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New issues with "extra calories earned"

Willowbee72
Willowbee72 Posts: 3
edited February 22 in Fitness and Exercise
I'm using myfitnesspal and fitbit both on my PC and my phone (Android). In the past I'd earn extra calories from exercise and it would show as, say, "You've earned 100 calories from exercise today." for the entire day (sometimes going up if I worked out more)

Lately I've been noticing some weird issues with this feature. Today I worked out a lot and had "You've earned 156 calories from exercise today" but then later, "You've earned 146 calories from exercise" then still later, "You've earned 75 calories from exercise today."
and finally now it's saying, "You've earned 34 calories from exercise today."

Why is this happening? Is it a problem with using both features on phone and computer syncing? It seems like every time I switched from phone to computer view the extra calories would go down (in spite of my activities and calories being burned going UP and steps increasing on FitBit) This hasn't happened before.

Help?:frown:

Replies

  • 2Bhealthier2
    2Bhealthier2 Posts: 128 Member
    This happens to me all the time. Yesterday I worked out for over an hour and had 7000 + steps and it put me in the negative. Today I did some scrubbing in the house and planted onions, I have 5500 + steps and I've earned calories, go figure. When I work out at the gym I workout hard and it's so frustrating seeing this.
  • kschhr
    kschhr Posts: 103 Member
    Same here. Super annoying.
  • Willowbee72
    Willowbee72 Posts: 3
    Yup! that has happened to me too ... but it was unusual to have the calories earned go DOWN (over and over) in one day with more and more exercise done! Very deflating and annoying.
  • contingencyplan
    contingencyplan Posts: 3,639 Member
    This is not a result of MFP. It is an issue with your fitbit (personally I don't understand why people use those things--all they do is cause problems with logging). Fitbit will actually deduct from your calories "earned" throughout the day if it deems that your activity level is not what you say it is. However, because it is pedometer-based, its means of measuring your activity level is very flawed.
  • DivineChoices
    DivineChoices Posts: 193 Member
    Fit bit runs off an algorithm to predict calories burned over the coarse of the day. If you get behind the algorithm, it'll give negative exercise calories (deducting from food you can eat), and when you are burning MORE than it anticipates, it'll give you positive exercise calories (which add to your deficit). The algorithm is based on age, weight, height, fit bit activity and sleep history. I've been in the green on MFP and went to bed early and log on the next day to realize I was now in the RED on MFP.

    Regardless, I still find the fitbit to be an exceptional tool to help me add activity into my day.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Yeah, it sounds like a Fitbit thing. You can turn off the negative adjustments if you don't like them. To show how they work and why you might get them despite lots of exercise, here's my example from today so far:

    I have my activity level set up as lightly active. Rather than walking as part of my commute today, I rode my bike and logged that. I also did some strength training (not wearing my Fitbit) and logged that. I have a decent amount of calories from my exercise, but I don't have the steps I would usually have (especially since my Fitbit won't sync until I'm home, but that's a separate issue), so it's subtracting from my exercise calories the amount I would usually get just for walking around. I think the same happens any time you log a lot of the activity that the Fitbit is counting--it only uses the remaining activity to determine if you are hitting your activity level and adjusting down if not. I think this is more accurate.

    Anyway, you can get more information and explanation from the Fitbit group if that is indeed the issue, and also read the discussion about why people do and don't turn off negative adjustments.

    Edit: I should add that I don't sync my Fitbit until the end of the day and if I expect my overall activity level to be as usual I don't worry about it. I wouldn't like seeing it go up and down all day.
  • Willowbee72
    Willowbee72 Posts: 3
    Thanks for the tips and responses! :)

    I understand how the earned calories work, and I used to really enjoy this feature! But, this is a new issue happening recently - in the past, my fitbit and myfitnesspal seemed to work fine. As I exercised more, and fitbit tracked more steps, my "extra earned calories" would increase throughout the day if I went over the predicted burn or went over 13,000 steps or added workouts (the fitbit syncs on and off throughout the day)

    This is not happening on "lower activity" days (where it's adjusting down/negative adjustment), this is an issue of getting extra calories earned through extra- exercise and then these same calories disappearing over hours.

    Now not only are these earned calories going DOWN in a single day incrementally even as steps go up (the example started off at 154 extra calories earned after a 5 mile walk and dropped down incrementally over the day as I walked more and more to 34 calories -- seems related to checking in on the phone) it's also not saving this data from day to day. It used to show "120 extra calories from exercise" on a day in the food journal even past that date, now it doesn't show anything at all as having been earned.
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