Should I track exercise through MFP or Fitbit??
wils424
Posts: 4
I do the elliptical machine for 30 minutes every night. Should I manually add this to MFP or let Fitbit track it? If I do both, than I'm double dipping, correct?
Not sure if the Fitbit is tracking my exercise on the elliptical - is this considered a "step" workout?
Thanks!
Not sure if the Fitbit is tracking my exercise on the elliptical - is this considered a "step" workout?
Thanks!
0
Replies
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MFP but cut the database calorie allowance to 50 - 75%0
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I track my fitness on MFP. I allow it to give me an adjustment. So the exercise is logged on MFP but the calories are not and that is ok because I do not eat back my exercise calories.
If you do keep up with the exercise calories MFP gives you, do not allow your device to allow negative adjustment.
It's not doubling any thing.1 -
Hi ladies, thank you so much for the tips! However, I'm a newbie and am still learning all the lingo.
rabbitjb: where can I access the database calorie allowance and why would I want to set it to 50-75%?
gia07: You said that you allow MFP to give you an adjustment, but then you said the calories are not tracked?? If MFP gives you an adjustment, doesn't it have to track calories? And what do you mean by "keeping up with the exercise calories in MFP?
Thank you!!0 -
MFP WAAY overestimates the calories you burn during exercise. It's a serious flaw in the program. You will need to adjust the calories burned when you input the length of time you exercised. I use a pedometer that takes into account my age, weight, height etc to estimate the calories I burn on my treadmill. It's always about 60% lower than MFP's estimate for the same exercise. So I use what my pedometer says. You're better off to over estimate the calories you are eating and under estimate the calories you burn.0
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Hi ladies, thank you so much for the tips! However, I'm a newbie and am still learning all the lingo.
rabbitjb: where can I access the database calorie allowance and why would I want to set it to 50-75%?
gia07: You said that you allow MFP to give you an adjustment, but then you said the calories are not tracked?? If MFP gives you an adjustment, doesn't it have to track calories? And what do you mean by "keeping up with the exercise calories in MFP?
Thank you!!
This is a bit complicated. Here is what happens. I log exercise in Fitbug. I also log my exercise in MFP. Fitbug talks to MFP and makes a negative adjustment so the exercise calories I burned are not available (on my nutrition diary page) as giving me extra calories to eat for the day.
I log my exercise acurrately based on the exact calories burn from my equipments computer and also HR -- blah blah.
The exercise is logged on MFP to see that I exercised but it just will not show as additional calories to eat on the food tab.
But if you take off the negative allowance on your diary settings it changes it from a negative to a positive and will allow the calories to be on your daily diary. I do not eat my calories for the day but I can go back and see that I exercised.
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I do the elliptical machine for 30 minutes every night. Should I manually add this to MFP or let Fitbit track it? If I do both, than I'm double dipping, correct?
Not sure if the Fitbit is tracking my exercise on the elliptical - is this considered a "step" workout?
Thanks!
If you log the exercise onto MFP for the same time you actually did it, Fitbit does not double dip. Any burn from logged exercise will be the default over any burn from steps. Basically, it ignores steps taken (except to add to the overall count).
ETA: my MFP is set to NOT allow negative adjustments. This means that calories are not taken away if I am not active that day. I only get positive calorie credit and that happens only after I get a certain number of very active minutes in, or if I manually log my exercise. My calorie goal is set to sedentary, which is what I am when I am not working out so I eat my goal plus about half of my exercise calories earned.
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Fitbit states in their FAQ that elliptical workouts will need to be manually logged.
You can pick to log it on here or on Fitbit.com. It really doesn't matter. The main differences are:- Logging on Fitbit : Won't show up in exercise diary here.
- Logging on Fitbit : Won't announce in your newsfeed that you worked out
- Logging on MFP : Shows up in exercise diary
- Logging on MFP : Gets transferred to Fitbit ***sometimes glitches and changes the start time***
- Logging on MFP : Shows up in news feed
Logging only 50-75% of the calories that MFP gives you is because that MFP does overestimate sometimes and this gives you room for errors.
