FitBit One Calorie Adjustment Questions

CAG1983
CAG1983 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone, I am after some help with my FItbit One and MFP. I am in a very sedentary job so barely reach my goal of 5000 steps a day and I haven't been exercising due to health problems. I log my calories daily in to MFP and I always check my Fitbit Calorie Adjustment at the bottom of my daily diary.

What I'm confused about is the calories stated in the adjustment. These are always taken away from the calories left at the end of the day, should they be? Why is this?

I'm also confused if/when I start exercising again, how do I record this? Do I log this in MFP or not? How would I record Blogilates workouts if anyone knows of this?

Sorry if these seem silly questions, but for some reason I'm having a hard time getting my head around it!

Replies

  • geordimom1
    geordimom1 Posts: 3 Member
    I actually have a similar question. I am looking at the Bowflex Boost (similar to Fitbit but a few less bells and whistles and lower price). I am trying to exercise a few times a week. Should I take the Boost off when I exercise or not record my activity in MFP? It seems like if I did both it would count double.

    thanks,
    Sharon
  • gaelicstorm26
    gaelicstorm26 Posts: 589 Member
    Your Fitbit isn't going to be able to count all types of exercise. It will primarily count running, jogging, and walking. Yours may also count stairs (I have a Flex and it doesn't). If you are engaging in activity other than the things mentioned above, you should add those directly into MFP and not into the Fitbit dashboard (at least that is my understanding from the Fitbit site).

    About your calorie adjustment, are you saying that you might be starting out with 1600 calories but because you aren't meeting your goals your new calorie count might be 1400? Or are you saying that MFP is automatically giving you more calories based upon what you Fitbit readings are?

    If you are saying that calories are being taken away, you can fix that under your settings. There is a box you can check/uncheck about enabling Fitbit to make negative calorie adjustments. I have mine checked. If you are saying that Fitbit and MFP are automatically giving you more calories to consume, well that is normal when you sync the two devices together. I don't want to eat back those calories so I just do a little subtraction!

    Hope this helps...
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    Fitbit and MFP exchange data two ways, so your Fitbit activity automagically appears in MFP.

    Extra calories clocked by Fitbit are entered to MFP as exercise calories and subtracted from what you've eaten using MFP's "net calories" concept (or hamster wheel - exercise more to eat more).

    If you enter exercise directly into MFP you should also enter the time of the exercise and MFP will ignore any fitbit adjustments for that time period, to avoid double counting.
  • latepaul
    latepaul Posts: 49 Member
    If you enter exercise directly into MFP you should also enter the time of the exercise and MFP will ignore any fitbit adjustments for that time period, to avoid double counting.

    How do you do that? I can't see a way, either in the app or the website, to give a time for the exercise.
  • CAG1983
    CAG1983 Posts: 11 Member
    Umm, I'm not sure lol

    For an example, lets say I start a day out with 1600 calories. I've logged my food intake via MFP and I have 300 calories remaining for the day. My fitbit adjustment then states 116 and has subtracted this from the remaining calories leaving me 184.

    Has the fitbit calories been classed as exercise? Why has it been subtracted? The fitbit calories are not taken away from the food already eaten, but what is left over.

    I really don't understand all the technical terms so a simple explanation is needed, sorry!
  • SKME2013
    SKME2013 Posts: 704 Member
    I add my exercises in the fitbit app and only my food intake in myfitnesspal. In the fitbit app, you click on active minutes and then on the plus sign at the top right hand corner. Then you chose your activity and add it.

    As said above, the two apps sinc both ways. For me it is simpler to add activities in fitbit and food in myfitnesspal. Works very well for me. Regarding what I can eat I go with the recommendation on myfitnesspal. I have set my profile to sedentary eventhough I work out six days a week. I use a hear rate monitor and the fore know pretty much my calorie expenditure from workouts.

    Hope this helps?
    Stef.

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