Fitbit adjustment UNFAIR!

gimpygramma
gimpygramma Posts: 383 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have a couple of MFP friends who are also friends on my Fitbit account.
The fitbit adjustment shown in their diary always seems to be way higher than
mine even though on the Fitbit dashboard it will show I have had way more steps.
My sister is visiting me this week. She is 8 years younger than I am and 10 lbs heavier.
We both have our activity level on MFP set at "sedentary" and have a 1,200 calorie
daily goal. Today we did the exact same 7 mile walk. My Fitbit adjustment was 320. Hers was 651.
Has anyone any idea of why there would be this type of discrepancy? She's carrying a bit more weight but
surely ten pounds can't account for this type of spread..

Replies

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    When you set up your MFP account, you specified an activity level. MFP used your answer, plus your age, sex, height & weight, to estimate how many calories you burn every day (not including exercise). Then you set your weight-loss goal, and MFP subtracted the appropriate deficit to calculate your daily calorie goal.

    Once you link an activity tracker to your MFP account, you start getting calorie adjustments. If your tracker says you burned more calories than MFP estimated, you get a positive adjustment (meaning more calories to eat). If you enable negative calorie adjustments and you burn less than the MFP estimate, you will lose calories. (But negative calorie adjustments will never drop your daily calories below 1,200.)

    Weight loss is like yoga: don't compare yourself to anyone else. Just do better today than you did yesterday or last week.

    Edited to add that MFP has a Fitbit Users group: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/1307-fitbit-users
  • gimpygramma
    gimpygramma Posts: 383 Member
    I know how the adjustment is calculated and that there will be variations but this just seems so extreme.
    Re the Fitbit section...So maybe I should have posted there. Is there anyway to move?
  • Sovi_
    Sovi_ Posts: 575 Member
    Fitbit confuses me... Like a good girl, I do what I'm told. I am losing so I guess it's working?
  • RobsGirl_lds
    RobsGirl_lds Posts: 211 Member
    She is 8years younger and heavier so yes she will burn more doing the same activity.
  • gimpygramma
    gimpygramma Posts: 383 Member
    Yes, Sovi, I agree. My Fitbit and the sync between the two sites has worked really well for me. I have been at goal now for over a year. My sister too, has lost a lot of weight. Still I am curious. I can see her burning more than me but not twice as much.
  • dawndpetz
    dawndpetz Posts: 4
    Do you know if she is posting on MFP and on Fitbit? I just read last night that if you have the two connected, don't post certain things on Fitbit cause the info was going to post on there and on MFP and would double the info. Check and see if that is the problem.
  • gimpygramma
    gimpygramma Posts: 383 Member
    I will have to ask her about that.
  • Fishshtick
    Fishshtick Posts: 120 Member
    Did you compare total number of steps? If you two are within 10lbs and close in height (stride length) and had the same number of steps (for the day...not just the walk) then your numbers should be closer.

    You might try moving your fitbit to another body location. Moving mine from the loose pocket of my shorts to my waistband increases my step count by about 10%. It seems to miss the occasional step when loose in my pocket
  • gimpygramma
    gimpygramma Posts: 383 Member
    15,461 steps for her. 15,623 for me. She has a Flex and I have a One so wear it on my bra band.
    I didn't do it for the day because we went our separate ways after the walk but she is staying with me so the numbers I am using include our morning activities and the walk which we took from about 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM.
  • gimpygramma
    gimpygramma Posts: 383 Member
    I tried changing my MFP settings so they would be the same as hers. (ie her age, height and weight.)That brought my calories for normal daily activities up by 80. A far cry from the 300+ difference in our Fitbit adjustment.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Do you know if she is posting on MFP and on Fitbit? I just read last night that if you have the two connected, don't post certain things on Fitbit cause the info was going to post on there and on MFP and would double the info. Check and see if that is the problem.
    Do not log step-based activity (unless you want to enter a HRM burn in MFP). Non-step exercise (like swimming or biking) can be logged either in Fitbit or in MFP—never both.

    I find Fitbit's burns to be way more accurate than MFP's one-size-fits-all guesstimates. If you log in MFP you're asked for start & end times, and MFP overrides your step data during that time.
  • Followingsea
    Followingsea Posts: 407 Member
    Calorie adjustment isn't just based on height and weight (though they are major factors, as you found) but also on exercise intensity, as measured by the various accelerometers inside the Fitbit. An 11k day where I idly pace an airport gate lounge while reading a book is not the same as an 11k day where I went for a 3 mile run - on the latter I'll have an additional 300 calories burned that day.

    Your sister may have been more active during your walk - pausing and then jogging to catch up - or her wrist-based tracker may have thought she did. The Flex tends towards being less accurate than the One.
  • just4nessa
    just4nessa Posts: 459 Member
    It could be that if she is using a flex (worn on the wrist) and swinging her arms while walking, it thinks she's being that much more active than your fitbit one which is worn closer to the center of your body and only registering when your entire body is moving.

    I'm also gonna throw this out there... my fitbit calculated a stride length much greater than my actual stride length. Therefore I had to take three steps for every one it counted, until I figured out how to adjust it. One or both of you should check your stride length settings; don't rely fitbit to calculate a correct stride length for your height, we all walk differently. It probably wouldn't account for much in this specific situation, but it makes a difference in overall accuracy.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Calorie adjustment isn't just based on height and weight (though they are major factors, as you found) but also on exercise intensity, as measured by the various accelerometers inside the Fitbit. An 11k day where I idly pace an airport gate lounge while reading a book is not the same as an 11k day where I went for a 3 mile run - on the latter I'll have an additional 300 calories burned that day.
    Just to clarify—your Fitbit calorie adjustment is not affected in any way by how hard you exercise. But it does affect your Fitbit burn (which is also your TDEE, aka your maintenance calories).

    OP, your sister's Fitbit burn is probably way higher than yours. And if you look at both of your Fitbit steps tiles, hers will have more green lines than yours.
  • gimpygramma
    gimpygramma Posts: 383 Member
    Neither of us logged any activities on either MFP or the Fitbit site.

    Following, you may have the key to it there when you talk about intensity. She showed almost an hour of high intensity. I showed only a few minutes (probably when we were climbing a steep hill.) That being said we were walking side by side throughout. Same distance, same speed. She wondered if there was a heart rate sensor. My fitness level is better than hers so she was struggling to keep up where for me it was a fairly comfortable pace. (I'd have slowed down to accommodate her but we were part of a larger group and wanted to keep up. She finally had to slow down and so I stayed with her and we were left behind.)
  • Followingsea
    Followingsea Posts: 407 Member
    Just to clarify—your Fitbit calorie adjustment is not affected in any way by how hard you exercise. But it does affect your Fitbit burn (which is also your TDEE, aka your maintenance calories).

    Your Fitbit calculated burn is directly correlated to your calorie adjustment, so I am not sure exactly what you mean by this.
  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
    In my experience from owning both the One and the Flex...the flex takes into account other movements, such as arm movements, and adds that in too. There is a bit about that on the site, regarding the flex.
  • gimpygramma
    gimpygramma Posts: 383 Member
    Oh thanks, I will look that up.
  • gimpygramma
    gimpygramma Posts: 383 Member
    I found an entry on the Fitbit site that explained that they used BMI and age in calculating the calories burned.
    Because my sister is a bit shorter and a bit heavier than I am, her BMI is 24.7 as compared to my 21.4. We have both enabled calorie estimating so we will have to check in the morning and see what our estimate is for the day before we begin any sort of exercise. She probably had an edge on me before we even got out the door.

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