i dont understand...
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tawnylrice1708
Posts: 7
I just got a fitbit force for Christmas, i used it yesterday and it adjusted my calories was 472 from exercise. I have my accounts synced. I did housework and my elliptical yesterday. Why does it add your exercise calories to your calories you ate? On my fitbit it said i burned 2118 calories the whole day. I just dont understand? I read you shouldn't log the elliptical and housework in the activites on MFP. Could someome try to explain this to me?
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Replies
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Your FitBit is basically going to give you an estimate of your TDEE...that is all of your activity including walking around, cooking, cleaning, exercise, etc...it also includes your BMR calories. You "burn" calories 24/7 even just sitting there doing nothing.0
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But why on myfitnesspal does the calorie adjustment get added to the calories i ate? Do you go by fitbit for the weight loss or fitbit?0
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If your calorie goal on MFP is lower than what Fitbit has as your recommended level, it will adjust it. Bodymedia does the same thing. My bodymedia goal is set at 1500 (total calories, bodymedia doesn't use "net" calories), my MFP calories are 1200 net calories. So right away bodymedia adds 300 exercise calories even if I haven't done anything.
Its just the difference between the TDEE method and the "net calorie" method. I don't worry about it, and I just make sure my total calorie intake is on target and don't really worry about the "net".0 -
I don't think it does add calories to what you ate. I think it adds calories to what you COULD eat (just as exercise logged in MFP would). I have the Fitbit One and have been using since May.
You can log your exercise on MFP ---for example the elliptical work. Fitbit will just reduce the "calorie credit" you get from them so that it isn't counted twice (you will only see this on MFP--not the Fitbit dashboard).
My best advice would be to keep wearing it and keep watching. I remember I had a confusion stage as well but now it all seems normal.
Best of luck!
(You may have negative adjustment option turned on....check your setting...but still that would only REDUCE the amount of calories you should be taking in.)0 -
Okay, maybe I don't understand. Did it actually ADD calories as if you ate them, or did it ADD to your calorie target??
If it added to your calories consumed, that means it adjusted for a lack of activity, which would indicate your calorie goal is too high... but its more likely you are not reading it correctly.
After the adjustment, did you have more calories remaining, or less, according to MFP?0 -
Okay, maybe I don't understand. Did it actually ADD calories as if you ate them, or did it ADD to your calorie target??
If it added to your calories consumed, that means it adjusted for a lack of activity, which would indicate your calorie goal is too low... but its more likely you are not reading it correctly.
After the adjustment, did you have more calories remaining, or less, according to MFP?
My calorie target was 1740, i ate 1394 yesterday and my calorie adjusment it had down was 472. It added it to my calories i ate and my net calories for the day ended up being 1866, which put me at 126 calories over for the day... Today it shows that i have less calories remaining with the calorie adjustment.0 -
I was thinking about buying a Fitbit.....but now......I'm thinking no.....I'm confused ENOUGH!!0
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On the adjustment do you want the negative calories to be enabled or disabled? And for the calorie estimator on fitbit, do you want thay enabled ot disabled?0
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I have my negative disabled (because I only sync at the end of the day). If you have a phone that syncs or are by your sync-ing computer most of the day, then you could easily have your negative calorie adjustment on.
I suggest trying the calorie estimator both ways--and see which you prefer. I still find the little "over / under / target" thingy on the dashboard to be confusing ....so for me, I only look at it for past days data...not the day I am working on. For my calories I only pay attention to MFP.
And I have made the assumption that you are ONLY logging food on MFP....NOT on the Fitbit dashboard. But if this is not correct then only do it one place. I really suggest giving it some time, watching the pattern over days and then seeing what makes the best approach for you.
@leeshults.....don't be frightened. It is so simple. But the closer you look, the more you can ponder things....not much different than MFP with the whole question of how many exercise calories to eat back, where to set calorie goal, etc etc etc. It's all a learning curve.0 -
When you set up your MFP account, you specified an activity level: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided MFP used your answer, plus your age, sex & height, to estimate how many calories you burn every day (your TDEE). Then you set your weight-loss goal, and MFP subtracted the appropriate deficit to calculate your daily calorie goal.
Once you link an activity tracker to your MFP account (via the "Apps" tab at the top of every page), you start getting calorie adjustments. If your tracker says you burned more calories than MFP estimated, you get a positive adjustment (meaning more calories to eat). If you enable negative calorie adjustments and you burn less than the MFP estimate, you will lose calories. (But negative calorie adjustments will never drop your daily calories below 1,200.)
I wasn't losing much weight when I got my first activity tracker. At first, the adjustments didn't seem very accurate. But they got better, almost as if the system was "learning" my routine. It took a lot of trial & error to find the settings that worked best for me. But then everything clicked. I changed my MFP settings from sedentary to lightly active (even though I have a desk job), and now my adjustments are pretty minimal. And I'm losing!0 -
Okay, maybe I don't understand. Did it actually ADD calories as if you ate them, or did it ADD to your calorie target??
