Considering giving up on fitbit
PussyKat
Posts: 69 Member
Hi,
I have a fitbit zip. It syncs with MFP, but means that MFP gives me really inflated numbers for the calories I have burned everyday. I understand that it alters its prediction of your daily burn based on your activity as you go through the day, but I'm not sure this works for my lifestyle. I am pretty sedentary apart from 1 - 2 hours (usually midday) when I tend to work out. So after this exercise, MFP way overestimates my calorie goal for the rest of the day, saying I have burned 1000+ calories through exercise when I know I can only have burned half that. It doesn't seem to readjust much as the day goes on and I am not being active.
Am I using this thing right? I have tried adding my exercise into MFP with the correct times, but the calorie adjustment it gives MFP is still way too high. I have tried not weaing the fitbit when I am working out (still manually adding exercise into MFP), but then fitbit's adjustment subtracts all of my exercise calories.
I'm just not sure what the point of fitbit is. If I go for a walk, the calories it thinks that I have burned seem way too high to be realistic....it can't seem to differentiate between brisk walking and more vigorous activity. I get that it tells me approximately how active I am throughout the rest of the day, but this is information I already knew from working out my BMR.
So, are there any more experienced fitbitters who could offer guidance, or should I just send this thing back?
I have a fitbit zip. It syncs with MFP, but means that MFP gives me really inflated numbers for the calories I have burned everyday. I understand that it alters its prediction of your daily burn based on your activity as you go through the day, but I'm not sure this works for my lifestyle. I am pretty sedentary apart from 1 - 2 hours (usually midday) when I tend to work out. So after this exercise, MFP way overestimates my calorie goal for the rest of the day, saying I have burned 1000+ calories through exercise when I know I can only have burned half that. It doesn't seem to readjust much as the day goes on and I am not being active.
Am I using this thing right? I have tried adding my exercise into MFP with the correct times, but the calorie adjustment it gives MFP is still way too high. I have tried not weaing the fitbit when I am working out (still manually adding exercise into MFP), but then fitbit's adjustment subtracts all of my exercise calories.
I'm just not sure what the point of fitbit is. If I go for a walk, the calories it thinks that I have burned seem way too high to be realistic....it can't seem to differentiate between brisk walking and more vigorous activity. I get that it tells me approximately how active I am throughout the rest of the day, but this is information I already knew from working out my BMR.
So, are there any more experienced fitbitters who could offer guidance, or should I just send this thing back?
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Replies
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You are using it right, but expecting something else.
MFP receives from Fitbit your burn up to the point they sync, which could be much more frequently than your device syncs to Fitbit for updated stats.
If you have Fitbit Setting Calorie Estimation enabled, historical days' values are used to estimate the daily burn at those account sync times until such time a device sync happens.
So Fitbit could be reporting to MFP inflated calorie burn based on what it estimates the day will be, and up until that point in the day. MFP then does it's own math for the whole day.
You probably also have no actual knowledge of calorie burns, and are thinking things look high.
Your BMR has NO bearing on rest of the day, well, if you wake up and move around. Perhaps you aren't as sedentary as you think.
Also know the calorie adjustment on MFP is NOT just exercise calories extra, it's merely the difference between what MFP thought you'd burn with NO exercise, and what Fitbit is reporting you have burned up to that point which may or may not include exercise, adjusted for the day as a whole.
Curious, based on what do you think your calorie burn walking should be?0 -
Hi,
I have a fitbit zip. It syncs with MFP, but means that MFP gives me really inflated numbers for the calories I have burned everyday. I understand that it alters its prediction of your daily burn based on your activity as you go through the day, but I'm not sure this works for my lifestyle. I am pretty sedentary apart from 1 - 2 hours (usually midday) when I tend to work out. So after this exercise, MFP way overestimates my calorie goal for the rest of the day, saying I have burned 1000+ calories through exercise when I know I can only have burned half that. It doesn't seem to readjust much as the day goes on and I am not being active.
Am I using this thing right? I have tried adding my exercise into MFP with the correct times, but the calorie adjustment it gives MFP is still way too high. I have tried not weaing the fitbit when I am working out (still manually adding exercise into MFP), but then fitbit's adjustment subtracts all of my exercise calories.
I'm just not sure what the point of fitbit is. If I go for a walk, the calories it thinks that I have burned seem way too high to be realistic....it can't seem to differentiate between brisk walking and more vigorous activity. I get that it tells me approximately how active I am throughout the rest of the day, but this is information I already knew from working out my BMR.
So, are there any more experienced fitbitters who could offer guidance, or should I just send this thing back?
BMR = Calories you burn just laying in bed all day. If you get up and walk to the bathroom, to the kitchen, go shopping, ect, you will burn more than your BMR in a day.
I trust my fitbit for walking and running calorie burns. I have had mine for about a year and a half. I log my exercise DVD's with 80% of the calories reported from my HRM. Fitbit estimates that for the past 30 days my average TDEE has been 2455. I know from how much weight I've lost and my average calorie intake for the past 30 days that my average TDEE is actually around 2600. Now compare that to the fact that MFP estimates that I'm only going to burn around 1900 calories per day. So my adjustments average out to be about 500 calories (some days more, some days less and some days fitbit is mean, taking away calories). I rarely if ever get 500 calories worth of "dedicated exercise", but I am however more active than MFP thinks which is why I get the extra calories.0 -
The TDEE shown on the fitbit dashboard usually looks realistic to me...2000 - 2100 calories, if I have worked out which I do most days. But then MFP tells me that my 'daily goal' to eat is in the 1900s, which would give me a really small deficit. I'm currently aiming for a 500 calorie daily deficit. So I eat closer to 1400 - 1500 calories, but MFP thinks I am way under my calorie goal and "if every day were like today, you'd weigh [very low amount] in 5 weeks". I feel guilty, like I am deceiving MFP!
