Disappearing net calorie surplus, WTF!?

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  • Tallulah827
    Tallulah827 Posts: 27
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    And I may turn it back on but it has made me wary of consuming up to or near my daily net calorie goal for fear I'll wind up going over by the time it's all said and done.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    Except for the end-of the-day calorie yank, I've been very happy with the feedback of the Fitbit synched with MFP. Instant gratification and very motivational.

    Yeah, same here. The Fitbit is the best $100 I've ever spent in my life.

    You can actually calculate how many calories per hour you "lose" by sitting on your butt. Go to Home -> Goals and see what MFP estimates you'll burn in a typical day, then divide by 24. For me, MFP estimates I burn 84.5 calories per hour.

    Now go to Fitbit and add a 1-hour activity record while you were asleep. For me, Fitbit estimates I burn 68 calories per hour while not moving.

    The difference is 16.5 calories per hour. In other words, my MFP estimate will decrease by 16.5 calories per hour for every hour I don't move.

    Knowing this, I can plan ahead better.
  • Otterluv
    Otterluv Posts: 9,083 Member
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    And I may turn it back on but it has made me wary of consuming up to or near my daily net calorie goal for fear I'll wind up going over by the time it's all said and done.


    You should feel free to consume anything left at the end of one day on the next. That way it averages out over time, which is really what matters.
  • luckydays27
    luckydays27 Posts: 552 Member
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    I dont think negative calories is your issue, I think its with the FB settings.

    Check these settings on FB site:

    If you go to the FB settings (upper right hand side, looks like a gear - pick setting) about half way down on the screen you can turn off calorie estimation. This might help because calorie estimation is giving you more calories than you burn when you are not moving because it may think that you are not wearing the FB. It used past activity to give this number. When midnight comes around and its less, then it takes the calories away.

    This is the one I think causes the biggest problems though: on the FB site in the food plan area (click log and stay on the food log page - look in the food plan box) there is a blue gear. If you have not changed it, its set to personalized. I would set it to Sedentary because then FB is giving you a calorie estimation based on what you burned, not a estimation on what it thinks you burned based on past records.

    With these two changes made, I only get a 30-40 calorie loss between dinner and midnight when I would get over 100 cals lost during that same time. I have these settings made as well as negative calorie estimation turned on. I like the negative calorie estimation on because there are days where I am lazy and need to have calories taken away that I did not earn so I dont over eat.

    If you wake up with negative calories, then its great motivation to keep going. I almost always get in the positive within 2 hours of waking up (not including exercise) because of my morning routine.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    I dont think negative calories is your issue, I think its with the FB settings.

    Check these settings on FB site:

    If you go to the FB settings (upper right hand side, looks like a gear - pick setting) about half way down on the screen you can turn off calorie estimation. This might help because calorie estimation is giving you more calories than you burn when you are not moving because it may think that you are not wearing the FB. It used past activity to give this number. When midnight comes around and its less, then it takes the calories away.

    This is the one I think causes the biggest problems though: on the FB site in the food plan area (click log and stay on the food log page - look in the food plan box) there is a blue gear. If you have not changed it, its set to personalized. I would set it to Sedentary because then FB is giving you a calorie estimation based on what you burned, not a estimation on what it thinks you burned based on past records.

    With these two changes made, I only get a 30-40 calorie loss between dinner and midnight when I would get over 100 cals lost during that same time. I have these settings made as well as negative calorie estimation turned on. I like the negative calorie estimation on because there are days where I am lazy and need to have calories taken away that I did not earn so I dont over eat.

    If you wake up with negative calories, then its great motivation to keep going. I almost always get in the positive within 2 hours of waking up (not including exercise) because of my morning routine.

    Those settings don't affect MFP. MFP only works with the actual data recorded by the Fitbit and does not use the Fitbit.com projection/estimation settings.
  • Tallulah827
    Tallulah827 Posts: 27
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    I dont think negative calories is your issue, I think its with the FB settings.

