, MFP gives you, what, 4 or 5 different activity levels? Even if you choose the one that most closely matches your actual activity level, there's no way you're going to burn that exact amount of calories every day. It's very likely that on any given day you might burn a couple hundred more or less, just depending on seemingly silly things like whether or not you went out to lunch or if you ran to Target, totally excluding your workouts. The Fitbit accounts for those differences and gives you a much more accurate TDEE than just deciding between "lightly" and "moderately" active can do.

There is a glitch in the Matrix, and I'm sure it's on MFP's end.

It will adjust your calories according to the wrong time, giving you an inflated number of calories left.

For instance my adjustment will say "based on 1800 calories burned by 6:00pm, when really according to FitBit I burned 1800 by 9pm. So while Fitbit thinks I have 3 hours left to burn, MFP is showing it as 6 for some reason.

What I've ended up doing now is a little complicated, but maybe it will help someone.

Check your Fitbit dashboard. Look at how many calories it says you burn in a 5 min period. (Mine is 5 for instance) so that means I burn 1 calorie per minute, or 60 calories an hour if I do nothing.

When I check my calories burned on the FitBit, we'll say for arguments sake I burned 1800 by 9pm again. This means there's 3 hours left. 3x60 = 180 more calories I will burn for the day doing nothing, making my total 1980 calories. I will subtract 500 for my 1 lb a week deficit, which gives me 1480. That's how much allowance I have for food. I will then subtract whatever I already ate in food from 1480 to see how many calories I have left.

Hopefully that makes sense. Or an easier way is to go by the Fitbit numbers or don't allow the adjustment from Fitbit into MFP.

The simplest answer, and the best for all of us, would be for Fitbit to sync the actual calorific intake from MFP in realtime ( no averaging out) and for MFP to incorporate the ongoing daily calorie burn from Fitbit into the MFP calorie count ( again, in realtime).

I wear my Fitbit all day, and carry my smartphone around with me, so the data-sharing should be a no-brainer.

I sent an email to both companies recommending their dev teams get on to this, which you would assume would be a simple update, but to date, no change.

They are great apps, but could be even better if the data-transfer was more intuitive...!