1,128 Exercise Reduced to 279?
Ms_J1
Posts: 253 Member
Can someone tell me why I got ripped off on this? I have my activity level set to sedentary and my weight loss goal set to 1 lb per week (500 calorie deficit). This is my exercise diary entry for Wednesday. I took off the Fitbit during these exercises and only wore it while I did my afternoon walk.
Running (jogging), 5 mph (12 min mile) - Energy burned: 340, Minutes: 46
Strength training, upper body - Energy burned: 70, Minutes: 17
Moving household items, carrying boxes - Energy burned: 268, Minutes: 60
Swimming laps, tri club, sprint intervals - Energy burned: 450, Minutes: 60
And then...
Fitbit calorie adjustment: -849
12,757 Steps
So basically, my net calories burned from exercise was only 279.
Running (jogging), 5 mph (12 min mile) - Energy burned: 340, Minutes: 46
Strength training, upper body - Energy burned: 70, Minutes: 17
Moving household items, carrying boxes - Energy burned: 268, Minutes: 60
Swimming laps, tri club, sprint intervals - Energy burned: 450, Minutes: 60
And then...
Fitbit calorie adjustment: -849
12,757 Steps
So basically, my net calories burned from exercise was only 279.
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Replies
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Did your sedentary change? Double check that. It happened to me once. MFP (after an update) randomly changed me to "very active".0
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I dont take my Fitbit off when I exercise...I leave it on and when i log my exercise into MFP, Fitbit makes an adjustment based on the activity it recognized I was doing, and the one I logged into MFP. (At least, that what it seems to be doing!!!) So far that is working out fine for me and the adjustments made havent been weird.
So maybe Fitbit, its trying to account for it that according to your tracker, you had no movement at all (since you took it off) and trying to balance that against the exercises you are entering. Im still new to having a Fitbit, so Im just guessing. Maybe try exercising with the Fitbit on to see if you get a different result?0 -
You should log your exercises via fitbit instead - that's what i have started to do. The calorie burns are a little bit more realistic than myfitnesspal. Or like Dragn77 said keep your fitbit on during your exercises (this isn't going to have a perfect burn rate but the different between fitbit & mfp won't be so drastic. Good Luck. :-)0
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Can someone tell me why I got ripped off on this? I have my activity level set to sedentary and my weight loss goal set to 1 lb per week (500 calorie deficit). This is my exercise diary entry for Wednesday. I took off the Fitbit during these exercises and only wore it while I did my afternoon walk.
Running (jogging), 5 mph (12 min mile) - Energy burned: 340, Minutes: 46
Strength training, upper body - Energy burned: 70, Minutes: 17
Moving household items, carrying boxes - Energy burned: 268, Minutes: 60
Swimming laps, tri club, sprint intervals - Energy burned: 450, Minutes: 60
And then...
Fitbit calorie adjustment: -849
12,757 Steps
So basically, my net calories burned from exercise was only 279.
First, I'll agree no need to take Fitbit off during those workouts except swimming. The minute you manually log your time and calorie burn, Fitbit's estimates are replaced. On running/walking, the distance and steps is replaced too.
Second, are you sure all those workouts synced over and increased Fitbit's daily burn?
If they did not, then what you describe will exactly happen.
MFP had you at non-exercise TDEE plus a bunch of exercise for your daily burn, Fitbit reading comes in missing the sync of those activities and would of course be a whole lot lower, negative adjustment.
Or, you have discovered what many discover, especially when their body isn't happy about how much deficit they are taking - the body slows you down, less active on spontaneous stuff.
So indeed you may burn more in exercise, but what you replaced was active time too, and you ended up being a bigger bump on the log because of tired from exercise.
I've seen many cases where confusion on that fact had ones seeing less gross burn on days with exercise, because while the person worked out hard for 60 min, they also had to take an hour nap, and then were lazy on the couch when they otherwise wouldn't have been.
