Activity Level and Fitbit Integration
spookiekabuki
Posts: 48 Member
I was under the impression that integrating a Fibit would give me my true calorie burn. I assumed that it would then not matter what activity level I choose because fitbit would either add or subtract based on my steps, not a self-reported setting.
Does anyone know why when I change from Lightly Active to Sedentary, my remaining calories do not stay the same?
Does anyone know why when I change from Lightly Active to Sedentary, my remaining calories do not stay the same?
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Make sure you enable Negative FitBit adjustments so if you are less active than you selected in MFP it takes calories away. If you don't turn on the negative adjustments FitBit will only change your daily goal if you do more than you predicted but won't take it away if you do less activity than expected.
Personally since I have a FitBit I just put myself at sedentary in MFP and on most days my regular activity as tracked by FitBit will give me extra calories for the day unless I'm really inactive.0 -
By the way, to turn on negative adjustments, go into your MFP settings > Food and Exercise Diary Settings and there is a checkbox to enable it.0
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Did you try this today? Sometimes my adjustments make no sense when I change my goal, then the next day everything's okay again.
Another thing: If you went from lightly active to sedentary maybe MFP gave you a lower deficit because the same deficit would put you under 1200. Check your daily deficit in the Goals page.0 -
@sbarella, I think you nailed it. It appears that the days needs to start with the intended setting already in place.0
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After looking into it more, I am convinced that it is not accurate. I will be given a different goal depending on what activity level I choose. This doesn't make sense, considering I allow my Fitbit to negatively adjust. No matter what I choose, my calories for the day SHOULD be based solely on my fitbit adjustment, not on my arbitrary choice.0
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Why would you choose anything other than sedentary on both
The general activity will be picked up by your fitbit
And you log exercise as exercise on MFP and it also passes over to fitbit ...important to select correct time you start and duration and if using MFP estimates half to 3/4 the calories0 -
I'm not sure if I am understanding you completely - are you saying you thought your target calories on MFP would be the same regardless of what activity level you choose? I disagree with that - because even if MFP and FitBit are synced, MFP sets a baseline goal for you based on your height, weight, activity level, and goals. So if you select sedentary, MFP thinks you burn less calories during the day, will calculate your maintenance level from that and then depending on your weight loss goals (0.5 lb/week, 1 lb/wk, etc) will subtract calories from that maintenance level to set your target. Then from there - FitBit gives you adjustments based on how many extra calories you burn above and beyond what the baseline estimate of your maintenance calories would be, which is determined by your height, weight and activity level. If you select Sedentary, you should expect bigger FitBit adjustments than if you select Lightly Active or Active.
Keep in mind too that MFP and FitBit adjust periodically throughout the day, so at the beginning of the day they are further apart from what they say I will burn by the end of the day and how many calories I have left, by the end of the day they are closer but never exactly the same.
Before I got my FitBit I had myself set at Sedentary in MFP because of my desk job. When I got my FitBit, I was getting really big adjustments to eat back, usually 400-600 cals/day. I went in and adjusted myself to lightly active, and the adjustments were more moderate, and then finally to active, and now my adjustments are only about 200 cals/day which is a more accurate estimate of my true exercise and makes it easier to plan my day. I average about 14K steps/day on my FitBit.
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But fitbit doesnt know what my activity level is. Because I am using fitbit to MEASURE my activity level rather than arbitrarily estimating it, the fitbit adjustment should leave me with the same number of calories in a given day regardless of what I THINK my activity level is.0
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Let's say that I set my MFP goal to sedentary, and end up with 1500c. Now let's say Fitbit says I have burned 1800c that same day. Fitbit would add 300 cal to make up the difference, and my goal would/SHOULD be 1800.
Now, lets say day after day, I notice the same results, so I change MFP to Lightly Active, and end up with 1800c. Then, Fitbit would just not add anything.