The adjustments on MFP will be:
Fitbit tracked Calories Burned - MFP Estimated Calories Burned = +/- adjustment
The breakdown of each is:
Fitbit: BMR + tracked daily activity + exercise
MFP : BMR + estimated activity calories based on activity level selection + exercise
With negative adjustments enabled, you will lose calories on days where Fitbit has tracked you at a smaller calorie burn than MFP's estimate. For example, if your MFP daily activity level is set to Active, but Fitbit only tracked you as lightly active, then you will lose calories if negative adjustments is enabled. This applies even if you exercise. For example:
2000 (MFP estimate before exercise) + 400 (exercise) = 2400
1800 (Fitbit tracked before exercise) + 400 (exercise) = 2200
In this case with negative adjustments enabled you would lose 200 calories, because your activity level before exercise was lower than what you told MFP it would be.2 -
Archerychickge wrote: »MFP WAAY overestimates the calories you burn during exercise. It's a serious flaw in the program. You will need to adjust the calories burned when you input the length of time you exercised. I use a pedometer that takes into account my age, weight, height etc to estimate the calories I burn on my treadmill. It's always about 605 lower than MFP's estimate for the same exercise. So I use what my pedometer says. You're better off to over estimate the calories you are eating and under estimate the calories you burn.
And to add:
I never use MFP exercise calories per minute. I manually adjust MFP calories to be the same as my Fitbug calorie burn but I put in that calorie burn based on my computer and HR. I do geeky spreadsheets and stuff so pardon my methods of doing things.
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Hi ladies, thank you so much for the tips! However, I'm a newbie and am still learning all the lingo.
rabbitjb: where can I access the database calorie allowance and why would I want to set it to 50-75%?
Thank you!!
You can't actually set it. Just pay attention to the calories earned and eat back only 50-75% of them. MFP's burn estimates tend to be a bit high so that offsets any errors.
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Archerychickge wrote: »MFP WAAY overestimates the calories you burn during exercise. It's a serious flaw in the program. You will need to adjust the calories burned when you input the length of time you exercised. I use a pedometer that takes into account my age, weight, height etc to estimate the calories I burn on my treadmill. It's always about 605 lower than MFP's estimate for the same exercise. So I use what my pedometer says. You're better off to over estimate the calories you are eating and under estimate the calories you burn.
And to add:
I never use MFP exercise calories per minute. I manually adjust MFP calories to be the same as my Fitbug calorie burn but I put in that calorie burn based on my computer and HR. I do geeky spreadsheets and stuff so pardon my methods of doing things.
Yeah you make ALOT more effort at it than I do! lol
Like I said, if you over estimate the calories you eat and underestimate the calories you burn, you'll be fine.1 -
Archerychickge wrote: »MFP WAAY overestimates the calories you burn during exercise. It's a serious flaw in the program. You will need to adjust the calories burned when you input the length of time you exercised. I use a pedometer that takes into account my age, weight, height etc to estimate the calories I burn on my treadmill. It's always about 605 lower than MFP's estimate for the same exercise. So I use what my pedometer says. You're better off to over estimate the calories you are eating and under estimate the calories you burn.
I have found that it depends on the exercise. Using the same info on different calculators and a HRM, I get interesting numbers. I have found that MFP is the least accurate for walking. It is the most accurate for swimming. Biking was kind of in the middle and so was working on a crosstrainer.
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You can actually alter the MFP calorie burns, I do it all the time, when I log my exercise thats not step related on here (and therefore Fitbit doesn't know that I've undertaken an activity), Mfp gives me a certain amount of calories burned but I edit that and put in a lower and more accurate figure.Hi ladies, thank you so much for the tips! However, I'm a newbie and am still learning all the lingo.
rabbitjb: where can I access the database calorie allowance and why would I want to set it to 50-75%?
