I am so not getting this.
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Jennifer10723
Posts: 374 Member
I don't know if I am just dense or what .. I cannot figure this out. I have been wearing my fitbit for almost a month now and it does whatever the heck it wants. It adds calories, it takes them away. I don't get it. It has helped in the sense that there are some days I am close to 10,000 and I walk more just to hit it. But most days I'm about 4,000 +/-. Some days it gives me calories, some days it takes them away. It is irritating. I have tried the negative calorie thing and it takes away my exercise. which really annoys me. Like I did 20 mins on the treadmill, 20 mins on the bike and 10 mins of weights. I logged the bike and the weights but not the steps because I figured it already counted those .. it took away my bike calories! Stupid thing. lol
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What activity level is your FitBit set for? You should set it for sedentary based on what you've said above. The reason it is taking calories away is because according to it, you aren't being as active as it assumes you would be based on your activity level setting.
When you do other exercises (bike, weights, etc.), log them in FitBit. FitBit's burns are more accurate than MFP, plus it will look at everything you did as a whole and add/subtract calories based on everything (not just the walking).0 -
Ok .. I will do that. Thanks!0
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Hello, I don't think there is a way to reset the activity level on the FitBit...It may determine it automatically based on info you give it when you set it up and there is no way to go in and change it. If someone knows how to do this, I'd love to hear it. What if someone gives away their FitBit? There must be a way to repersonalize it.0
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thesweetpea59 wrote: »Hello, I don't think there is a way to reset the activity level on the FitBit...It may determine it automatically based on info you give it when you set it up and there is no way to go in and change it. If someone knows how to do this, I'd love to hear it. What if someone gives away their FitBit? There must be a way to repersonalize it.
It does determine it automatically based on your movements. I was getting your weight loss goal in FitBit confused with activity level. I looked and couldn't find a way to update your activity level, unless you want to update your goal minutes for "active time."
The place you need to double check your activity setting is here in MFP, not FitBit. (Sorry if I further confused everyone. I was confused myself when replying first thing this AM.) Your activyt setting (@jennifer10723) in MFP should be sedentary, not the setting in FitBit.
If you do give away your fitbit, when the person you gave it to signs up for an account they would link your old fitbit with your account. You can remove a device from your account, delete your account, or link a different device with your account.0 -
Both MyFitnessPal and Fitbit needed you to input your stats when you first joined them. Age, height, weight, and sex. This allows them to figure your Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR. This is how many calories you need just to stay alive if you laid in your bed all day and did nothing, essentially in a coma.
MFP also asks you for an activity level (sedentary, lightly active etc..). This is how MFP adds your day to day calories for you. Without the Fitbit, you also would need to LOG any extra exercise you do beyond your regular activity. When you go for a walk or a run, when you go swimming or biking etc. you would need to LOG those and MFP would add extra calories for you. All of this would give you your daily calorie goal.
With the Fitbit you added your stats and it too calculates your BMR, but instead of choosing an activity level in Fitbit it figures that automatically based on your movements. It can also figure out any running and walking that you do as exercise because that is what it is designed for. This is why you do NOT log running or walking with the Fitbit. Though, you DO still need to log exercises that the Fitbit is not good at such as biking or swimming.
So when MFP and Fitbit are synced together…. MFP has a daily goal based on your stats (BMR) and activity level. (Do NOT log any running or walking after the accounts are synced.) Fitbit also has a goal for you, but it is changing as the day goes on based on your movement. As an example we’ll say that MFP sets a goal of 2000 calories based on your stats and activity level. Fitbit sets your goal at 1500 calories based on your stats without any activity. As the activity is sensed via your Fitbit it will add calories throughout the day. If you have a quiet day and don’t move much then it may only add 100 extra calories. So 1500 (Fitbit original cals) + 100 activity calories = 1600 calories. BUT MyFitnessPal has you set for 2000, Fitbit says oh no, you didn’t burn 2000 today you only burned 1600 so it takes away the 400 extra calories. On the flip side if you had a really active day. Fitbit might add 800 calories to it's daily burn. 1500+800=2300 and since that is 300 calories more than MFP is set at, Fitbit will add the extra 300 calories to your MFP allotment. Did that make sense?
