fitbit is an expensive pedometer imo

That's my understanding too. I use Fitbit One and for me it is motivational but I have no idea how well it calculates calorie consumption. I don't have a HRM so I just use the FBO all the time and use whatever it transfers to MFP during my cardio workouts. I have been trying to figure out how far off and in what direction it's calculations are from calculated numbers based on body weight, heart rate, etc.

I can tell you that I have continued to loose weight even while I eat more based on the extra calories the FBO says I expended. But yes, it is essentially a glorified pedometer and that is how I too describe it to people, that said it seems to work ok for me and it is a mild motivator.

 Fit bit is bollocks. Did a massive cycle first thing and tracked it with a HRM. Added the activity cals and time into MFP. Later go out in afternoon with my daughter walking. Do another 5k steps so expect fit bit to add some cals for that. .......no. Fit bit cals added today. ...zero. even though I have extra exercise recorded via that alone.

Looked at it's reason behind it in the calculator and it wanted to take cals off me as it was trying to interfere with my cycle burn. The way I understood it was as long as you added the start and end time it saw that as a separate workout and left it alone.

The fitbit works by taking your completely sedentary BMR and gradually increasing during the day, your cycle would have spiked your calories for the day at that point. If you remained sedentary (5000 steps is sedentary, I have to get to 8000 before I get any calories added) for the rest of the day then you would gradually have lost that calorie spike.

Also what plan have you got it set to on fitbit? it took me about a week before I got the settings right for what I wanted it to do.

Fitbit has many flaws, but you seem angry for something thats not it's fault...

Track your food & your exercise on MFP, and the rest will all sync perfectly! I don't use Fitbits Dashboard for eating & I don't eat back exercised calories either.

Same for me, I don't use the fitbit dashboard, I do however eat back some of the calories. I have mine set for predictive so some days it will ADD calories, lowering my daily allowance. I'm not sure if it's accurate, I think so based on the numbers it gives me vs unsyncing it and adding time walked to MFP's exercise log. It's fairly great on steps so glorified pedometer it's doing exactly what I bought it to do which is get me walking more than I used to, seeing a low step count gets my butt up and moving.

Its not a glorified pedometer. It IS a pedometer.

Im not sure what else youre expecting it to do?

Maybe cable TV as well?

But it all depends on what you have set your activity level to on MFP and whether that included the exercise anyway. You are misunderstanding it somewhere. Have you read up about how it works? This is from MFP help;

What is the Calorie Adjustment in my Exercise Diary?
Last Updated: Jun 13, 2013 01:09PM PDT
MyFitnessPal pulls your calorie burn directly from our total daily calorie App Gallery partners. We then project forward to the end of the day based on your calorie burn so far. If this full-day number is different than MyFitnessPal’s estimate for your daily calorie burn, an adjustment will be made to your caloric intake goal. This adjustment can either be positive or negative. If the adjustment is positive, this indicates that your calorie burn for the day as reported by our partner is greater than MyFitnessPal’s estimate. If the adjustment is negative this indicates that the partner's reported calorie burn is lower than MyFitnessPal’s estimate.

Details about the calculation of any adjustment can be viewed by clicking the small "i" next to the adjustment in your Exercise Diary (on the full website), or by tapping the adjustment itself in the Exercise Diary of the latest MyFitnessPal iOS or Android apps.

Because the adjustment value is recalculated every time your device uploads new data, you should expect this value to change over the course of the day.

By default, MyFitnessPal will show you only positive calorie adjustments. To permit negative adjustments, log in to the full MyFitnessPal site at http://www.myfitnesspal.com and click "My Home" then "Settings" then "Diary Settings." Check the box for "Enable Negative Adjustments" then click "Save Changes"

If you are typically unable to sync your device until late in the day, you may wish to leave negative adjustments "off."

Would like to add though that it only measures step exercise. The Bodymedia Fit has a range of other sensors and is more accurate but is more expensive though and there is a subscription. Like so many things in life though- you get what you pay for.

Thanks, I was just wondering about purchasing one, I already have a good pedometer, so I wont bother with the fitbit

Walk at home - 6mi/10km
mins 81 cals 561
Walking, 3.0 mph, mod. pace, walking dog
mins 90 cals 329
Fitbit calorie adjustment
mins N/A cals 441

1st one added via MFP comes from my HRM rate
2nd one is from Endomondo automatically synced
3rd one is auto from Fitbit site

Close to 30,000 steps so far. See more you do OVER Fitbit's TDEE & MFP's setting....

