Activity level and FitBit

Reinventi0n
Reinventi0n Posts: 71 Member
edited February 4 in Fitness and Exercise
I accidentally posted this in the Nutrition board, but I wanted to repost here since it is better suited here...

I have recently started connecting my Fitbit to MFP and have a few questions about what I should set my activity level on MFP to. Right now, I have it set to lightly active mainly due to my normal day to day activities. However, I am wondering if I should set my activity level to sedentary on MFP and just rely on the Fitbit adjustment. Most of what makes me lightly active is what the Fitbit is picking up anyway so I don't want to be eating double the calories because the exercise is being counted twice. What do you think I should set my activity level to?

I have also noticed that my Fitbit adjustment is not very stable. For example, it could say that I burned 300 calories in the afternoon but if I don't keep that same level of activity throughout the rest of the day, that number will drop. I get nervous about the number changing because I don't want to dip into my exercise calories to only have the number change and wind up being over my goal for the day. Should I use the Fitbit adjustment or should I just track my exercise manually so I have more stable numbers?

Thanks for any advice on this!

Replies

  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    I keep MFP set to sedentary and just let the FitBit do it's thing. I check in on it during the day to see what the adjustment is plus after a while you get to know how many steps you need by certain times in the day not to be in the negative. The idea of the FitBit is to get you moving more so hopefully you aren't actually doing less than the sedentary setting.
  • snazzyjazzy21
    snazzyjazzy21 Posts: 1,298 Member
    I have mine set to lightly active, because I can't sync it till I get home from work, so I like to have a slightly bigger budget for my meals at work. It doesn't actually make a difference, the numbers end up the same, but it makes me feel better anyway.

    I too have my calories 'drop' towards the end of the day. I know I have to leave 80 calories at the end of the day because it will drop a bit after I've gone to bed.
  • just4nessa
    just4nessa Posts: 459 Member
    I have both MFP and Fitbit set to sedentary because my activity level can vary greatly from day to day (I have a desk job, but work from home so I can start my day earlier, later, or split it up). On the fitbit site, you have also the option of setting an activity level that will use your past activity instead, resulting in fewer negative adjustments if your daily activity is fairly consistent. I'd suggest making your selections and sticking to them for at least a few weeks, then decide if you are satisfied with your progress or readjust your settings based on a comparison of your actual results versus the fitbit data.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    Yup, set it to sedentary. The activity level just tells MFP what it should assume your calorie burn is. When you link Fitbit to MFP, FItbit tells MFP your "actual" (according to Fitbit) burn and MFP adjusts your target accordingly.

    My suggestion is to set to sedentary and disable negative adjustments. And be aware that, because of the way MFP projects the rest of the day from the current Fitbit number, the Fitbit adjustment will drop slowly as you're inactive. I think it's annoying, but that's how MFP does it.
  • Koldnomore
    Koldnomore Posts: 1,613 Member
    Yup, set it to sedentary. The activity level just tells MFP what it should assume your calorie burn is. When you link Fitbit to MFP, FItbit tells MFP your "actual" (according to Fitbit) burn and MFP adjusts your target accordingly.

    My suggestion is to set to sedentary and disable negative adjustments. And be aware that, because of the way MFP projects the rest of the day from the current Fitbit number, the Fitbit adjustment will drop slowly as you're inactive. I think it's annoying, but that's how MFP does it.

    This is how I was doing it. I have since changed the method as I found that based on my results (which I track on a spreadsheet) the TDEE from the fitbit is about 400 calories too high (for ME, yrmv). Depending on how much weight you have lost so far and/or still need to lose you may want to eat back only half for a while and see how your results are. If you are losing quickly then eat back more.
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