If it added to your calories consumed, that means it adjusted for a lack of activity, which would indicate your calorie goal is too low... but its more likely you are not reading it correctly.
After the adjustment, did you have more calories remaining, or less, according to MFP?
My calorie target was 1740, i ate 1394 yesterday and my calorie adjusment it had down was 472. It added it to my calories i ate and my net calories for the day ended up being 1866, which put me at 126 calories over for the day... Today it shows that i have less calories remaining with the calorie adjustment.
If MFP added the fitbit adjustment to the calories you ate, that means you burned less than what MFP thought you would for the day. You may have the settings on MFP and FB messed up. They need to be set the same way with the same weight loss goal.
If MFP subtracted the exercise cals from the fitbit from the cals you ate, then you burned more than MFP thought you would for the day and therefor you get to eat more food.
Sounds like it was the first one and you may have your settings wrong between the two programs. Both need to be set the same way with the same weight loss goal.
Plus give it a little time. It seems to learn you and gets better as the days/weeks progress.0 -
Make sure MFP & Fitbit are set to the same timezone:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/timezone
http://www.fitbit.com/user/profile/edit0 -
Okay, maybe I don't understand. Did it actually ADD calories as if you ate them, or did it ADD to your calorie target??
If it added to your calories consumed, that means it adjusted for a lack of activity, which would indicate your calorie goal is too low... but its more likely you are not reading it correctly.
After the adjustment, did you have more calories remaining, or less, according to MFP?
My calorie target was 1740, i ate 1394 yesterday and my calorie adjusment it had down was 472. It added it to my calories i ate and my net calories for the day ended up being 1866, which put me at 126 calories over for the day... Today it shows that i have less calories remaining with the calorie adjustment.
If MFP added the fitbit adjustment to the calories you ate, that means you burned less than what MFP thought you would for the day. You may have the settings on MFP and FB messed up. They need to be set the same way with the same weight loss goal.
If MFP subtracted the exercise cals from the fitbit from the cals you ate, then you burned more than MFP thought you would for the day and therefor you get to eat more food.
Sounds like it was the first one and you may have your settings wrong between the two programs. Both need to be set the same way with the same weight loss goal.
Plus give it a little time. It seems to learn you and gets better as the days/weeks progress.
Both MFP and my fitbit are set at losing 1lb a week. They are also set to the same timezone. At the end of the day, my fitbit says i burn less calories than MFP says I'd burn, so is it just keeping me so i wont eat as much food then by adding the calorie adjustment?0 -
If you set your caloric goal at 1700 calories, and your Fitbit says you burn 200 calories on the day, MFP will say you need to eat 1900 calories because you should be "netting" 1700 calories. MFP assumes you want to eat your exercise calories back to net that 1700 goal.
just using my #s as an example.
And as an above poster said, if you have your bracelet off for the day, the assumed calories you burn will start to decrease.0 -
Both MFP and my fitbit are set at losing 1lb a week. They are also set to the same timezone. At the end of the day, my fitbit says i burn less calories than MFP says I'd burn, so is it just keeping me so i wont eat as much food then by adding the calorie adjustment?
Yes, if you burned less calories than MFP said you were going to, the negative adjustment will keep your calorie net lower. Since you are set to 1 lb a week loss and FB is reporting lower numbers than MFP expected, MFP telling you to eat less food.
Question for you?
Is your 1700 calorie a day goal yours or the one set by MFP?
Is MFP set to sedentary?
If you are trying to eat that much food a day, you may need to get more activities in to burn more. If thats your goal set by MFP using the guided plan, then FB should be close to that. If MFP is set to lightly active or higher, and you are getting huge negative calorie adjustments from FB, then you need to lower your setting to sedentary.
I have mine set to sedentary because I really am sedentary. I have a desk job in which I dont move around much. There are days that I go from home to office and back with less than 3000 steps in a day. If I set MFP to lightly active (which I am on MOST days because I force myself to get around more now that I have the fitbit to show me what my numbers are), on the sedentary days, I would be very far in the negative for calories.
I hope this helps. The FB is a great tool and has helped me immensely figure out how much to eat and still lose weight at a decent clip.0 -
Both MFP and my fitbit are set at losing 1lb a week. They are also set to the same timezone. At the end of the day, my fitbit says i burn less calories than MFP says I'd burn, so is it just keeping me so i wont eat as much food then by adding the calorie adjustment?
Yes, if you burned less calories than MFP said you were going to, the negative adjustment will keep your calorie net lower. Since you are set to 1 lb a week loss and FB is reporting lower numbers than MFP expected, MFP telling you to eat less food.
Question for you?
Is your 1700 calorie a day goal yours or the one set by MFP?
Is MFP set to sedentary?
If you are trying to eat that much food a day, you may need to get more activities in to burn more. If thats your goal set by MFP using the guided plan, then FB should be close to that. If MFP is set to lightly active or higher, and you are getting huge negative calorie adjustments from FB, then you need to lower your setting to sedentary.
