Jawbone UP questions

Green_Eye_Girl
Green_Eye_Girl Posts: 25 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am a new Jawbone UP user and have linked it to my MFP account for my calorie upload. It did not come with a user manual and with things such as this...I feel technically challenged. Does anyone know how the calorie allotment is formulated and are the calorie adjustments meant to be consumed? For example, it may tell me my total burn for the day is 2,431 calories (1,694 resting and 736 active calorie burn), but on MFP the calorie adjustment is +357. Since I workout in the evening, my download comes at the end of the day so it would be impossible for me to consume my calorie adjustment at that point unless I guestimate.

Also, anyone know how accurate the sleep measurement is? It has consistently been logging me at roughly 5 hours of sleep (which is probably correct), but showing 2 hours or less of that is deep sleep.

Replies

  • bchthrpy
    bchthrpy Posts: 76 Member
    i too am very confused about my Jawbone up. I didn't think I was tech challenged but I don't find it to be user friendly. I am unsure about the amount of calories burned and not sure that I am switching to "stopwatch" correctly.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    I don't have a jawbone, but I do have a fitbit. I'm going to guess that the calorie adjustment is done the same way.

    Jawbone *estimated daily calorie burn - MFP estimated total daily calorie burn = +/- adjustment as exercise calories
    *With fitbit it is estimated based on your last sync, but the next day it will show the actual tracked amount. Not sure if it's the same or not with jawbone.

    In my exercise diary, I have a "Fitbit calorie adjustment" that has a little " i " next to it. If I click on the little " i " it shows the equation for the adjustment.

    For example, mine from yesterday was:

    Fitbit: 2081 - MFP: 1997 = 84 (calories added to my calorie intake, since I was more active than MFP thought)

    or

    Fitbit: 1956 - MFP: 1980 = - 24 (calories subtracted from my calorie intake, since I was less active than MFP thought)


    To avoid large adjustments at the end of the day, change your activity level setting here on MFP. I would only change your activity level if you are regularly having large adjustments at the end of the day.
  • tibili
    tibili Posts: 8
    I have a jawbone. The way the information syncs is that you should use your jawbone for keeping track of your activity, and MFP for logging your food. If you stick to that then the information flow between the two works better.

    Try syncing your UP band a few times during the day, instead of say just at night. This will keep MFP updated with your actual activity progress through the day instead of making estimates.

    I've found that the UP tracker is more accurate than MFP as it is an ACTUAL record of what you're actually moving, instead of MFP which will give you a daily estimate based on your activity settings.

    The more you move and exercise, the fewer daily calories you'll 'lose' on MFP, and you might even gain some back to eat! Don't forget to edit your activities with the UP app, choosing the exact activity and your intensity, to more accurately feed back your activity calorie expenditure to MFP.

    The default setting is for only positive changes to be made. For example, say you do more activity than is expected then you may get a "credit" of some calories. You can however actually change your settings via MfP on a computer, so that negative "debits" are applied. So if I've been a lazy bum one day then jawbone will tell MFP that I should only eat 1400 calories instead of 1600 (for example!)

    I'd love to add more teammates so PM me if you'd like to friend each other :)
  • mkc401
    mkc401 Posts: 2 Member
    I've been using both Up and MFP together for about 5 months now, and I still have questions on how the Up measured activity translates to the exercise calories reflected on MFP. At the end of the day, or whenever I sync Up, shouldn't my "Active Burn" calories on Up be the same as my "exercise" calories on MFP? I seem to get a much lower adjustment in MFP than what is shown on Up.

    That all said, I do think the Up Active Burn calories are a little inflated, so I have been still adding exercise calories to MFP ...but I give them a haircut or only input what I know I burned from a treadmill, calculator, etc. I just wonder if I'm giving myself too much of a break by adding these on top of the puny :-) adjustment coming in from Up?
  • bchthrpy
    bchthrpy Posts: 76 Member
    I guess what is throwing me off is not seeing the direct calorie burn using the stopwatch when I set it during my exercise time. For instance, today I worked out for 45 mins, and it said I was only active for 10 mins, longest active 2 min's and longest idle 33 min's with a total of 623 calories burn. I must be missing something. When I compare it to MFP and UP I have never received an adjustment. I guess I just don't get it.
  • Green_Eye_Girl
    Green_Eye_Girl Posts: 25 Member
    Thanks for all the input. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that is confused about the calorie allotment. I work in a professional office during the day...so my day is pretty much sedentary. My workouts are from 5:30 p.m. until around 7:00 p.m. so I am in an active burn deficit until much later in the day. I have only been allowing my UP to put in my calories just as they are read for the day. I tried to go in and add my Bootcamp class as Cross Fit with a moderate activity level and it added another 500-600 calories to my active burn....which is good....but I'm just not sure how accurate I can depend on that number being so I haven't been adding any workouts to my UP log for additional calories.

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