Thank you!!
You can't actually set it. Just pay attention to the calories earned and eat back only 50-75% of them. MFP's burn estimates tend to be a bit high so that offsets any errors.
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LOL, these responses show that there are different ways to log and monitor your calories burned. The main thing is to pick one way, understand the info it is giving you, and stick to it. The only thing you shouldn't do is log your exercise into both websites. Choose one and only use that. They do talk to each other and if you are accurate in your logging you will not get extra credit.3
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RunRutheeRun wrote: »
You can actually alter the MFP calorie burns, I do it all the time, when I log my exercise thats not step related on here (and therefore Fitbit doesn't know that I've undertaken an activity), Mfp gives me a certain amount of calories burned but I edit that and put in a lower and more accurate figure.Hi ladies, thank you so much for the tips! However, I'm a newbie and am still learning all the lingo.
rabbitjb: where can I access the database calorie allowance and why would I want to set it to 50-75%?
Thank you!!
You can't actually set it. Just pay attention to the calories earned and eat back only 50-75% of them. MFP's burn estimates tend to be a bit high so that offsets any errors.
Way too much work. I look at my calories earned and if it says 400, I know I can eat back up to 300 of them.
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Biking has never been accurate. As a matter of fact I can Bike 5 miles and have a 40% overestimation.
The elliptical trainer... forget that.. I never never is even close. Atleast MFP lets you override their calculations.
And I do a lot of work that most people don't because I set this stuff up when I learned about BMR, TDEE, EAT, NEAT, etc...
I did not know a lot about anything 3 months ago.
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LOL well yeah that works, I'm just a bit OTT about not wanting to overestimate cals so prefer to SEE the numbers :-DRunRutheeRun wrote: »
You can actually alter the MFP calorie burns, I do it all the time, when I log my exercise thats not step related on here (and therefore Fitbit doesn't know that I've undertaken an activity), Mfp gives me a certain amount of calories burned but I edit that and put in a lower and more accurate figure.Hi ladies, thank you so much for the tips! However, I'm a newbie and am still learning all the lingo.
rabbitjb: where can I access the database calorie allowance and why would I want to set it to 50-75%?
Thank you!!
You can't actually set it. Just pay attention to the calories earned and eat back only 50-75% of them. MFP's burn estimates tend to be a bit high so that offsets any errors.
Way too much work. I look at my calories earned and if it says 400, I know I can eat back up to 300 of them.
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LOL well yeah that works, I'm just a bit OTT about not wanting to overestimate cals so prefer to SEE the numbers :-D
[/quote]
Me Too!
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OK Im not logging any exercise (i run) but i thought my fitbit just automatically transferred the calories burned throughout the day to MFP? Do I add my exercise on MFP because then wouldnt the calories burned be off? im so confused
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Biking has never been accurate. As a matter of fact I can Bike 5 miles and have a 40% overestimation.
The elliptical trainer... forget that.. I never never is even close. Atleast MFP lets you override their calculations.
And I do a lot of work that most people don't because I set this stuff up when I learned about BMR, TDEE, EAT, NEAT, etc...
I did not know a lot about anything 3 months ago.
knowledge is power
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I no longer log my exercises (cardio) into MFP because of the overestimate on the burn. I also do not log my exercise into my fitbit. I just let my fitbit calculate my steps per day/calorie burn and it syncs to MFP. However, after reading this thread, I think I may be doing it wrong.1
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if you run then you are absolutely right, Fitbit does the work for youOK Im not logging any exercise (i run) but i thought my fitbit just automatically transferred the calories burned throughout the day to MFP? Do I add my exercise on MFP because then wouldnt the calories burned be off? im so confused if you did log it, it would add on to the steps you've done and double them up. You're doing things right. Logging is only necessary for non step related workouts, ie biking, strength training, circuit training etc
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It depends on the activity, see my reply above ^^I no longer log my exercises (cardio) into MFP because of the overestimate on the burn. I also do not log my exercise into my fitbit. I just let my fitbit calculate my steps per day/calorie burn and it syncs to MFP. However, after reading this thread, I think I may be doing it wrong.
