PLEASE Help me understand how my fitbit flex works

Yup, what the previous poster said (that's why I went with the Zip instead). A way to get around that is to put the Flex in your pocket before you go for a long walk. Then it should pickup the movements from your leg and won't short you steps.

I am on board with you!! I just got the fit bit flex too, I was wondering the same thing. It's really confusing because it doesn't log your workouts on your home page like other apps. I box for my workouts, and it seems to pick up most of that, but the calorie burn is still off from what my HRM usually states. So, I just added what my burn should have been, but now I am wondering what the point of this thing is if my HRM is more accurate- except that I can't log my all day burn and sleep patterns too well with the HRM obviously.

I am also trying to figure out if the two apps are "synced" up- Fit-bit and MFP, if I still need to log my calories in two separate places cuz it doesn't appear that one is picking up on the other. Last thing I need to do is log everything twice... Any tips on this welcomed here too! :huh:

I'm just a little disappointed in my flex. Thought it would be good to have it around my wrist. It was for a while but now as the weather is getting warm it bothers me. I take it out of the band and put it in my pocket. The only advantage of a Fitbit is that it syncs with myfitnesspal. Once the Fitbit quits working I doubt I spend the money for another one. I have noticed mine does not keep accurate time I'm active.

I have the One not the Flex (tried the Flex, but I found having it on my wrist irritating). What's worked for me is I log all activity that isn't walking on the Fitbit website (even if I was wearing my Fitbit at the time eg running) as I found the calorie burn much more realistic. For any cardio I do I use a HRM so will manually add the calories to the ativity (so overriding the default setting). I log all food here as the database is far bigger. I also make sure that my Fitbit details are upto date (weight, stride lengths for walking & running).

I did used to have the accounts syncing but found having to eat much less on some days than others made planning difficult. As I had months of data I use my Fitbit to give me my TDEE, I have a spreadsheet that calculates a 4 week rolling average and set a custome goal for calories here on MFP that is around 800 below my TDEE average so I eat the same cals every day as high intensity days cancel out more sedentary days over the course of a week. If I've done a particularly long run or been ill so ver sedentary I may deviate from this but generally I eat to a set goal (currently 1900 with a TDEE of 2735). I'm losing on average around 1.25lbs a week doing this.

For any cardio I do I use a HRM so will manually add the calories to the ativity (so overriding the default setting). I log all food here as the database is far bigger.

I did used to have the accounts syncing but found having to eat much less on some days than others made planning difficult. As I had months of data I use my Fitbit to give me my TDEE, I have a spreadsheet that calculates a 4 week rolling average and set a custome goal for calories here on MFP that is around 800 below my TDEE average so I eat the same cals every day as high intensity days cancel out more sedentary days over the course of a week. If I've done a particularly long run or been ill so ver sedentary I may deviate from this but generally I eat to a set goal (currently 1900 with a TDEE of 2735). I'm losing on average around 1.25lbs a week doing this.

That's awesome info, kinda what I was hoping to learn about myself with it. I saw that my entries on MFP did finally sync up with fitbit. It is definitely an end of the day thing where everything catches up. So, I won't even bother looking into the number until around 10pm, which doesn't really help you during the day, but I can see it having a cumulative benefit at least once it figures out your daily habits & you want to eat at a deficit of your TDEE. I will plan to add in the calories from the HRM for my actual burn, I didn't think it would be as accurate simply because the fitbit doesn't monitor that.

I have the force and I found the key for me was to disable "calorie estimation" in the settings on the fitbit website. I also switched the setting on the "food plan" section under the "log" page to sednetary. This changed things for me so that I start in the morning with a calorie allowance of something like 700 (which is crazy and I would never do) but then I gain calories through the day for every thing I do. I feel it's a more acurate representation of my output and intake.

Here's the problem I have with my fitbit though, it adds calories from exercise to my MFP dairy for literally the smallest amout of activity, making MFP way over estimate the amount of calories I should be consuming to lose weight. The first morning I used it, I woke up, walked to the bathroom, walked to the kitchen for coffee a couple of times and walked to my sofa and "earned" about 60 calories from exercise on MFP on top of my daily 1350 allowance. I think this is because the force will allow me to have that setting of 700 calories to begin with (I have fitbit set to calulate me eating at a deficit of 750 calories a day, which is moderate loss), but MFP won't go lower than 1200. This probably sounds confusing, but the bottom line is I find it best to log everything in MFP but to follow the recomendations on calories from fitbit.

I think everyone's already hit the high points but here's what I do:

Turn off calorie estimates (gives you calories even if you're not active to even things out) -- If I'm going to be trapped in a chair all day I just roll with it and be over.

Turn on negative calorie adjustment (takes away calories based on lack of activity) - I generally wake up in the morning with a -200 calorie adjustment since I was lazy for the first 6 hours of the day sleeping.

Remember that syncing between MFP and FB is delayed and when you log activity in MFP it seems like it's got to sync to FB and then sync back to MFP to even out in the interim sometimes you'll see extra calories because it hasn't deleted the FB calories when you logged the MFP ones.

I log everything in MFP, nothing in FB I think the sync works well enough and it's just easier to do it in one place.

I think everyone's already hit the high points but here's what I do:

Turn off calorie estimates (gives you calories even if you're not active to even things out) -- If I'm going to be trapped in a chair all day I just roll with it and be over.

Turn on negative calorie adjustment (takes away calories based on lack of activity) - I generally wake up in the morning with a -200 calorie adjustment since I was lazy for the first 6 hours of the day sleeping.

Remember that syncing between MFP and FB is delayed and when you log activity in MFP it seems like it's got to sync to FB and then sync back to MFP to even out in the interim sometimes you'll see extra calories because it hasn't deleted the FB calories when you logged the MFP ones.

I log everything in MFP, nothing in FB I think the sync works well enough and it's just easier to do it in one place.

^^This.
The Fitbit will take calories away until you hit your baseline. Once you hit your baseline, it will start counting exercise calories. I find that helpful.

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