Is 500 cal deficit really reasonable for what appears to be a few pounds left to lose?0 -
Did your sedentary change? Double check that. It happened to me once. MFP (after an update) randomly changed me to "very active".
I checked and my level activity is still the same as it was when I set it (sedentary, although, I'm not really sedentary).First, I'll agree no need to take Fitbit off during those workouts except swimming. The minute you manually log your time and calorie burn, Fitbit's estimates are replaced. On running/walking, the distance and steps is replaced too.
Second, are you sure all those workouts synced over and increased Fitbit's daily burn?
If they did not, then what you describe will exactly happen.
MFP had you at non-exercise TDEE plus a bunch of exercise for your daily burn, Fitbit reading comes in missing the sync of those activities and would of course be a whole lot lower, negative adjustment.
Or, you have discovered what many discover, especially when their body isn't happy about how much deficit they are taking - the body slows you down, less active on spontaneous stuff.
So indeed you may burn more in exercise, but what you replaced was active time too, and you ended up being a bigger bump on the log because of tired from exercise.
I've seen many cases where confusion on that fact had ones seeing less gross burn on days with exercise, because while the person worked out hard for 60 min, they also had to take an hour nap, and then were lazy on the couch when they otherwise wouldn't have been.
Is 500 cal deficit really reasonable for what appears to be a few pounds left to lose?
Well, I have an update. I noticed the -849 the next morning when I went to share my diary. Later that day, after I had already posted this thread, it changed to 17. I'm so confused.
I checked Fitbit after I entered each workout into MFP and Fitbit eventually captured them within an hour or so after I had logged them. At first, my adjustment was something like -155 and it would slowly decrease in between workouts. Right before the last workout which was from 8-9pm, my adjustment was -200 and something (-276 or -278, or -287, I forgot but it was in the upper -200s). It wasn't until the next day that I saw the -849 so something happened after I logged my tri club swim the night before. I just think it's weird that although my adjustment was in the negative throughout the day, it was at least consistent in the degree of variance around my activities... Except for the last one. Sometime between 9pm and midnight, it's like it lost its mind. And apparently, it got its mind back later the next day.
About whether a 500 calorie deficit is reasonable with only a few more lbs to go - I'm starting to wonder that as well. I just had my body fat percentage tested using an air displacement pod yesterday and the result came back at 19.6%. Something tells me I'm at goal. The few lbs I have left to lose are based on my doctor's weight goal for me but I think he's going to rethink it as well after my next follow up when he sees my BFP test. Ya think?
I do have another question. Should I be linking MapMyFitness to Fitbit instead of MFP? Does Fitbit recognize that it's "co-tracking" my activity with another app? I was always afraid that if I linked Fitbit to other apps, it would double my calorie burn. Right now, I have MapMyFitness and Fitbit linked to MFP but not to each other. In other words, should I have all of my apps ONLY go through Fitbit and have ONLY Fitbit linked to MFP and wear my Fitbit at all times? It sounds like that's what Prestonam was getting at - logging everything in Fitbit either manually (like for swimming) or via an app (for land-based stuff).
Thanks for all your input! Fitbit drives me crazy.0 -
I trust that when you set your Fitbit up that you made sure to set the time zone for the time zone you live in or if you have moved to a new area that you changed the time zone? One of our friends travels - a lot - from California, to Singapore, to South America...and her FB numbers can swing pretty widely if she does not adjust the time zone for wherever she happens to be.
I have my various programs tied into MFP. These currently are FB, Digifit and MapMyFitness. MFP does a pretty good job at coordinating the three inputs although I've found that they vary WIDELY in their estimates of the number of calories an exercise does. I've occasionally run all three at the same time and use a Polar HRM just to see how different they are and on a longer walk/job they can be pretty far apart. (Running all of them and the HRM at the same time really does a number on how quickly my iPhone battery runs down so I only do that when I have a fully charged phone.) Which is more accurate? Who knows? The HRM and Digifit combo seems pretty reasonable and I find Digifit in general to be very close to what I would expect but I only use it for aerobic activities and especially for longer walks/hikes. FB seems good for day-to-day routine activity.0 -
Your adjustment is going to change throughout the day because fitbit doesn't only take calories burned through exercise, but also its projected daily total calorie burn (through keeping your body functioning) into account.
