I log my workouts on Runkeeper, including runs, and all my meals on MFP. All of my fitness apps are linked/connected and sync to each other. I have been using my Fitbit for a few days now and am really enjoying seeing the total calories in vs. calories out picture. However I am wondering if I am double counting any of my calories. For example I went for a run on Monday morning which was tracked using my Runkeeper app. When I click on the exercise tab on the fitbit dashboard, the exercises are listed with (MyFitnessPal) behind them. Am I being accurate? Should I unlink my Runkeeper & Fitbit accounts?

In your activity log, is the activity only logged once (from MFP) or is it logged twice (once from MFP and once from Runkeeper). Fitbit usually says where the logged activity came from. Usually it is not a good idea to link a service to both MFP and Fitbit. It may be fine if the third party linking service is not logging to Fitbit and is not pulling activity from fitbit and logging it to MFP. If the exercise is only listed in your fitbit activity log once--you are fine. Whatever was logged replaces fitbit's estimate during that time period.

I've had a similar question, so glad to see it works.

A follow-up question though, when your activity from Runkeeper (via MFP), is logged into fitbit, are you losing the "steps" for that same duration that were recorded on your tracker over the same amount of time? Also, what about the calorie estimate from runkeeper(via MFP), does fitbit replace their calorie count for that duration with the RK count or does it ignore that runkeeper amount?). Or does it just reconcile the difference back at MFP with the calorie adjustment?

So, for example, you run for 10 minutes and take 1000 steps. Log the run in runkeeper. Do you lose the 1000 steps when the data is recorded back in fitbit?

I hope that makes sense.

Pgallett: from what I'm noticing, you do not lose steps by logging an exercise.

I think Fitbit takes the data from that time frame, and associates those step to that activity. i.e. During the 10 minute run, you took 1000 steps.

As far as the calorie adjustment, I'm still have trouble understanding it myself. But I've not noticed any discrepancies that alarm me.

Correct, manually entered or synced workouts to Fitbit merely replace the calories - all other stats remain like steps and distance.
- With one exception to manually logging walking or running on Fitbit directly, your entered distance will replace that estimate, and your stride length is then used with that distance to calculate steps and that is replaced too.

But with syncing as described - only calories.

And the calorie adjustment is merely the difference between Fitbit reported daily burn, and MFP estimated daily burn without or with logged exercise.
You could exercise and be super lazy and get negative.
You could be super active and no exercise and get positive.

Reread post right above yours.

Are you syncing Runkeeper with Fitbit and MFP?

Here is an example that might be more clear (because of the huge difference in calorie burn). I went hiking and tracked it with Runkeeper, which syncs with MFP. Fitbit also syncs with MFP. As you can see, Fitbit's calorie adjustment does NOT include the hiking calories burned (otherwise it would be much, much larger).

heybales wrote: »

JosephCook1978 wrote: »

I believe everything is synced. Once I saw the calorie count number I removed the walking 472 calories but then my 749 Fitbit calories changed to 1221 so it still added them together. There is no way I could have burned that many calories in one day is there? Is there an order I should sync? Thanks for any and all help.

No no - my question was specific there for a reason - do you have it synced to both accounts?

Above post shows proper way to do it, and yes, you could have big adjustments.

Perhaps @midwesterner85 didn't hike, but just walked, so he trusted the Fitbit calorie estimate.
Those extra calories, and whatever else in the day caused more calories than MFP was aware of, would show up under Fitbit adjustment.

That adjustment is NOT just exercise, so no way of knowing if yours sounds high, because you could be very active during the day - more than you think.

No, I was hiking. You are correct in that the true number of calories burned was probably a bit more because I was hiking with a 15-20 lb. pack. I will add, though, that Fitbit looked at elevation changes as though I was climbing stairs. On that day, I went over 3 small mountains, so you can imagine how many "floors" it thought I climbed.

Yes, I probably burned a few more calories than that. Nonetheless, the math used by MFP is to adjust the Fitbit additional calories for the hiking calories. And I would rather burn more calories than it thinks I did rather than less.

midwesterner85 wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

Above post shows proper way to do it, and yes, you could have big adjustments.

Perhaps @midwesterner85 didn't hike, but just walked, so he trusted the Fitbit calorie estimate.
Those extra calories, and whatever else in the day caused more calories than MFP was aware of, would show up under Fitbit adjustment.

That adjustment is NOT just exercise, so no way of knowing if yours sounds high, because you could be very active during the day - more than you think.

No, I was hiking. You are correct in that the true number of calories burned was probably a bit more because I was hiking with a 15-20 lb. pack. I will add, though, that Fitbit looked at elevation changes as though I was climbing stairs. On that day, I went over 3 small mountains, so you can imagine how many "floors" it thought I climbed.

Yes, I probably burned a few more calories than that. Nonetheless, the math used by MFP is to adjust the Fitbit additional calories for the hiking calories. And I would rather burn more calories than it thinks I did rather than less.

Oh, I believed you hiked, I just meant as example, if that workout had not been hiking but rather walking, and you let Fitbit estimate it.

Bump

JHagenD wrote: »

I'm having a hard time understanding the fitbit calorie adjustment, when i view the adjustment in the mfp app it comes up at a -146 but when i view it online it shows up as +146 and then shows that i have 1116 calories left for the day instead of 694....Can anyone help me understand this?

Yes, MFP makes it confusing with the + and - signs being different on the web vs. the smartphone app. The result doesn't change. Examples:

2,000 calories for the day, 500 calories consumed and 100 calories burned from Fitbit:

2,000 - 500 + 100 = 1,600 calories remaining
Calorie allotment - calories already consumed + additional calories for exercise

2,000 - (500-100) = 1,600 calories remaining
Calorie allotment - net calories*

*Net calories = calories consumed - calories burned

The total calculation comes out the same regardless, but I agree it can be difficult to follow if you use both a computer and a smartphone simply because it is not consistent.

JHagenD wrote: »

Alright that makes a bit more sense now, thanks. So when i do any exercise other than walking (which fitbit tracks the steps then syncs into mfp) should i be entering those in fitbit or mfp for better accuracy? For example - if i am lifting weights should i be tracking that in which app or is it even necessary to track?

The general consensus is to track exercise in FitBit, food in MFP.

Your weight lifting - since it is not step based - needs to be entered manually. I'm no expert on weight lifting, but if you're really working at it then you're going to be burning extra calories and you should account for that.

Most people prefer to do manual exercise entry in FitBit and then let FitBit combine those calories with the other calories it thinks you've burned (from being alive, daily activity and step-based exercise), which it will then send to MFP. MFP will then take the calorie count that it got from FitBit, compare it to what it expects you to have burned so far, and generate an exercise calorie adjustment.

I have a follow up question. I use RunKeeper to track my runs. It is linked to MyFitnessPal. I also have Fitbit Flex, which is linked to MyFitnessPal. RunKeeper and Fitbit are NOT directly linked. Do I need to take my fitbit off during my runs so I don't "double count" activity?