Now lets say I want to lose more weight, and drop my MFP goal to only 1200c, for hyperbole's sake. If fitbit is still unchanged, at 1800, it SHOULD just add 600, instead of 300 thereby canceling out any other changes and still landing at 1800.
Basically, assuming I leave my fitbit on all day, log my non-walking activities well, which I do using an HRM, then the fitbit goal should be the best possible educated estimate of my activity. Now, since I am allowing fitbit to adjust both positive and negative my MFP daily goal, the end result should be whatever the fitbit has measured, regardless of my MFP initial guess.0 -
@Kruggeri, I probably should have posed that as a question, rather than a statement. Do you see where I am coming from?0
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Yeah you are beyond my level of understanding how the two systems work. I do know I had to play with mine a little bit - to set up the goals consistently in order to get them closer to the same number at the end of the day. I also had some good advice from other more knowledgeable people on here that if you are getting big adjustments you should update your activity level so things are more accurately representing what your day to day activity is like.
I guess my one question from your examples above, is, are you burning 1800 cals/day? You mentioned being set at 1500, burning 1800, and getting a 300 cal adjustment, then changing things the next day - but the next day, did you burn 1800 again?
The way I look at it, FitBit is sort of a way to marry the TDEE approach with the MFP NEAT approach. FitBit knows my TDEE (roughly) from my calories burned. MFP calculates an estimate of my maintenance calories based on my stats and my activity level. If those two are really far apart, but I'm not "exercising" that much, then I think I need to up my activity level in MFP. What I was shooting for was getting my MFP goal to be a rough approximation of my Maintenance calories not including my exercise (which is usually just walking and some circuit training) and then the FitBit adjustment truly would be representative of my exercise.
There is a FitBit Users Group that has a lot of people that may have more insight for you, you may want to pose your questions there. I would share some concrete numbers though - such as your stats (height, weight, goal) and what you are actually seeing in the systems I think that would be helpful.
Good luck!0 -
spookiekabuki wrote: »Let's say that I set my MFP goal to sedentary, and end up with 1500c. Now let's say Fitbit says I have burned 1800c that same day. Fitbit would add 300 cal to make up the difference, and my goal would/SHOULD be 1800.
Now, lets say day after day, I notice the same results, so I change MFP to Lightly Active, and end up with 1800c. Then, Fitbit would just not add anything.
Now lets say I want to lose more weight, and drop my MFP goal to only 1200c, for hyperbole's sake. If fitbit is still unchanged, at 1800, it SHOULD just add 600, instead of 300 thereby canceling out any other changes and still landing at 1800.
Basically, assuming I leave my fitbit on all day, log my non-walking activities well, which I do using an HRM, then the fitbit goal should be the best possible educated estimate of my activity. Now, since I am allowing fitbit to adjust both positive and negative my MFP daily goal, the end result should be whatever the fitbit has measured, regardless of my MFP initial guess.
You're wrong. The calorie goal for the day on MFP is going to be based on the activity level that you choose, then as Fitbit records your activity, that goal number will increase or decrease, based on how active you are.
If you are given a calorie goal of 1500 from MFP that is based on a deficit from your TDEE - based on what you chose to lose per week (.5 lbs, 1lb, etc). For example, if you chose 1 lb per week, then it is giving you a 500 calorie deficit per day off your TDEE. So for example, let's say MFP calculates your TDEE at Sedentary to be 2000 calories, then it will give you a 1500 calorie eating goal. If your Fitbit then records your calories burned for the day to be 1800, (that is your actual TDEE for that day) then that is 200 calories LESS than what MFP thought you were going to burn, so it is going to take away 200 calories from what you can eat that day.
If you change your activity level to slightly active, that is going to increase MFP's calculationg of your TDEE. Let's just say that your TDEE is then calculates to 2500 calories.. for a 1lb per week loss, MFP will give you 2000 calories per day. (500 calorie deficit) If your Fitbit only calculates that you burned 2000 calories that day, then it is going to take away 500 calories from your MFP calorie goal, only giving you 1500 calories to eat.