For estimating calories burned when walking, I use MFP and other online calculators (e.g. http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/walking-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx). This week, I went for a 2-hour walk; I walk fairly briskly, and these calculators indicate that I would burn about 400 calories by walking for two hours. However, fitbit said that I had burned 1000 calories in this time.
Of course, during the two hours my body will burn calories just to keep me alive (My BMR is about 1330, so throw in an extra 110 calories, about 510 altogether for the 2 hours). Fitbit's estimation is still double what I would have expected, which makes me unsure of how accurate it is for monitoring this kind of activity.0 -
Why do you think fitbit gave you 1000 calories for that walk?
Fitbit adjustments are:
Fitbit Total Estimated Calorie Burn* - MFP Estimated Daily Burn Before Exercise = Adjustment
*This number will move up and down, based on the calorie burn as of your last sync. Fitbit doesn't decide what calories to give you on MFP. Fitbit tells MFP, hey this person has burned XXXX calories so far today and MFP takes that information, estimates what fitbit is going to say by the end of the day to come up with an adjustment.
Go to your fitbit dashboard. At the top click "Log", then click "Activity". Towards the bottom create an Activity Record for the time you were on your walk and you will see how many calories Fitbit gave you for that time period.
Also, go into settings and make sure "calorie estimation" is disabled.
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Hey, thanks for the reply. When I went for the walk, I looked at my fitbit device before and after and it read 1000 calories higher afterwards. I have just been on my activity log for that day to double check, and it says I burned about 40 - 43 calories during each 5 minute segment of the walk, so about 1000 in total. This just cannot be right.
Calorie estimation is already disabled.
Today, I have been sedentary apart from a two-hour period in which I probably burned about 590 calories in exercise (according to MFP exercise calculators). I have logged the exercise on MFP with the correct times. MFP is now telling me that I have burned 1369 extra calories in exercise. The adjustment might decrease slightly by the end of the day if I continue to be sedentary, but not by much. I'm just quite confused really - it doesn't seem like my fitbit and MFP account work that well together.
Right now, MFP reckons that I could eat a total of 2569 calories today, and still have a deficit of 440 calories. As much as I wish this were true, it definitely isn't.
I acknowledge that I may be being a bit stupid here (and a bit mistrusting of fitbit's ability to accurately estimate activity as it doesn't detect heartrate).
I've also just looked at my fitbit activity log for today, and apparently I was being very active between 4 and 5 am this morning, when I was asleep and not wearing it.0 -
I would double check your weight/height/gender/timezone stats on Fitbit. Something doesn't sound right. If everything in settings looks right, contact Fitbit's customer service. It's possible yours is defective.
I'm 5'4 and 169lbs, so pretty overweight and I still only get 64 calories per hour of inactivity. And for walks, well I got 466 calories the other day for a 5 mile walk (1hr 50mins). Based on that it would take me traveling at least 10 miles at a similar speed to get 1000 calories from walking.
edit: Oh and you might want to check with fitbit connect on your pc to see if your Zip has an update. I know that back when I was using a Zip (currently using Flex) there was an update that needed to be applied the day I got it. So you might want to check that as well.0 -
The TDEE shown on the fitbit dashboard usually looks realistic to me...2000 - 2100 calories, if I have worked out which I do most days. But then MFP tells me that my 'daily goal' to eat is in the 1900s, which would give me a really small deficit. I'm currently aiming for a 500 calorie daily deficit. So I eat closer to 1400 - 1500 calories, but MFP thinks I am way under my calorie goal and "if every day were like today, you'd weigh [very low amount] in 5 weeks". I feel guilty, like I am deceiving MFP!
For estimating calories burned when walking, I use MFP and other online calculators (e.g. http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/walking-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx). This week, I went for a 2-hour walk; I walk fairly briskly, and these calculators indicate that I would burn about 400 calories by walking for two hours. However, fitbit said that I had burned 1000 calories in this time.
Of course, during the two hours my body will burn calories just to keep me alive (My BMR is about 1330, so throw in an extra 110 calories, about 510 altogether for the 2 hours). Fitbit's estimation is still double what I would have expected, which makes me unsure of how accurate it is for monitoring this kind of activity.
Here's the confusing part though.
That realistic 2000-2100 is being given to MFP as your burn.
MFP takes that minus what it thought you'd burn with no exercise.
What weight loss goal do you have set in MFP?
Ditto to fact your device has something wrong perhaps.
Since it is estimating calories burned for walking based on weight and pace, and pace is distance and time - what distance did it think you walked compared to what you really walked that you are using in those calc's?
Could just be stride length really off, or step count really bad and it thought you did more distance in given time than you did, hence bigger calorie burn.
And don't worry about removing BMR from your estimates, HRM, database entries, Fitbit, ect, all include your resting calorie burn in what you burned during that time.
In fact if you have a better estimate and wanted to replace Fitbit calorie burn - you better include the BMR calories because that is correct way of doing it.0
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