I use MFP as the hub that I link everything to, and I enter anything manual into MFP too. Or if you prefer, you can link everything to Fitbit instead. As long as you choose one hub and don't link something to *both* MFP and fitbit, then you won't get double entries.0 -
Well, I have an update. I noticed the -849 the next morning when I went to share my diary. Later that day, after I had already posted this thread, it changed to 17. I'm so confused.
I checked Fitbit after I entered each workout into MFP and Fitbit eventually captured them within an hour or so after I had logged them. At first, my adjustment was something like -155 and it would slowly decrease in between workouts. Right before the last workout which was from 8-9pm, my adjustment was -200 and something (-276 or -278, or -287, I forgot but it was in the upper -200s). It wasn't until the next day that I saw the -849 so something happened after I logged my tri club swim the night before. I just think it's weird that although my adjustment was in the negative throughout the day, it was at least consistent in the degree of variance around my activities... Except for the last one. Sometime between 9pm and midnight, it's like it lost its mind. And apparently, it got its mind back later the next day.
About whether a 500 calorie deficit is reasonable with only a few more lbs to go - I'm starting to wonder that as well. I just had my body fat percentage tested using an air displacement pod yesterday and the result came back at 19.6%. Something tells me I'm at goal. The few lbs I have left to lose are based on my doctor's weight goal for me but I think he's going to rethink it as well after my next follow up when he sees my BFP test. Ya think?
I do have another question. Should I be linking MapMyFitness to Fitbit instead of MFP? Does Fitbit recognize that it's "co-tracking" my activity with another app? I was always afraid that if I linked Fitbit to other apps, it would double my calorie burn. Right now, I have MapMyFitness and Fitbit linked to MFP but not to each other. In other words, should I have all of my apps ONLY go through Fitbit and have ONLY Fitbit linked to MFP and wear my Fitbit at all times? It sounds like that's what Prestonam was getting at - logging everything in Fitbit either manually (like for swimming) or via an app (for land-based stuff).
Thanks for all your input! Fitbit drives me crazy.
On Fitbit settings - do you have Calorie Estimation Enabled?
That is if your daily routine and exercise is about the same, and you are prone to forgetting your Fitbit.
It estimates the day according to historical records until proved otherwise, so the daily goal starts high. And that inflated figure is given to MFP to do it's math on, which is much simpler.
But disabled Fitbit starts at sedentary value until proved otherwise with calorie count going higher with actual activity. And that lower figure is given to MFP for it's math through the day.
And the math either way will be hosed up until Fitbit is aware of your manually logged workouts, unless it happened to calculate about the same calories as you entered.
Ya, that deficit amount is creating a fight with your body you'll lose, and not fat. Until you can compare, you likely have no idea how much better in performance your workouts could be.
I'd suggest time to go to maintenance and make your hard workouts as hard as they can be to cause maximum improvements, and allow your rest days to truly be good recovery to allow that to happen.
As long as you only link it to 1 site, no issues of dups, but link to both, very possible. Fitbit only sees exercise record come in from MFP - it doesn't know it really came from MMF first to MFP.
With MFP you get wall posting for others to see, and possibly delayed syncs over to Fitbit.
With Fitbit that would be instantly there, but only adjustments on MFP, and if you wanted wall postings you'd just post about your workout.
Unless you use MFP Exercise goals and diary for reports, probably no need to have it on MFP, it could go directly to Fitbit.
And keep the Fitbit on, no problem since some data will be replaced if another app or you manually are updating it.
You could even enter your swims on MMF if you wanted all exercise stuff in one app for records.0 -
On Fitbit settings - do you have Calorie Estimation Enabled?
