For those with BodyMedia Fit...I don't get it
Gatus98
Posts: 93 Member
I wear a BodyMedia Fit, and it's awesome. Why in the world does it add 400 excercise calories to MFP like within an hour of me being awake, without having actually worked out? It balances out as the day goes on, but what's that all about? I'm just concerned that my TDEE isn't accurate. According to my BMF I burn around 2300-2400 calories daily, sometimes even 2800. How? I don't think I'm THAT active. I'm a hotel concierge and I sit at a desk. I get up an move around throughout the day, but I'm not a waitress or anything like that. At home I cook, clean, have three kids...so that adds up I suppose. For excercise, I generally stick to Jillian Michaels workouts, and I tend to lean towards the 30 minute ones like Body Revolution. I also incorporate some jogging in there, although, the past week or two I've had an injured toe. Anyhow...is this BMF thing telling me the truth? If not, what could be the factors affecting it?
Thanks in advance to anybody who takes the time to read and answer this boring post! LOL
Thanks in advance to anybody who takes the time to read and answer this boring post! LOL
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Yikes! I'm not sure. i have FitBit One and it seems to be pretty accurate. I'm 5'6" 120 lbs and on a rest day my TDEE shows around 1800 cals (I also sit at a desk all day and have a 3yo) and on a long run day (like 18 miles) it shows my TDEE around 3000. Hope someone can answer your BMF question, thogh. That's frustrating!0
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The only way to know is to test it... which is why I did precisely that.
I thought my TDEE was about 2500 so I was eating at 2300 for recomp and about 2100 for weight loss. According to the BMF, over a 3 1/2 week period of time my average TDEE was 2850 and I ate an average of 2650 calories daily (that was my attempt to get up to the TDEE amount without going over, and I consider it to be pretty darned close)... and my weight dropped .4 lbs over the time I measured.
So by my estimation, it's pretty darned accurate.
When you go into the goals section of MFP, you see the amount MFP thinks you'll burn in a day "from normal daily activity"... if you have that set to sedentary and you're not, this number will be low compared to what the BMF measures... so it will add any calories you burn over and above that number every day.0 -
The only way to know is to test it... which is why I did precisely that.
I thought my TDEE was about 2500 so I was eating at 2300 for recomp and about 2100 for weight loss. According to the BMF, over a 3 1/2 week period of time my average TDEE was 2850 and I ate an average of 2650 calories daily (that was my attempt to get up to the TDEE amount without going over, and I consider it to be pretty darned close)... and my weight dropped .4 lbs over the time I measured.
So by my estimation, it's pretty darned accurate.
When you go into the goals section of MFP, you see the amount MFP thinks you'll burn in a day "from normal daily activity"... if you have that set to sedentary and you're not, this number will be low compared to what the BMF measures... so it will add any calories you burn over and above that number every day.
I remember when you were doing that. I think that's why I bought it, come to think of it. LOL. I just don't know if I'm brave enough to push my calories to the max and gain 10 pounds (which I'm sure I would). I have increased them to around 2000 daily, though. Baby steps.0 -
To some extent, you can test it with a deficit. Look at what it's giving you each day for a TDEE and eat 500 less than that each day. There's no way you'll gain fat doing that... you may see some increase in scale weight as you inch closer to your actual TDEE and water weight replenishes, but it for sure won't be fat gain. Worst case scenario you see your weight bump up a bit and then stay the same; best case scenario, you lost 1 lb/week.0
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How long have you had it? The first month I wore mine, it would overestimate my activity in the mornings as well.
Now I find it to be pretty accurate for me. If I ate at a 400-500 cal deficit (around 15%-18% for me), I lose .8lbs a week on average. If I eat 100 cals below what BMF tells me is my TDEE, I maintain perfectly. To me that is well within the margin of error considering there's always a possibility that my calorie tracking is off by that much (we eat out a lot).0 -
Exactly what MrsBigMac ended with is reason why it happens.
The calorie adjustments is if it appears the BMF is going to show a TDEE bigger than what MFP has calculated as your maintenance.
Now of course BMF is looking at daily and exercise, but MFP is only looking at daily activity burn no exercise. So in perfect setup the only adjustments would be the difference, which would be exercise.
The other difference is MFP is basing the math on Mifflin BMR based on gender, age, weight, height.
BMF is starting with that too, but if the sensors work well for you, they adjust that based on sleeping temps over a period of time.
For those where it does adjust, most have found it ends up being close to the Katch BMR based on weight and bodyfat %.
So for an adjustment higher upon first sync waking up, that's probably good sign, the BMF has adjusted the BMR figure it's basing non-moving time on. And it's higher than MFP - which means you have more LBM than expected for your age, weight, height - congrats!
You can confirm, go to your BMF charts with section on calories burned, look at sleep time, find the lowest avg cal/min burned, and x 1440 = adjusted BMR. (lowest avg means if the lows are like 1.1 and 1.2 equally, then 1.15, but if 1.1, 1.1, 1.2, then 1.13, don't include spikes which are movement times)
Do the same for awake but non-moving time like watching movie or long TV without getting up, lowest avg cal / min burned x 1440 = RMR.
RMR should be higher than BMR by 150-250.
If the BMR is close to Katch BMR, those sensors are working well for you.
If the RMR is higher by decent amount, those sensors are working well for you.
Now it's just a matter of the exercise time, is it exercise they measure well, which is still step based stuff, so lifting, rowing, cycling, ect will be underestimated.
You can look at the BMF chart on MET's, if it shows the complete time of your workout in there, it's reading well.
Now if you are attempting the TDEE Deficit method along with syncing the BMF, you gotta set things up correctly to maintain your 15% deficit, or else those adjustments can ruin everything.
You basically need to either use the BMF to get avg TDEE and then take your 15% off, manually set your goal, and unsync the accounts.
Or set MFP to calculate a maintenance close to your avg TDEE, manually set your goal, and then you can sync adjustments.0 -
Now if you are attempting the TDEE Deficit method along with syncing the BMF, you gotta set things up correctly to maintain your 15% deficit, or else those adjustments can ruin everything.
You basically need to either use the BMF to get avg TDEE and then take your 15% off, manually set your goal, and unsync the accounts.
Or set MFP to calculate a maintenance close to your avg TDEE, manually set your goal, and then you can sync adjustments.
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Dang, this is great info! Thank you! I just eat at TDEE (slightly less) and ignore the BodyMedia adjustment. In other words, I don't eat those calories, too. Maybe I should unsync them, though, since it's kind of irrelevent.0 -
Bump!0
