Anyone Stop Using Their FitBit?

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  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    I stopped using the Fitbit calorie goal panel in my dashboard (aka over/under). Fitbit pro-rates your calories by time of day, which doesn't work for me at all. And Fitbit doesn't have a calorie minimum. My TDEE can be as low as 1,300 on a couch potato day, so my calorie goal is 1,050 w/ a .5 lb. goal--pro-rated to a few hundred in the morning. It's even more horrifying if I increase my goal.

    I love the graphs showing calories consumed (via MFP) vs. calories burned. I see my actual deficit in black & white. (Well, green & blue.)
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    Or just use the Fitbit site. I lost a lot of weight just using that. Make a steps goal, log all your food, and keep your 30-day average intake at least 500 calories below your 30-day average burn. There is a chart of that info hidden on there somewhere. I did it back in 2010 when that chart was a lot more in your face.
  • thyme4
    thyme4 Posts: 35 Member
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    I love my Fitbit - have the One because much of my baseline cardio work involves stairs and hills, I have definitely noticed that I am more active knowing that I am being tracked! That has been very motivating!

    I originally got it because I felt like I needed better data to calibrate myself for those "last 10" pounds and into maintenance. That being said, I have noticed that it can be confusing to try and reconcile it with MFP. My approach was to set my profile in MFP to "sedentary", and to log only exercise that Fitbit doesn't directly track into MFP. Then I let the interface do the Fitbit adjustment to bring over everything else (even though it doesn't totally catch up till the end of the day). Like a few other posters, I just try to make sure that my MFP diary calories stay at least 500 below my Fitbit determined calories burned. I do plan my meals, and I have a pretty well established workout schedule so it this is working for me. I find it very helpful to have observed/measured data vs theoretical data as I get closer to my goal and need to fine-tune my approach.
  • giampi260271
    giampi260271 Posts: 12
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    I recently (2 weeks ago) bought a Fitbit Zip and love it.
    I use it to monitor my nornal life only and remove it when doing actual workouts (using runtastic for it, linked as well to MFP). This is in order to avoid double counting.

    The Zip is helping me a lot to walk more and more so I can burn more calories also during my sedentary life
  • jrwms714
    jrwms714 Posts: 421 Member
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    Thanks, everyone! Unless I am totally reading things wrong, I'm going to disconnect the FitBit from MFP and use it merely as a pedometer. I am doing my best to keep this journey simple for me and, as some one else said it is all about what works best for you.
  • sjlawgirl
    sjlawgirl Posts: 31 Member
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    I like mine. I just HATE HATE HATE how it constantly fails to sync with MFP. I constantly have to delink and relink. ANNOYING and THAT would be the reason I stopped using it. That...and I want a Polar with HRT monitor.......
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    Is it that you're not seeing your food calories show up on Fitbit or that your Fitbit adjustment here at MFP shows up as zero for most of the day?

    If it's the latter, go to MFP, My Home, Goals, and look at your number under Calories Burned in Normal Daily Activity. Then go to Fitbit and look at your total calorie burn so far today. The MFP number doesn't change. Say it's 2800. You don't get a Fitbit adjustment until the value of your total burned from your Fitbit exceeds 2800. The difference is your adjustment. So it's normal for that to be 0 for most or even all of the day.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    Mine is not linked anymore but I'm very much using it to keep me motivated and moving. I have my calories set to be TDEE minus about 15% so I don't have to bother logging any exercise. I know exactly what I can eat each day and am no longer always trying to hit a moving target. My life is so much easier now and I've started losing weight since unlinking them - no more lose 1/2lb gain 2 lbs the next week.
  • jrwms714
    jrwms714 Posts: 421 Member
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    I think it's funny and also good how each person figures out what works for them. For me, MFP plus eating back gym cals just seems to work far better for me than TDEE did. I am fine with that, and know that MFP figures high, so I don't eat them all back and have a hard time eating that much, anyhow. The FitBit, while a cool instrument for someone like me who loves tech, just gave me TMI and that isn't good for me. I tend to obsess, anyhow, and it just fed into that. Also, I like knowing where my cals are when I leave the gym, so I can plan the rest of my day. FitBit does not give the immediate info that I need. I'm at the gym at least 5x per week and workouts go a minimum of an hour, so the days that I do not work out, I am fine with the 1270 that I can eat. Since I am very close to goal (8 - 9 lbs. away), I went back to the MFP +gym cals, and upped my cardio workouts some, and that seems to be working.