That is if your daily routine and exercise is about the same, and you are prone to forgetting your Fitbit.
It estimates the day according to historical records until proved otherwise, so the daily goal starts high. And that inflated figure is given to MFP to do it's math on, which is much simpler.
But disabled Fitbit starts at sedentary value until proved otherwise with calorie count going higher with actual activity. And that lower figure is given to MFP for it's math through the day.
And the math either way will be hosed up until Fitbit is aware of your manually logged workouts, unless it happened to calculate about the same calories as you entered.
I just now checked, and it was enabled so I turned it off. I'll give it a couple of days to see how it affects my numbers. Yesterday, I disconnected all of my apps from MFP except for Fitbit and then I linked those apps that Fitbit. Last night, I did my swim and manually logged my swim into Fitbit. Then, I did a quick 30 minute jog, using MapMyFitness to track it, but the activity was never sent to Fitbit so I had to manually log it into Fitbit. I must be confused about the sync direction between Fitbit and MapMyFitness. I thought they synced both ways - to Fitbit from MMF and from MMF to Fitbit. Am I wrong?
Anyway, by the end of the day, my numbers were much more reasonable. According to my HRM, my swim workout burned 392 calories and my jog burned 195 calories for a total of 587. I wore the Fitbit all day, during my jog, and took it off only to swim. Both activities were logged into Fitbit and no activities were logged into MFP except Fitbit's adjustment. My Fitbit adjustment this time was much more reasonable (depressing, but reasonable): 357 calories.Ya, that deficit amount is creating a fight with your body you'll lose, and not fat. Until you can compare, you likely have no idea how much better in performance your workouts could be.
I'd suggest time to go to maintenance and make your hard workouts as hard as they can be to cause maximum improvements, and allow your rest days to truly be good recovery to allow that to happen.
I upped my calorie goal on MFP yesterday to my sedentary level TDEE value which is 1,450. I'll slowly increase it until I neither lose or gain weight. Does that sound reasonable? Before then, it had been set to my RMR (1,170).0 -
I trust that when you set your Fitbit up that you made sure to set the time zone for the time zone you live in or if you have moved to a new area that you changed the time zone? One of our friends travels - a lot - from California, to Singapore, to South America...and her FB numbers can swing pretty widely if she does not adjust the time zone for wherever she happens to be.
Yep, time zones are the same.0 -
This happened to me yesterday. I had to sync the fitbit app, then resync the MFP app. That corrected it.0
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This happens to me when I enter cycling on MFP. The difference between the FitBit projection and the MFP projection (basically what I just burned biking) is subtracted initially. Then the next time the two sync, the amount subtracted decreases. Once I have taken the number of steps FitBit expects me to take, it begins adding rather than subtracting. It makes sense to me:
FitBit and MFP expect me to burn 2,000 calories.
I go for a bike ride and burn 1,000 calories (in my dreams...)
I come home and enter the 1,000 calories in MFP AND PROPERLY MARK THE TIME WHEN I WAS RIDING, and MFP says to FitBit, "Hey, now I expect Scrittrice to burn 3,000 calories. You should raise your expectations, too!"
FitBit does, but it also sees that I haven't taken a lot of steps yet (because I was on my bike), so it thinks I'm way below what it expects of me. It subtracts a bunch of calories because it doesn't think I'll get there.
As the day goes on, I continue to move around, and FitBit thinks maybe I WILL get there, so it subtracts smaller and smaller amounts of calories.
If you have the two linked, it's very important that you put in the correct time for swimming, biking, and other non-step activities.0 -
I just now checked, and it was enabled so I turned it off. I'll give it a couple of days to see how it affects my numbers. Yesterday, I disconnected all of my apps from MFP except for Fitbit and then I linked those apps that Fitbit. Last night, I did my swim and manually logged my swim into Fitbit. Then, I did a quick 30 minute jog, using MapMyFitness to track it, but the activity was never sent to Fitbit so I had to manually log it into Fitbit. I must be confused about the sync direction between Fitbit and MapMyFitness. I thought they synced both ways - to Fitbit from MMF and from MMF to Fitbit. Am I wrong?
