DO I COUNT THE CALORIES FROM MY FITNESS TRACKER

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LynndaMaree
LynndaMaree Posts: 88 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I would like to know if i wear my fitness tracker, do I count only the calories burned for exercise or for the entire time that I wear it?

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  • schnicklefritz1
    schnicklefritz1 Posts: 130 Member
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    I am interested in following your post. I have a Fitbit which syncs with Myfitnesspal....when I enter my excercised, it seems to take my fitbit calories burned out of the picture. I am not sure why. Perhaps I can learn from this post.
  • LynndaMaree
    LynndaMaree Posts: 88 Member
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    Ok, I hope we both can learn. I hope I can count them. lol
  • LynndaMaree
    LynndaMaree Posts: 88 Member
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    BUMP
  • ivlatt
    ivlatt Posts: 1
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    Is the fitness tracker something you wear during exercise/cardio?
  • JustSomeEm
    JustSomeEm Posts: 20,217 MFP Moderator
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    If your fitness tracker is synced with MFP, the calories it shows are what you should go by. I have a Jawbone, and when I exercise, I record the exercise via the Jawbone app, NOT MFP. Once the Jawbone syncs, the calories burned are displayed over at MFP, and available for consumption. :) I find that using calories from my Jawbone is more accurate than MFPs calories. Cheers!
  • Shropshire1959
    Shropshire1959 Posts: 982 Member
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    after less than an hour? 'kin hell
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
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    If it tracks your total daily burn then you don't count all of them, some of them sync with MFP and adjust cals as needed. What type do you have?
  • christmre
    christmre Posts: 109 Member
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    I have a fitbit flex, which is synced with MFP, so I do not log any of my exercise with MFP, it logs automatically from my fitbit. I only log food and water on this site.
  • Live_To_Win
    Live_To_Win Posts: 340 Member
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    I have a FitBit Flex and I only base my number on the feedback from the FitBit. I know that will be at least minimally accurate as it dies not account for carrying things or stretching but then I know that I am not going over my numbers either
  • sarainiowa
    sarainiowa Posts: 287 Member
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    I would count activities outside of your "normal" daily routine. Like a walk, would count. Doing laundry, would not count.
  • sargessexyone
    sargessexyone Posts: 494 Member
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    If your accounts are synced then you don't need to track activity unless it is something that your tracker doesn't count.

    FYI: Based on the activity level you entered when you signed up MFP will assume you are going to burn X amount of calories in a day, for simplicty I'll use 1500. When you wear your tracker it gives you a daily burn which would be your TDEE, let's that's 2000. Your tracker will then tell MFP you earned 500 calories from exercise.


    ETA: I log things like biking, swimming, strength training, that my fitbit doesn't track.
  • daw0518
    daw0518 Posts: 459 Member
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    I am interested in following your post. I have a Fitbit which syncs with Myfitnesspal....when I enter my excercised, it seems to take my fitbit calories burned out of the picture. I am not sure why. Perhaps I can learn from this post.

    The reason this happens is because Fitbit ONLY tracks step-based activity. If you do exercise that isn't purely step-based & then enter it into MFP with a start & stop time, it overrides what Fitbit had for that time & replaces it with what you entered, otherwise it would be double-counted.
  • LynndaMaree
    LynndaMaree Posts: 88 Member
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    Yes Ivlatt, I wear the Polar FT7. It tracks your calories burned during exercise and doing other things as well. Like walking around the house, cleaning and going up and down stairs and also just sitting. I only count the calories burned during exercise. I wanted to know if I should count the calories burned from just doing other things as well. I don't have mine synced to MFP.
  • k8blujay2
    k8blujay2 Posts: 4,941 Member
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    If you sync your fitbit and MFP it will automatically add the calories for you... If you add your exercises to your MFP diary it will also add it to your fitbit diary and readjust your calories... same for the vice versa but it will count them as "adjustment" calories instead of what your actual exercise was.
  • k8blujay2
    k8blujay2 Posts: 4,941 Member
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    I am interested in following your post. I have a Fitbit which syncs with Myfitnesspal....when I enter my excercised, it seems to take my fitbit calories burned out of the picture. I am not sure why. Perhaps I can learn from this post.

    The reason this happens is because Fitbit ONLY tracks step-based activity. If you do exercise that isn't purely step-based & then enter it into MFP with a start & stop time, it overrides what Fitbit had for that time & replaces it with what you entered, otherwise it would be double-counted.

    ^^^ Yup, exactly why. The fitbit isn't great at counting cycling as an activity (for example)... while it may count "steps" based on your movements it won't accurately reflect the calories burned... that's why you need to add your exercises into your diary as well.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
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    Yes Ivlatt, I wear the Polar FT7. It tracks your calories burned during exercise and doing other things as well. Like walking around the house, cleaning and going up and down stairs and also just sitting. I only count the calories burned during exercise. I wanted to know if I should count the calories burned from just doing other things as well. I don't have mine synced to MFP.

    That's a heart rate monitor, not a fitness tracker. You only wear it while doing steady state cardio. It won't be accurate at any other time. And yes, if you're using it appropriately, then you manually log those calories as exercise in MFP.
  • LynndaMaree
    LynndaMaree Posts: 88 Member
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    This response is for ivlatt.
    POLAR FT7:


    Continuous, accurate heart rate provides clear workout guidance
    Energy Pointer feature tells you if the main effect of your training is fitness improvement or fat burning
    Smart Calorie feature uses your personal data to provide accurate calories burned
    Includes heart rate chest strap made of soft fabric material that adapts to your body shape; Requires and includes chest strap for accurate heart rate
    User replaceable battery, water resistant (30m), plus connects with compatible gym equipment using GymLink

    I use it as a heart rate monitor and a fitness tracker. It tell me when I am in the fat burning zone or in the fittness zone and it also counts the calories.
  • sarafischbach9
    sarafischbach9 Posts: 466 Member
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    Do you have it on all day? If so then that is your total daily expenditure. And that is what you should base your deficit off of, whether its 250 calories off that or 500 calories off, depending on how fast you want to lose.

    I would do that first and see how it goes. Because on here it might add the calories in and then it won't be accurate. The good thing about these fitness trackers is that if you have them on all day you can see how much you burn total and subtract from that.

    I want a fitness tracker and an HRM really bad. For right now I'm just running and tracking my distance and speed on an app. I think the calories are within the right ballpark but are not 100% accurate.
  • LynndaMaree
    LynndaMaree Posts: 88 Member
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    Hello sarafishbach, no, I don't have it on all day. Only when i work out. I agree with you that they are not 100% accurate, but much better than what MFP has listed. I did a workout and on MFP & it doubled the calories than what I actually burned. It's a good investment to make. I set a certain amount of calories that I want to burn in a day and this keeps me on track to reach that goal. Well I wish you luck on your journey and let me know when you get a HRM/FITNESS TRACKER.

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