I have mine set to sedentary because I really am sedentary. I have a desk job in which I dont move around much. There are days that I go from home to office and back with less than 3000 steps in a day. If I set MFP to lightly active (which I am on MOST days because I force myself to get around more now that I have the fitbit to show me what my numbers are), on the sedentary days, I would be very far in the negative for calories.
I hope this helps. The FB is a great tool and has helped me immensely figure out how much to eat and still lose weight at a decent clip.
It's the one set by MFP. I usually am very active. Im a CNA 4 days a week. I have it set to an active level on MFP, should i maybe move it to slightly active?0 -
I have a Jawbone Up which does the same thing (I've only had it since Xmas so I'm no expert). I presume it works the same as a fitbit.
Yesterday I didn't do much. My Jawbone said I'd burned something like 150 calories (active burn, not resting burn), but based on my initial allowance for the day from MFP it worked out that I wasn't moving enough and it took 200 is calories off my allowance. I like that, as it motivates you to move more. When MFP tells you your initial allowance it is only guessing, whereas the fitbit knows how active you are really being, so MFP adjusts your allowance accordingly. I don't know if it makes a difference but I have my fitness level set at sedentary rather than active.
Hope you manage to work your fitbit out :-)0 -
Both MFP and my fitbit are set at losing 1lb a week. They are also set to the same timezone. At the end of the day, my fitbit says i burn less calories than MFP says I'd burn, so is it just keeping me so i wont eat as much food then by adding the calorie adjustment?
Yes, if you burned less calories than MFP said you were going to, the negative adjustment will keep your calorie net lower. Since you are set to 1 lb a week loss and FB is reporting lower numbers than MFP expected, MFP telling you to eat less food.
Question for you?
Is your 1700 calorie a day goal yours or the one set by MFP?
Is MFP set to sedentary?
If you are trying to eat that much food a day, you may need to get more activities in to burn more. If thats your goal set by MFP using the guided plan, then FB should be close to that. If MFP is set to lightly active or higher, and you are getting huge negative calorie adjustments from FB, then you need to lower your setting to sedentary.
I have mine set to sedentary because I really am sedentary. I have a desk job in which I dont move around much. There are days that I go from home to office and back with less than 3000 steps in a day. If I set MFP to lightly active (which I am on MOST days because I force myself to get around more now that I have the fitbit to show me what my numbers are), on the sedentary days, I would be very far in the negative for calories.
I hope this helps. The FB is a great tool and has helped me immensely figure out how much to eat and still lose weight at a decent clip.
It's the one set by MFP. I usually am very active. Im a CNA 4 days a week. I have it set to an active level on MFP, should i maybe move it to slightly active?
Do you sync your FB all day long with your phone or computer?
I would try it at slightly active of sedentary for a little while. Personally, I would rather have extra calories at the end of the day (for dessert!!!) then getting slammed with going negative when I was not expecting it.
Once FB learns you and your are regularly getting a positive adjustment of around 250 cals or more, you could change your activity level to something higher.0 -
I wouldn't get too excited about the device. Wait until you realize it added hundreds of steps throughout the day you know for a fact you didn't take. Like when driving, or, sitting at your desk.
I bought the Zip a couple of mos. ago and too be honest am really not that impressed.0 -
Both MFP and my fitbit are set at losing 1lb a week. They are also set to the same timezone. At the end of the day, my fitbit says i burn less calories than MFP says I'd burn, so is it just keeping me so i wont eat as much food then by adding the calorie adjustment?
Yes, if you burned less calories than MFP said you were going to, the negative adjustment will keep your calorie net lower. Since you are set to 1 lb a week loss and FB is reporting lower numbers than MFP expected, MFP telling you to eat less food.
Question for you?
Is your 1700 calorie a day goal yours or the one set by MFP?
Is MFP set to sedentary?
If you are trying to eat that much food a day, you may need to get more activities in to burn more. If thats your goal set by MFP using the guided plan, then FB should be close to that. If MFP is set to lightly active or higher, and you are getting huge negative calorie adjustments from FB, then you need to lower your setting to sedentary.
I have mine set to sedentary because I really am sedentary. I have a desk job in which I dont move around much. There are days that I go from home to office and back with less than 3000 steps in a day. If I set MFP to lightly active (which I am on MOST days because I force myself to get around more now that I have the fitbit to show me what my numbers are), on the sedentary days, I would be very far in the negative for calories.
I hope this helps. The FB is a great tool and has helped me immensely figure out how much to eat and still lose weight at a decent clip.
It's the one set by MFP. I usually am very active. Im a CNA 4 days a week. I have it set to an active level on MFP, should i maybe move it to slightly active?
Do you sync your FB all day long with your phone or computer?
I would try it at slightly active of sedentary for a little while. Personally, I would rather have extra calories at the end of the day (for dessert!!!) then getting slammed with going negative when I was not expecting it.
Once FB learns you and your are regularly getting a positive adjustment of around 250 cals or more, you could change your activity level to something higher.
I usally sync it all day long with my phone. I turned my activity level down to slightly active. I seems to have made a little bit of difference. I'll try it for a few days.0
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