I upped my calorie goal on MFP yesterday to my sedentary level TDEE value which is 1,450. I'll slowly increase it until I neither lose or gain weight. Does that sound reasonable? Before then, it had been set to my RMR (1,170).
I'm not sure if Fitbit sends anything back to MMF - does it track food intake or daily activity? If not, no need for it to receive anything. And since exercise fields are limited on Fitbit, you'd have a very incomplete entry in MMF.
I thought I recalled they did syncs like every hour, or some long time span. You might look around on MMF site and see what the timing is.
Now, on MFP are you doing a manual entry of calorie goal?
Because if you do, that will throw off any math too.
MFP compares Fitbit's daily burn to it's estimate of daily burn - not to your eating goal. The difference is added or subtracted from your eating goal though.
Only because many attempt to use the rough 5 level TDEE charts with the Fitbit giving infinite TDEE levels, do I ask.
So that is selecting in MFP Sedentary activity level, maintenance for weight loss goal, and 1450 is the resulting math that MFP did and assigned for your non-exercise sedentary TDEE?0 -
Now, on MFP are you doing a manual entry of calorie goal?
Because if you do, that will throw off any math too.
MFP compares Fitbit's daily burn to it's estimate of daily burn - not to your eating goal. The difference is added or subtracted from your eating goal though.
Only because many attempt to use the rough 5 level TDEE charts with the Fitbit giving infinite TDEE levels, do I ask.
So that is selecting in MFP Sedentary activity level, maintenance for weight loss goal, and 1450 is the resulting math that MFP did and assigned for your non-exercise sedentary TDEE?
Yes, I did a manual entry only because I needed to anyway. The 1,450 (actually, it's 1,451 but I rounded down) was calculated using my RMR (1,170) which was determined based on my bod pod test (air displacement test for determining my percentage of body fat) I had last week.
I think the issue I had last week with the -849 adjustment was just a temporary weird glitch. But now, I'm frustrated with the syncing issues I'm having with Fitbit. It's been really slow at syncing the last few days. I'm also frustrated with how to add activities to Fitbit. Apparently, I can't create a custom activity from the iOS app. Instead, I have to log in to the site and do it there each time a need to add a new activity.0 -
Yes, I did a manual entry only because I needed to anyway. The 1,450 (actually, it's 1,451 but I rounded down) was calculated using my RMR (1,170) which was determined based on my bod pod test (air displacement test for determining my percentage of body fat) I had last week.
I think the issue I had last week with the -849 adjustment was just a temporary weird glitch. But now, I'm frustrated with the syncing issues I'm having with Fitbit. It's been really slow at syncing the last few days. I'm also frustrated with how to add activities to Fitbit. Apparently, I can't create a custom activity from the iOS app. Instead, I have to log in to the site and do it there each time a need to add a new activity.
So Bodpod gives BF%, and then they calculate based on that Cunningham or Nelson RMR. Nelson in studies has been shown to be very undervalued from measured RMR.
Normally RMR is higher than BMR, but Nelson may just match Katch BMR using your BF% too.
But did you use that RMR figure with the old 1919 study for TDEE levels?
Or how far off is the Mifflin BMR?
Because for syncing and adjusting things correctly, it's nice having it correct.
If you'd like to adjust the Fitbit site to use your better estimated RMR, there is a way to do that too.
Check out the spreadsheet on my profile page.
Fill in the Simple Setup tab with your stats after deleting all the sample yellow fields. Don't worry about the Activity chart since you use Fitbit.
Then go over to Fitbit/BMF tab, don't use that RMR since that wasn't an RMR test, merely a calculation the spreadsheet is already doing.