    Check these settings on FB site:

    If you go to the FB settings (upper right hand side, looks like a gear - pick setting) about half way down on the screen you can turn off calorie estimation. This might help because calorie estimation is giving you more calories than you burn when you are not moving because it may think that you are not wearing the FB. It used past activity to give this number. When midnight comes around and its less, then it takes the calories away.

    This is the one I think causes the biggest problems though: on the FB site in the food plan area (click log and stay on the food log page - look in the food plan box) there is a blue gear. If you have not changed it, its set to personalized. I would set it to Sedentary because then FB is giving you a calorie estimation based on what you burned, not a estimation on what it thinks you burned based on past records.


    I've always had calorie estimation off and do not utilize the food plan option so I don't think that's it.
  • katro111
    katro111 Posts: 632 Member
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    The FitBit calorie adjustments were driving me crazy so I ended up just setting MFP to maintain my current weight (even though I want to lose weight) and set my MFP calorie goal to my Fitbit TDEE minus 20%. They're still synced so my calories eaten goes into Fitbit, but I only log activity in Fitbit and now no adjustments come through on MFP. Makes it soooooo much easier.
  • luckydays27
    luckydays27 Posts: 552 Member
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    You guys might be tight that the fb settings don't affect mfp but from my experience one I changed these, mfp and fb ended up more in line with each other than before.

    I can't imagine how it does not affect things since fb is telling mfp what your full day projection is while taking into calls actually burned this far. If it's estimating things in anyway, it would have a bearing on the number it sends to mfp.

    Ymmv but that's what worked for me and things have been pretty accurate since

    I do agree with jonnythan's other point though... the fb is the best money I have spent on fitness/weight loss ever.
  • Tallulah827
    Tallulah827 Posts: 27
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    It's not the Fitbit negative calorie adjustment as I turned that off yesterday. I went to bed again with a 12 calorie surplus and woke up again with a approx. 200 calorie deficit which is INFURIATING! It apparently has something to do with how MFP is projecting my calorie burn and how FB is recording it, and it's tripping me up to consume more than I should. So, yes, it's back to undercutting my calorie consumption by 200 just to be on the safe side of this crap. I'm not even using MFP to record calorie burn anyway, so I'm not clear why it's having an impact in the calculation. If someone can explain that, I'd love to hear it. I'll try to research it more when I can take the time to do that which isn't this morning.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    MFP has a Fitbit Users group: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/1307-fitbit-users
  • Tallulah827
    Tallulah827 Posts: 27
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    Yes, that's where I just found out that I cannot eat my surplus calories and need to allow about a 200 calorie cushion to keep from waking up to a calorie deficit which is not a great way to start the day.
  • Point202
    Point202 Posts: 55 Member
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    Make sure your Fitbit and MFP accounts are set to the same timezone. When I started MFP for some reason was set to Pacific time, instead of Eastern time where I live. It was causing the same disappearing net calories you mentioned. I have 'this problem since then. I also think it takes the Fitbit a couple of weeks to 'learn' your patterns and be able to project your calories burned more accurately.

    ETA: I do not have negative calorie adjustments turned on, but I do have calorie estimation turned on for the Fitbit.
  • Tallulah827
    Tallulah827 Posts: 27
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    Make sure your Fitbit and MFP accounts are set to the same timezone. When I started MFP for some reason was set to Pacific time, instead of Eastern time where I live. It was causing the same disappearing net calories you mentioned. I have 'this problem since then. I also think it takes the Fitbit a couple of weeks to 'learn' your patterns and be able to project your calories burned more accurately.

    ETA: I do not have negative calorie adjustments turned on, but I do have calorie estimation turned on for the Fitbit.

    Excellent point and thanks as my MFP setting was set on Pacific when I am in the eastern time zone. :flowerforyou:
  • Tallulah827
    Tallulah827 Posts: 27
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    Point202, that was definitely it. Other than 10 calories I lost between the time I completed my entry and went to bed, there was no other calorie loss over night. Thanks so much as THAT was driving me nuts! Happy Easter everyone!

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