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Just know that I do my very differently than others. I put the negative on mine so it will NOT add the calorie burn for me to eat it back. But for looking back at a later time, I can see that I exercised on a particular day (on the Exercise Tab)
I am a bit OCD and I do not want it showing the calorie burn on my Food Tab or I might just go ahead and eat those calories I burned. I am a foodie at heart! LOL
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RunRutheeRun wrote: »
It depends on the activity, see my reply above ^^I no longer log my exercises (cardio) into MFP because of the overestimate on the burn. I also do not log my exercise into my fitbit. I just let my fitbit calculate my steps per day/calorie burn and it syncs to MFP. However, after reading this thread, I think I may be doing it wrong.
Perfect, this is what I assumed. Thanks for your response. 0 -
i prefer writing it down on paper or on a calendar. if ur going electronic use myfitnesspal. i think the calories burnt for elliptical is more accurate0
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I'm relatively new to all of this too and from what I've been reading, calorie burn counting may be more art than science. I agree the MFP numbers seem a bit random and have no way to count for exertion level. (I can do the same described workout two days in a row, but move at different rates.) Plus it doesn't seem to allow for most of my personal workout.
I did use a Nike Fuel to compare calories burned for a few workouts and found some were OK and some pretty far off. (But I suspect the Fuel calorie count is similarly a bit voodoo.)
you might try to compare what your Fitbit tells you v. what MFP suggests and then modify accordingly.
It seems to me that all of this isn't quite exact, but more about managing your behaviors around the trends and overall levels, and that these various tools are most useful to gain overall perspective rather than worrying every last calorie.0 -
no probsRunRutheeRun wrote: »
It depends on the activity, see my reply above ^^I no longer log my exercises (cardio) into MFP because of the overestimate on the burn. I also do not log my exercise into my fitbit. I just let my fitbit calculate my steps per day/calorie burn and it syncs to MFP. However, after reading this thread, I think I may be doing it wrong.
Perfect, this is what I assumed. Thanks for your response.
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burnsjulia wrote: »I'm relatively new to all of this too and from what I've been reading, calorie burn counting may be more art than science. I agree the MFP numbers seem a bit random and have no way to count for exertion level. (I can do the same described workout two days in a row, but move at different rates.) Plus it doesn't seem to allow for most of my personal workout.
I did use a Nike Fuel to compare calories burned for a few workouts and found some were OK and some pretty far off. (But I suspect the Fuel calorie count is similarly a bit voodoo.)
you might try to compare what your Fitbit tells you v. what MFP suggests and then modify accordingly.
It seems to me that all of this isn't quite exact, but more about managing your behaviors around the trends and overall levels, and that these various tools are most useful to gain overall perspective rather than worrying every last calorie.
exactly, none of it is exact but we find something that works for us and we use it 0 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »
if you run then you are absolutely right, Fitbit does the work for youOK Im not logging any exercise (i run) but i thought my fitbit just automatically transferred the calories burned throughout the day to MFP? Do I add my exercise on MFP because then wouldnt the calories burned be off? im so confused if you did log it, it would add on to the steps you've done and double them up. You're doing things right. Logging is only necessary for non step related workouts, ie biking, strength training, circuit training etc
If you log it for the actual time of day you exercised, it does not double them up. It defaults to the logged exercise and ignores any burn from steps taken during the same period of time.
The only way you get double count is if you actually log into both Fitbit and MFP.
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A lot of good thoughts on this... kudos for keeping it civil. I use a couple of different exercise apps that sync to MFP. I let them sync but zero out the calories because I just want to log that I've done a given exercise and for how long. Like a lot of the others have said... pick a method that works for you and go with it. Oh, and have fun 0
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