Fitbit Calorie question

DevWall44
DevWall44 Posts: 25 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Fitbit friends. MFP and Runtastic say I burned 256 calories walking but when I sink my Fitbit it adjusts only 136 calories. What gives? I'm sick of Fitbit taking my calories away. I know that I wasn't doing much activity over the weekend but still. Isn't MFP calories set at what you'd do if you didn't move at all? HELP Please!

Replies

  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    It just depends on how you have things set up. The Fitbit adjustment is rarely going to equal what you burned in one discrete walk, I don't think. It's just going to tell MFP what you've burned for the whole day (so far) and MFP compares that to what it expected you to burn for the day, based on your inputs, and subtracting your goal deficit. Or something like that. I bet you can find more from searching here. I never used MFP that way.
  • ethompso0105
    ethompso0105 Posts: 418 Member
    MFP often overshoots the calories burned when you enter them on the exercise portion (using the member database). Runtastic can only estimate as well. Fitbit is likely going to be a lot more accurate--sorry!
  • silver_arrow3
    silver_arrow3 Posts: 1,373 Member
    There are so many factors that go into how many calories you actually burn during a run. Chances are none of those numbers are actually correct anyway. MFP is set up to what you put in. If you say "I want to lose 2 pounds per week," it's going to give you a 1200 number (most likely). You have to input your own numbers if you are looking for BMR.

    But seriously, if you don't want fitbit "taking away your calories" then unsync your accounts. Problem solved.
  • jess135177
    jess135177 Posts: 186 Member
    You can disable the negative adjustment in your settings. I personally like it because it motivates me to move more, especially on the weekends when I just want to veg out.
  • jbabbitts
    jbabbitts Posts: 7 Member
    MFP does an estimate of what your stationary burn rate is and then you add your activities... My fitbit is set up so it counts all of my calories as I burn them. So I dont write in my exercises - I just do them! I let fitbit adjust to what it says my body burned for the day. I woke up the other morning and it took away 50 of my daily intake calories because I hadnt burned enough for that morning.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    Fitbit friends. MFP and Runtastic say I burned 256 calories walking but when I sink my Fitbit it adjusts only 136 calories. What gives? I'm sick of Fitbit taking my calories away. I know that I wasn't doing much activity over the weekend but still. Isn't MFP calories set at what you'd do if you didn't move at all? HELP Please!
    Oh, are you saying your Fitbit only adds 136 calories for your walk to your total burn on the Fitbit site (not the MFP 'Fitbit adjustment')? If so, ignore my previous response.

    See which estimate lines up with this formula. Or for 'net of BMR' calories, sub a .3 for the .57.

    http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/running-v-walking-how-many-calories-will-you-burn
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    Fitbit expects you to do a certain amount of steps in a day based on your activity settings when you set it up. For example, mine expects me to do 5000 steps in a day. If i do more than this I get a positive adjustment of MFP. If i do less than this, I'll get a negative adjustment.
  • aager128
    aager128 Posts: 6 Member
    Depending on your weight, you may burn those "missing" 120 calories in an hour to begin with - with no exercise - so it's not going to adjust for what it estimates you would already have burned.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    just trust it - its better than the MFP estimate.

    My guess is that maybe you were already "in the hole" for activity for that day, so you only get credit for a portion. you can test this theory by putting the fitbit into activity mode right before you start walking, then at the end see how many calories you burned for that activity. It will probably be pretty close to runtastic, but your actual calorie adjustment for the day is also based on how active you have been for the rest of the day, if that makes any sense.

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