This does work out exactly correct. Just look at your Fitbit, if it says you burned 2000 calories, and you are supposed to be eating at a 500 calorie deficit, then eat 1500 calories.0 -
Your calorie goal for the day is going to START off based on what MFP THINKS you are going to burn, and is going to END with what FITBIT calculated that you ACTUALLY burned.spookiekabuki wrote: »After looking into it more, I am convinced that it is not accurate. I will be given a different goal depending on what activity level I choose. This doesn't make sense, considering I allow my Fitbit to negatively adjust. No matter what I choose, my calories for the day SHOULD be based solely on my fitbit adjustment, not on my arbitrary choice.
MFP needs to start with a calorie goal and then fitbit adjusts that goal as you burn calories. So yes, the goal is going to change if you select a different activity level, but at the end of the day, you will end up eating at a deficit from what Fitbit says you burned.
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I understand how it currently works. I am suggesting that it doesn't work properly. Fitbit knows my age and weight, and then it measures my activity. With all of that, it would make more sense to override the MFP activity level. I dont know what my MFP activity level is. I have an office job, but I am also VERY active out of work most days, moderately active some, and less active others.0
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then you'd probably want to post that on the suggestion board... they'd have to make some kind of setting where you could "Turn off" MFP's TDEE estimation and tell it to use Fitbit's calculation (maybe based off past averages).spookiekabuki wrote: »I understand how it currently works. I am suggesting that it doesn't work properly. Fitbit knows my age and weight, and then it measures my activity. With all of that, it would make more sense to override the MFP activity level. I dont know what my MFP activity level is. I have an office job, but I am also VERY active out of work most days, moderately active some, and less active others.
You should be able to figure out what MFP activity level to set it to, based on the the average number of calories you are burning with Fitbit.
If it looks like you are usually burning around 2000 calories and you are always ending up with a bunch of extra calories to eat at the end of the day, then increase your MFP level until you get a closer number to begin the day with.0 -
@CM9178, I tested this at the end of the day. I thought that might be the case, but even at the end of the day, you end up with two different results.
Am I alone in thinking that your fitbit activity should dictate your daily goal, regardless of the base activity level you set?0 -
You end up with two different results as far as what??
You should always be eating at a deficit from your TDEE. If you set your goal to lose 1 lb per week, then the deficit is 500 calories per day.
Your fitbit is calculating your TDEE, sending it to MFP and determing how many calories you should eat. It works correctly, so you must be doing something wrong or have something set wrong somewhere.
If you want Fitbit to set your daily goal from the beginning of the day, then just use fitbit for tracking your food and calories and stop using MyFitnessPal.
Otherwise, it just doesn't work that way. In the end, it DOES determine your daily calorie goal, by the end of the day.0 -
Go to your Exercise Tab, and click on the "I" icon next to the Fitbit Adjustment.
it will first show you the number of calories Fitbit thinks you are going to burn - based on the time of day and how much you've burned so far.
- Next it shows you the TDEE that MFP calculates based on the activity level you have set.
- It then determines the adjustment number and either adds or subtracts that from your calorie goal.
- For example, for me today, My Fitbit projection is 1669 as of right now.
- My TDEE from MFP (based on sedentary) is 1835.
- So as of right now, it is subtracting 166 calories from my calorie goal for the day.
- Once I workout later, it will adjust that number.
If I had MFP set to a higher activity level, the expected TDEE would be higher than 1835. The fitbit adjustment would still work out to be the same, regardless of what activity level you have selected here. (I'd have a higher calorie goal on MFP, and then it would subtract more than 166 to accomodate for the difference, so I'd still end up with the same goal calories).0 -
@CM9178, the point is, I AM using fitbit, so it shouldn't matter what I set my TDEE in MFP to.
At the end of the day, whether I set it (aka guessed) that I was sedentary, or lightly active, or whichever, fitbit should then sync, and basically tell MFP how much I ACTUALLY burned, and then compare it to what MFP says I ate.0 -
spookiekabuki wrote: »@CM9178, the point is, I AM using fitbit, so it shouldn't matter what I set my TDEE in MFP to.