The fitbit adds in your steps and will adjust your calories on MFP if used properly. It's not going to record cycling since you're not stepping when you're cycling. If you want to record cycling calories, record them on MFP. If you do an exercise class, record it in MFP. The fitbit WILL automatically transfer your walking/running extra calories to MFP. Read through the fitbit user forums if you're confused about how it works, but it is not "bullocks".

MFP will "back out" your fitbit calories if you record other exercise in a time period where you had steps recorded in fitbit. Fitbit will also transfer IN your calories from exercise you record in MFP. In my experience, they work quite well together.

I do not really understand the OP and it seems like more research should have been done before they made this purchase. To get the most out of the fitbit logging and overriding the devices calories completely defeats the purpose of the device. Fitbit is just another way, or as i like to call it a second opinion about your Tdee. When I say TDEE i really mean just that your TOTAL energy expenditure, not your expenditure before exercise. Wear it very day and do not log activities or as i do for record keeping, you can record your activity as 1 calorie burned. Before the fitbit i was using myfitness pal and all the various equations to try to determine my TDEE. I got the fitbit to compare what It thought my tdee was vs what my other method of estimation would give me. When you try to override the fitbit because you think you burned more than it said you did, you are defeating the purpose of the device. It even says this in the manual. Obviously the fitbit is not going to be as accurate in calorie estimation for certain activities but then again what is? Hrms are great for cycling, fitbit one at least cannot be used for swimming, nothing seems that great for estimating calories burned by weightlifting. The point is you can compare your calorie burns using myfitness pal estimations + your hrm activities to what fitbit thinks your tdee and use it as a second opinion. Personally, I love the device. For me when staring out it was really impossible to tell if i was sedentary, lightly active, active etc. The calorie difference between these different settings is huge and guessing wrong either to low or to high can have a huge impact on achieving your goals. Like many i chose to be conservative and pick sendentary at first before i became more confident to change up to lightly active. The fitbit was my second opinion and wearing it has given me the confidence to adjust my calories up because i am much closer to "active" on most days. Is it perfect, and is it the best choice for a cyclist? Probably not, but for a walker or a runner or someone who just doesn't know how active they are at say, their workplace, this is great.

I hear what you are saying OP. I almost always have a negative calorie adjustment here on MFP no matter what exercise I do, except when I walk more than 7500 steps a day and get a workout in also.

Most days I walk less than or close to 5000 steps. I burn about 500 in fitness related activities. By the end of the day MFP will tell me I have earned and extra 350 or 400 cals (100-150) less than what I did in my fitness activity. But because I have a sedentary desk job that I do for about 8-10 hours a day, I dont earn my TDEE-500 cals a day (as I have mine set for).

I use my HRM to figure out my fitness cals burned and fitbit for the rest of the day.

I would get frustrated with it sometimes but its been about 6 weeks since I have had the fitbit. I have lost 8 lbs since I started wearing it and syncing it with MFP. I am a believer and will use this thing to help me achieve and maintain my goals.

It might just be a pedometer to you, but for me its a pedometer that helps me figure out how much I am supposed to eat, keeps track of my activity on the days that I am more active than usual, helps motivate me to be more active on the days that I am really inactive, and reminds me that if I want to eat more, I need to move more to I dont go to far over my daily allotment.

I'm set to sedentary on here and effectively block out 2 hours every Wednesday night when I'm in the pool (aqua aerobics and swim after) and log that here using the burn rate I would have got if I logged it through FitBit's site because I think that is more realistic than MFP's burn rates. I do the extra walk to and from the pool on top of my usual work day steps but yes instead of getting extra calories on top for that walking it does take some calories off of me because it had already guessed at my activity for the 2 hours the device was sat in my locker.

You can't expect step credit for time you have blocked out for cycling and surely you'd rather not overeat exercise calories?

I've noticed that a lot of people without a fitbit on sedentary will log every little bit of exercise they do for the extra calories not realising that sedentary does not mean inactive, it just means you go about your usual day but don't move about much at work! Don't be logging normal cleaning and cooking people!!

Fitbit allows you to 'cheat'. It is a con.
Use a HRM so you know exactly what cals u burn for activities not just walking to the kitchen to make toast. and adjust your diet accordingly in conjunction with your daily 'lose weight' calories target.

Just walking about and stuff are your 'bonus burns'; don't track those, get off your *kitten* and walk/run/swim/cycle.