That's not how it works. You get a Fitbit calorie adjustment under "Exercise" for the difference between your Fitbit burn (which is your TDEE) and your MFP activity level.

If you don't have an adjustment, then you've burned fewer calories than your activity level. Enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

If you still don't get an adjustment, verify your accounts are connected: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit

Hi dsimmons and editorgrrl- can I just confirm something with you?

If I wear my Flex when doing a run and use MapMyFitness, which then in turn syncs with MyFitnessPal, will Fitbit recognise that I've been doing exercise and stop counting steps?

i.e. will it know not to double account for my activity (steps AND exercise)?

Just to be clear, you're saying it doesn't double count, right?

thanks
Jon

jbraby72 wrote: »

I was trying this in the gym today where I just ran with my flex on, it actually calculated the distance pretty close to the running machine so I just left it at that. I added the excercise manually into MyFitnessPal fitness section and it did adjust the excercise I entered away from the the steps from fitbit.

editorgrrl wrote: »

That's not how it works. You get a Fitbit calorie adjustment under "Exercise" for the difference between your Fitbit burn (which is your TDEE) and your MFP activity level.

If you don't have an adjustment, then you've burned fewer calories than your activity level. Enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

If you still don't get an adjustment, verify your accounts are connected: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit

I don't know what a TDEE is & I don't have a degree in mathematics. All I know is this is WAY too complicated. I'm just going to try to eat less & exercise more. If I weigh less in a few months I'll know that worked.

Best of luck to all of you!

MaryinColorado wrote: »

editorgrrl wrote: »

That's not how it works. You get a Fitbit calorie adjustment under "Exercise" for the difference between your Fitbit burn (which is your TDEE) and your MFP activity level.

If you don't have an adjustment, then you've burned fewer calories than your activity level. Enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

If you still don't get an adjustment, verify your accounts are connected: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit

I don't know what a TDEE is & I don't have a degree in mathematics. All I know is this is WAY too complicated. I'm just going to try to eat less & exercise more. If I weigh less in a few months I'll know that worked.

Best of luck to all of you!

Not really that complicated.

How will you know you are eating less, and exercising more?

By logging, one or both?

Just got more complicated. But very true, your method works wonders with no need for any extra devices or logging. Merely find 250 calories daily you can stop eating that you normally would.
Then start exercising.
Done.

captjac97, I love the elliptical as well. I'm logging it in fitbit, although I don't think you "have" to as your steps increase anyway. If you look at fitbit dashboard, you'll see it doesn't add additional steps for logging - which is perfect.
I'm also curious if it's "OK" to include my exercise in my step goal. If I don't, some days I would do terribly

captjac97 wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

Does not.

In fact, if a workout syncs from MFP or other app/site, directly to Fitbit, it only replaces the calories, not the distance or steps.

But if you manually log it in Fitbit, it replaces all 3 for walking and running only.
All other activities manually logged, it's as if synced in, only calories is replaced.

My question is the same...Only I love the elliptical.. Do I log in MFP or Fitbit? Does the elliptical count as steps or exercise? Do I want to get my steps (10,000 goal) and do elliptical and other exercise on top of steps? Need advice here...

Log in Fitbit. If the machine has your weight entered in (best to do that anyway), then use it's calorie burn estimate. Otherwise select intensity Fitbit offers.

There is no steps "or" exercise. Steps receives a calorie count based on distance estimated based on stride length.

Not really sure on question there.

If wearing the device, usually an inaccurate low-ball step count will be seen on the elliptical.

Your choice if you want exercise "steps" to count towards daily activity steps. Some do take it off for workouts, only wanting to track daily steps to get an idea of staying active. Exercise being it's own goals. Those folks usually don't do competitions, but recognize the better benefit of exercise over merely attempting to get steps for a contest.

Chica650 wrote: »

I'm soon confused! I read somewhere on here that to only log exercise in MFP AND to not count step-based exercise b/c Fitbit already counts those...now I'm reading something totally different??

Yesterday I walked for a mile and did the elliptical for a mile. Should I have logged all of that in MFP? Or no? I did and it told me that I could eat up to 2000 calories. I didn't feel that was accurate, so I only ate my 1300 calories (actually, 1500 b/c I figured that I had a calorie deficit of 200 w/the exercise). I know that in the past, I've had the problem of not losing weight b/c I wasn't eating ENOUGH and I just want to find the balance that I need to start losing again.

Here's how logging ANY exercise in MFP when syncing with a Fitbit really works:

Let's say that you are using the elliptical for 30 minutes. You start at 5:04pm and end at 5:34pm. During that half hour, Fitbit counts 2,000 steps for you, and says that you burned 200 calories in that time (I am TOTALLY making up numbers, this is just an example, I have absolutely no idea how many steps or calories one might actually earn. Also applies to any following numbers).

However, regardless of whether or not your step count is accurate (somewhat irrelevant in this particular scenario unless you're REALLY super worked up about knowing exactly how many steps you take every single day, including all exercise), you believe that you actually burned 350 calories - could be based on what the elliptical tells you, or your heart rate monitor, or whatever you think is more accurate than your Fitbit. Therefore, you would go into MFP and log an exercise. You would make sure to enter the exactly correct start time and duration (this is why logging an "activity" using your Fitbit is recommended and very useful here: in case you don't remember the exact time/duration, you can see it in your Fitbit account), and tell MFP that you burned 350 calories in 30 minutes starting at 5:04pm. MFP would then sync that information over to Fitbit, where it would REPLACE whatever Fitbit thought you were doing for those 30 minutes. It would add 350 calories to your daily burn, but it would also remove the original 200. (I honestly can't remember if it will remove those 2,000 steps as well - I rarely log activities. I think it does, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.)

So, in the case where the step count captured by Fitbit is more or less accurate (most "step-based" activities such as walking or running), you're probably best off just letting Fitbit do the work. For other cardio where you're working harder than your steps might indicate (elliptical, biking, incline running, Zumba, whatever), it's up to you if you want to override that. Typically Fitbit is going to underestimate that stuff, so I tend to just leave it and consider any extra effort a bonus, but it's personal preference.

Also, as long as the exercise calories you logged in MFP are accurate, and as long as you entered accurate start times and durations, your calorie goal should be accurate (up to the point your original settings were accurate, and within whatever margin of error due to various estimations, at least).

So... If I walk/run on the treadmill does turning the activity timer on matter? I started on the treadmill yesterday and forgot to turn the timer on until 12 min into my activity. I didn't change my log at all. Should I have?

I'd suggest if you are using the activity tracking function - while you are already there in Fitbit looking at start time and duration, just manually log the workout in Fitbit with your better calorie burn figure.

There are always enough syncing issues that adding one more back and forth to the syncing by doing it in MFP is asking for issues for the majority.

newmein16 wrote: »

So... If I walk/run on the treadmill does turning the activity timer on matter? I started on the treadmill yesterday and forgot to turn the timer on until 12 min into my activity. I didn't change my log at all. Should I have?

It merely lets you separate the block of time on Fitbit as a workout for later review. Otherwise the increased steps and calorie burn are just there in the day.

But if you are going to manually log a non-step based workout, then it can be useful too for letting you know the start time to use.

Like you, I've many times done a set of warm up squats and then realize I forgot to notice the time, and with the Zip I have no activity timer to use, I gotta remember.