Setting up MFP, FitBit, and Digifit to all sync correctly

stuman74
stuman74 Posts: 27 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello,

I have been using the combo of MFP and a FitBit Zip since New Year's and have had my best weight loss in 20 years. Setting both to sync with each other has been great for converting steps to calories (or penalizing calories) based on my daily steps taken. Now, I am not primarily focused on weight loss, but getting more fit as well.

I just bought a Polar H7 heart rate monitor and set it up with the Digifit app on my iPhone. Works great, I love the actual calorie burn tracking and GPS maps for runs and bike rides.

I set Digifit to sync with both MFP and Fitbit, but I get a weird report and calorie adjustment in FitBit when I perform an exercise that's tracked by Digifit. I actually used to get the same when I had manually entered a few cardio exercises directly into MFP. Is it recommended to link all 3 apps to each other? Or should I not link 1 of the 3 possible combos? Thanks!

Replies

  • alanbarta
    alanbarta Posts: 22 Member
    I am anxious to learn the answer to this question to so if you figure it out let me know. I just started using Fitbit with MyFitnessPal last week and today got a Polar H7 that I intend to use with Digifit and the other two apps. Thanks!
  • stuman74
    stuman74 Posts: 27 Member
    I have no answer yet, but have seen a couple other threads that have conflicting answers though.

    What I had been doing, is wearing my Fitbit Zip all the time. Then, for those times where I use the H7 HRM instead, I don't wear the FitBit for those periods. Some people say you can wear both at the same time, other's say then you will get double credit for exercise.

    In either case, I'm just not sure still on syncing the 3 apps I mentioned. Today I thought I may break the link between Digifit and MFP which would leave me with:

    MFP <--> FitBit
    FitBit<-->Digifit
    I'll wear the Fitbit Zip all day (as usual) and the HRM at the same time later tonight when I work out. We'll see.
  • dri22
    dri22 Posts: 4 Member
    I have no answer yet, but have seen a couple other threads that have conflicting answers though.

    What I had been doing, is wearing my Fitbit Zip all the time. Then, for those times where I use the H7 HRM instead, I don't wear the FitBit for those periods. Some people say you can wear both at the same time, other's say then you will get double credit for exercise.

    In either case, I'm just not sure still on syncing the 3 apps I mentioned. Today I thought I may break the link between Digifit and MFP which would leave me with:

    MFP <--> FitBit
    FitBit<-->Digifit
    I'll wear the Fitbit Zip all day (as usual) and the HRM at the same time later tonight when I work out. We'll see.

    i too just purchased a Polar H-7 and had for a few days all three apps linked and was getting doubling up of activities...

    i then i broke my digifit - fitbit link today... but lost my sleep and aria scale data that was being sent to the digifit site via fitbit.

    i think you are on to something here.....

    i i break the link between digifit and MFP and stop wearing the fitbit during workouts.... i spin and do barre method.. i think this may stop the doubling up.

    so if i understand it...

    wear the fitbit for general walking around , and sleep. data gets pushed to fitbit

    wear polar H-7 during workouts, putting fitbit in locker... data gets pushed from digifit to fitbit

    all merged fitbit data then gets finally pushed to MFP which is where i do all my food logging..

    is this making sense? have to try it out tomorrow.. but sounds good to me.
  • stuman74
    stuman74 Posts: 27 Member
    Thanks for the reply. I'm interested in how your experiment went.

    Today I wore my FitBit Zip all day. I didn't do any cardio workout, but only lifted weights tonight. Prior to lifting, I put on the H7 and kept the Zip on as well throughout the workout. I then saved screen-shots on my iPhone 5 to capture the stats in the Fitbit app before and after lifting. DigiFit then tracked my calorie burn per the H7.

    Pre-Lifting: 4,833 steps / 2,187 cal burn
    Post-Lifting: 5,114 steps / 2,257 cal burn
    DigiFit Calorie Burn reported: 197

    I then tapped the sync icon in DigiFit which then syncs the info with FitBit as well. FitBit then reported:
    5,114 steps / 2395 cal burn

    Not 100% sure on the actual math here, but it looks like (within just a few calories) that my pre-lift calorie burn in FitBit + DigiFit calories burned = the sync'd total in FitBit (off by 11 calories). Maybe I took a few steps or something before or after the H7 started recording? Hence, I think wearing the FitBit and HRM at the same time is actually the right thing to do since it didn't add the 197 calories to the 2257 post lift total reported by FitBit pre-syncing with DigiFit (otherwise, it would have reported 2454).

    Tomorrow, I'll perform a cardio exercise while wearing the FitBit and HRM again and see how it compares. I just don't want to get double-credit nor get screwed on calorie burn.
  • ScubaBobOC
    ScubaBobOC Posts: 13
    I have been using Digifit (and Polar H7 HRM) and MFP since August of 2012. Since those 2 apps did not have an integration until recently, I always manually entered my Digifit calories into MFP manually. When I got a fitbit one at the beginning of this year, I linked my Digifit to fitbit, and fitbit to MFP. Digifit records the start time and duration of your workout. That, along with the total calorie burn is sent to fitbit. Fitbit does not "double count" your steps during that time period, but will continue to calculate your BMR during this time period (I believe). MFP then compares your calculated daily calorie burn (BMR x activity factor), and adds the difference between the fitbit calorie burn and that number as the fitbit adjustment.