At the end of the day, whether I set it (aka guessed) that I was sedentary, or lightly active, or whichever, fitbit should then sync, and basically tell MFP how much I ACTUALLY burned, and then compare it to what MFP says I ate.
That's exactly what Fitbit does.
Do you have Negative Calories enabled?0 -
RIGHT!!!!!!
The the problem is that the numbers change. I tested both activity levels, and the calories left changes. That shouldn't happen.0 -
spookiekabuki wrote: »RIGHT!!!!!!
The the problem is that the numbers change. I tested both activity levels, and the calories left changes. That shouldn't happen.
Are you seeing a fitbit calorie adjustment under Excercise?0 -
Yes. The integration works, in a data transfer sense. The question I have been trying to answer is why there are different outcomes depending on what activity level I choose.0
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spookiekabuki wrote: »Yes. The integration works, in a data transfer sense. The question I have been trying to answer is why there are different outcomes depending on what activity level I choose.
There shouldn't be, that's why I'm asking you two things:
Do you see a fitbit calorie adjustment under exercise?
Do you have negative calories enabled?0 -
Yes for both. Like I said, the integration works in that data transfers. fitbit will receive my logged activities, and MFP will receive an update from fitbit, both positive and negative.0
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spookiekabuki wrote: »Yes for both. Like I said, the integration works in that data transfers. fitbit will receive my logged activities, and MFP will receive an update from fitbit, both positive and negative.
What activity level do you have MFP set to right now?
What is the TDEE MFP is giving you at that level?
how many calories does it say you have remaining?
What is the fitbit adjustment number right now?0 -
set to lightly active, which i am considering changing. I have a desk job, but I also am highly active (running, biking, kettlebell training, and I walk everywhere when im not at work).
2,440 cal/day and then a 1000c deficit
193 remaining (ive eaten 1,251 and fitbit has given me back4 so far)
fb adjustment is +40 -
@spookiekabuki I still don't understand what is changing when you say the numbers change? Your starting numbers on MFP or ending numbers or both? Or are you saying the two different systems have different numbers?
I think you might be overanalyzing (and believe me I'm analytical too). Based on what you've described, I would set things at lightly active, make sure both systems have the same goal ( 2 lbs/ wk, how many are you trying to lose?) And give it a few weeks while you monitor the results. If you aren't losing, set a custom goal in MFP that is about 20% off your tdee from a couple weeks of fitbit data.0 -
spookiekabuki wrote: »set to lightly active, which i am considering changing. I have a desk job, but I also am highly active (running, biking, kettlebell training, and I walk everywhere when im not at work).
2,440 cal/day and then a 1000c deficit
193 remaining (ive eaten 1,251 and fitbit has given me back4 so far)
fb adjustment is +4
So at Lightly Active, MFP thinks you are going to burn 2440 calories per day and I'm guessing you have it set to a 2lb per week loss, hence the 1000 calorie deficit.
So your daily goal is then 1440 on MFP.
Now, when you look under Exercise at the Fitbit adjustment, what does it say Fitbit is predicting you are going to burn today (as of right now)? It should show 2444 if it is giving you 4 calories... (and how many calories have you burned so far today?)
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I believe he is saying that if he changes his activity level on MFP, Fitbit isn't correctly adjusting the calorie goal based on what he's burn.. this is what I'm trying to figure out.@spookiekabuki I still don't understand what is changing when you say the numbers change? Your starting numbers on MFP or ending numbers or both? Or are you saying the two different systems have different numbers?
I think you might be overanalyzing (and believe me I'm analytical too). Based on what you've described, I would set things at lightly active, make sure both systems have the same goal ( 2 lbs/ wk, how many are you trying to lose?) And give it a few weeks while you monitor the results. If you aren't losing, set a custom goal in MFP that is about 20% off your tdee from a couple weeks of fitbit data.
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