Notice the change in height to make Fitbit better match your BF% and calculated BMR.
You will need manual stride length correction, which is always good idea.
Then you can setup MFP as normal (no manual eating goal), and the adjustments will handle the rest.
Because changing the eating goal on MFP based on calculated RMR isn't really changing what needs to be changed, MFP is still comparing to Fitbit figures that your RMR has no bearing on.
Just a suggestion, once done, usually not going to have any changes if at goal weight, except where LBM increases a decent amount.0 -
Bump to "digest"0
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I feel your pain. When I go for a walk / run, I get active minutes. But when I do something like NTC or Tapout XT, lately I've hardly been getting active minutes.0
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I just walked my butt off for almost an hour, and Endomondo gave me 416 exercise calories.
Fitbit promptly said, "oh no you dont!" and adjusted it to 167.
I wonder how many calories flipping a table will burn?! LoL!!!
Seriously though, I know why..I forgot my Flex at home today (ARGH!) and so as far as my Flex is concerned, I was laying around not moving all day, so it figures in that those calories are just a normal part of my daily burn that it estimates, and not extra that Ive earned for keeps. So I know the why...and I'm not mad at Flex. Just myself for forgetting to put it back on *sigh*0 -
I just walked my butt off for almost an hour, and Endomondo gave me 416 exercise calories.
Fitbit promptly said, "oh no you dont!" and adjusted it to 167.
I wonder how many calories flipping a table will burn?! LoL!!!
Seriously though, I know why..I forgot my Flex at home today (ARGH!) and so as far as my Flex is concerned, I was laying around not moving all day, so it figures in that those calories are just a normal part of my daily burn that it estimates, and not extra that Ive earned for keeps. So I know the why...and I'm not mad at Flex. Just myself for forgetting to put it back on *sigh*
If Endomondo synced with MFP you would have gotten an exercise record created in MFP.
If MFP synced with Fitbit it would have replaced whatever Fitbit had for that time (this time nothing but BMR) and corrected it.
I don't see how Fitbit could have adjusted an Endomondo record and reduced calories?
Or do you mean your MFP Exercise tab adjustment changed?
That adjustment is never about just exercise anyway, might read several of posts above detailing that fact.
So it sounds like rather you got an exercise record of 416 calories on MFP.
But combined with the adjustment from Fitbit which was basically sleeping all day, you got negative calories from that.
The combo was a mere 167 positive over MFP estimated non-exercise maintenance.0 -
Hi Heybales... Yup, thats actually exactly what I said, you just said it in a different way
Endomondo gave me 416 for my workout, and my adjustment changed to 167 when MFP synced with MFP.
And indeed, it isntt about just the exercise, its because Fitbit assumed I hadnt moved all day. All what I said in my post you quoted LoL
Like I said, I know the why... (Im one of the several posts above detailing the fact =D) I just need to not forget to put my Flex on to avoid such wackiness!!!0 -
Hi Heybales... Yup, thats actually exactly what I said, you just said it in a different way
Endomondo gave me 416 for my workout, and my adjustment changed to 167 when MFP synced with MFP.
And indeed, it isntt about just the exercise, its because Fitbit assumed I hadnt moved all day. All what I said in my post you quoted LoL
Like I said, I know the why... (Im one of the several posts above detailing the fact =D) I just need to not forget to put my Flex on to avoid such wackiness!!!
I only thought there might be misunderstanding of how it worked - because it's not Fitbit changing the Endomondo exercise record like it sounded, or making that adjustment - it's MFP. Others reading that could easily get the same misunderstanding I've seen others have. So it wasn't just to get you clear potentially, but others reading it.
MFP merely gets total daily burned from Fitbit - MFP does the math.
Fitbit daily burned - MFP non-exercise maintenance - any logged exercise = adjustment.
So good thing you had the Endomondo in there, imagine how negative the adjustment would have been without the workout!0 -
Hmmm... way over my head right now. Will review later
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