    This is how I have continued to leave the apps setup, even though the digifit->MFP integration was released. Although there was false information published at one point that recommended linking digifit -> mfp and fitbit -> mfp I believe this would give you inaccurate adjustments.
  • stuman74
    stuman74 Posts: 27 Member
    This morning I did a 26-minute/2.5 mile cardio test on the treadmill.

    Pre-cardio: 377 steps / 633 cal burn
    Post-cardio: 3,967 steps / 989 cal burn
    DigiFit Calorie Burn reported: 347

    I then tapped the sync icon in DigiFit which then syncs the info with FitBit as well. FitBit then reported:
    3,967 steps / 1001 cal burn.

    Not sure why the numbers don't all add up exactly, but I feel pretty good that I can wear my FitBit and H7 HRM concurrently.

    In MFP, the exercise calories displayed were:
    Pre-cardio: +98
    Post-cardio: -210 (so 308 earned)
    Post-cardio and sync with DigiFit: -219 (so 317 earned)
  • jeanjacquesvs
    jeanjacquesvs Posts: 1
    Hi,

    I'm about to purchase a polar h7 + digifit in order to use on top of my existing fitbit + MFP set-up.

    Have you had a chance to find out the best way to keep everything in sync since your initial post in June?

    Thanks
  • timhart3511
    timhart3511 Posts: 2 Member
    Hello-

    When I had my digifit connected to both MFP and Fitbit, I would get double readings and after working out I would delete one of the entries right away. Recently I learned that Fitbit and Digifit sync well together and you don't need to have Digifit synced to both. Once I set up the Digifit to only work with Fitbit, it worked great. Then you should have Fitbit and MFP synced together and Fitbit will update your exercise and modify your calorie numbers accordingly in MFP for you. No more double entries. This way you get your steps when working out w/out the double entries and your Digifit exercise information will be managed by Fitbit.

    Have fun!
  • timhart3511
    timhart3511 Posts: 2 Member
    One added note. I am using the Polar H7 bluetooth unit. Works great with the Digifit App.

    Gear- Iphone, Polar H7 bluetooth device (purchase extra batteries right away to have on hand), Digifit Premium membership (required to use the features- cost around $50 or so), MFP and Fitbit device.

    Log your food in MFP, Workout using Digifit and the Polar H7, while wearing the Fitbit and you should be good to go. See previous post on how to avoid the double exercise entry when you are trying to hit your daily step total on the Fitbit while working out with Digifit.
  • bb_lose_weight
    bb_lose_weight Posts: 103 Member
    Great info. I just picked up a fitbit force and ordered a zephyr HRM. I am planning on setting fitbit<->digifig and then set MFP<->fitbit hope that works for me like it works for you.
  • julzdxb
    julzdxb Posts: 1
    I'm looking at getting the Polar H7 to use with Digifit, Fitbit and MFP. My biggest question is, does it store the info like fitbit does and then then sync with your phone digifit app when you are near it, or do I need to take my phone along with me to classes, runs etc. (not ideal)
  • bb_lose_weight
    bb_lose_weight Posts: 103 Member
    I'm looking at getting the Polar H7 to use with Digifit, Fitbit and MFP. My biggest question is, does it store the info like fitbit does and then then sync with your phone digifit app when you are near it, or do I need to take my phone along with me to classes, runs etc. (not ideal)

    I am going to test out the zeyphr bluetooth at racquetball tomorrow. I won't be taking my phone into the court but it might stay connected if I keep my phone in my bag and my bag near the court. I'll let you know how it works out. Do you use your phone for music on runs?
  • robinalexis
    robinalexis Posts: 50 Member
    I followed the directions and linked digifit with fitbit, then linked fibit with MFP. the calories are almost correct, thankyou all for the instructions, but having it linked this way seems fitbit does not give me full calorie burn for example: Digifit says I burned 449 for spinning, and when everything is synce it shows as only -362 on MFP; in addition I don't get a little blurb from Digifit on MFP saying it was a spinning class. I realzied this isn't a big deal but I like seeing that I worked hard. Any recommendations?
  • michielyn
    michielyn Posts: 47 Member
    Could it be the difference in what you burn by just breathing? Because I think MFP already takes that into account.

    I have the same issue and mine is about 80 calories an hour off, and I figure it's the calories MFP have already considered (my BMR).
  • dullius
    dullius Posts: 1
    Haven´t you all seen the digifit post about this very same question?

    http://blog.digifit.com/2013/02/link-myfitnesspal-digifit/

    According to them, the way to go is Digifit <-> Fitbit <-> MyFitnessPal

    Then you´ll have the data everywhere without any doubles, and you could wear your fitbit always, like it´s supposed to be used.

    I have a new problem: I´ve added a withings ws-50 to the equation!
    I´ve linked it to my fitbit account, then it syncs my weight back to MFP and Digifit, but I don´t have the nice RHR and blood pressure readings I do with my withings gear synced back to my digifit account..

    For now, it´s the only way I´ve found to link all this four elements without having any double data...

    I think I may end up ditching one of them to make things simpler

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