    I did un-link (not sure there is such a word) my FitBit last night and am going to wear it today to see how that goes, to moderate steps, not including workouts. But there's another question: wearing it as a pedometer, merely so I keep motivated and keep moving while not in the gym ... do I include gym steps (workouts) or take it off while I am there?
  • kym117
    kym117 Posts: 315 Member
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    I bought a Fitbit Flex and I have to say I love it. When I started I found it very overwhelming the information recorded, syncing etc., but I don't get caught up in the figures. I am not very good at getting motivation to exercise, once I am up and at it I love it but I really struggle to get there in the first place! I find the Fitbit good for encouraging myself to move, set goals, beat yesterdays record, be active for more mins etc. I sync it at the end of every day but more for my own curiosity.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    But there's another question: wearing it as a pedometer, merely so I keep motivated and keep moving while not in the gym ... do I include gym steps (workouts) or take it off while I am there?
    Do you include gym steps in what? What you eat back? I'd say not if you're also eating back based on whatever estimator you use when you don't wear it. Include them in your steps goal for the day? Sure, why not? Though either way is fine, it's your personal goal so include/exclude anything.
  • sjlawgirl
    sjlawgirl Posts: 31 Member
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    Is it that you're not seeing your food calories show up on Fitbit or that your Fitbit adjustment here at MFP shows up as zero for most of the day?

    If it's the latter, go to MFP, My Home, Goals, and look at your number under Calories Burned in Normal Daily Activity. Then go to Fitbit and look at your total calorie burn so far today. The MFP number doesn't change. Say it's 2800. You don't get a Fitbit adjustment until the value of your total burned from your Fitbit exceeds 2800. The difference is your adjustment. So it's normal for that to be 0 for most or even all of the day.

    It doesn't show "fitbit calorie adjustment" at all on MFP. Even if its "0" it will still post as that after a sync but its not doing that. Hence the unlinking and relinking and then BOOM...there it is. Annoying.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    So it's not really that you're not synching, you're becoming unlinked entirely? Does your food synch over to Fitbit?
  • FitnessRXusaAnna
    FitnessRXusaAnna Posts: 44 Member
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    1000 calorie deficiencies!!! You are damaging your metabolism for the future. Can you sustain your current lifestyle for the rest of your life?

    People think the equation goes sonething like this.

    ((( what I eat - exercise/activity = my weight )))

    This in fact is impossible because energy ( food ) and mass ( your weight ) are not the same thing. :sad:
    A calorie in is NOT a calorie out. Metabolism is not that simple. If it was why is america still getting fatter despite the 100 cal snack packs ect ..........

    I'm thinking many of you are on here to reduce your body fat not just your weight.
    I have no affiliation with this site but it gives you good sound information on fat loss and why despite losing weight you gained it back. This especially possible if you have lost 10% of your previous weight you started at.
  • jrwms714
    jrwms714 Posts: 421 Member
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    But there's another question: wearing it as a pedometer, merely so I keep motivated and keep moving while not in the gym ... do I include gym steps (workouts) or take it off while I am there?
    Do you include gym steps in what? What you eat back? I'd say not if you're also eating back based on whatever estimator you use when you don't wear it. Include them in your steps goal for the day? Sure, why not? Though either way is fine, it's your personal goal so include/exclude anything.
  • jrwms714
    jrwms714 Posts: 421 Member
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    But there's another question: wearing it as a pedometer, merely so I keep motivated and keep moving while not in the gym ... do I include gym steps (workouts) or take it off while I am there?
    Do you include gym steps in what? What you eat back? I'd say not if you're also eating back based on whatever estimator you use when you don't wear it. Include them in your steps goal for the day? Sure, why not? Though either way is fine, it's your personal goal so include/exclude anything.

    Sorry I was unclear. I meant that I have MFP log my exercise cals as well as my food cals. Because I am now using my FitBit for steps ONLY, do I take it off during gym workouts, or do I include those steps in my daily goal? I am not using those steps for anything like calorie counting or calorie adjustment - merely to motivate me to get more steps in during the day.
  • nuttyfamily
    nuttyfamily Posts: 3,394 Member
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    But there's another question: wearing it as a pedometer, merely so I keep motivated and keep moving while not in the gym ... do I include gym steps (workouts) or take it off while I am there?
    Do you include gym steps in what? What you eat back? I'd say not if you're also eating back based on whatever estimator you use when you don't wear it. Include them in your steps goal for the day? Sure, why not? Though either way is fine, it's your personal goal so include/exclude anything.

    Sorry I was unclear. I meant that I have MFP log my exercise cals as well as my food cals. Because I am now using my FitBit for steps ONLY, do I take it off during gym workouts, or do I include those steps in my daily goal? I am not using those steps for anything like calorie counting or calorie adjustment - merely to motivate me to get more steps in during the day.

    I think only you can answer that. I wear mine even when I go for my runs, etc. I like to see my full day, workouts included.

    If your focus is to get in more steps sans workouts, then don't wear it during your workouts.
  • jrwms714
    jrwms714 Posts: 421 Member
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    Great, easy answer. All is clarified for me and I'm happily moving with my FitBit as of this moment!

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