If your Fitbit is constantly taking calories away, then you must have your activity level in MFP set too high.
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That was a really helpful post mmerry5
When you say, " Fitbit says oh no, you didn’t burn 2000 today you only burned 1600 so it takes away the 400 extra calories" do you mean FitBit automatically adjusts your day's calorie goal on MFP?0 -
That was a really helpful post mmerry5
When you say, " Fitbit says oh no, you didn’t burn 2000 today you only burned 1600 so it takes away the 400 extra calories" do you mean FitBit automatically adjusts your day's calorie goal on MFP?
Yes. It will subtract calories from your MFP calories (or add in extra if you've earned them). To do this though, you have to have "negative adjustments allowed" checked in your FitBit settings.0 -
Learned a lot just reading these posts. Very helpful!0
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Very well explained! Thank you!
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Fitbit doesn't adjust anything on MFP, just to be clear.
It merely reports the daily calorie burn at the time of a sync with MFP, and the step count.
It syncs to MFP after your device syncs and provides fresh stats, or when your daily burn goes up by it appears 100 calories, which could be over a hour slightly.
MFP itself takes the day's calorie burn up to that point, estimates what the total day will look like, and compares it to what it thought you'd burn with no or logged exercise.
As stated above - that creates your calorie adjustment.
And there is actually a setting on Fitbit that can interfere or make that adjustment better, depending on your sync schedule.
If you sync frequently through the day, not just after dinner before bed say, the setting on Fitbit called Calorie Estimation, which has actually been removed from newer account profile settings, should be disabled.
It's still in your Food plan, where you can select Personalized, or Sedentary.
Personalized means look at past days daily burn history, and start the day assuming you'll burn about the same per hour. Report that figure to MFP.
Until a sync happens and proves otherwise, you'll have inflated calorie goal potentially. And if you sync infrequently, and your days are pretty similar, it can have a realistic day without waiting to sync.
Sedentary means assume you'll burn barely above BMR, and report that until a sync proves otherwise.
So if you think about when you sync, one could easily cause some inflation to MFP to do it's math with.
The other starts lower but hits reality very quickly if you sync often enough.
But if you don't, you could have negative calorie burn in MFP easily until you do finally sync.
So just examine your normal syncing times, and when you are active.0 -
Oh dear. Now I'm not getting this.
I should be wearing my FitBit for the first time today, after 283 days on MFP, and I'm keen to get this right.0 -
I'm finding that my FB activity is adding far too many extra calories to MFP allowance. Some days its over 3000 calories! I would like some extra for exercise but I feel that I'm getting too many. Anyone else finding this or is there something I can do to reduce?0
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I'm finding that my FB activity is adding far too many extra calories to MFP allowance. Some days its over 3000 calories! I would like some extra for exercise but I feel that I'm getting too many. Anyone else finding this or is there something I can do to reduce?
Is it correct or not?
Or do you even know?
Have you looked at that calorie adjustment on MFP and seen what the Fitbit daily burn was it's based on?
Did that indeed match what Fitbit said you burned?
Where's the inaccuracy, rather than feeling it's too high?
What do you do for daily life and exercise?
What do you have MFP set at for activity level outside of exercise?
Is that correct or not?0 -
Hi, i'm a bit of a gadget fiend and have discovered that my garmin which I use for running now links to MFP - hooray! BUT I also use a fitbit.. now the Garmin tells fitbit about my run via MFP (I think?) and should discount the additional exercise by the start time but it seems to have given me an awful lot of calories today at this point. Can anyone recommend how they would go about this? Should I remove my fitbit when using garmin? Thanks0
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Leave it all alone, you set it up right, nothing double counts.
The Garmin workout sent from MFP to Fitbit replaces the calorie burn during that time.
The calorie adjustment is NOT just exercise.0 -
Thank you!
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It seems like there's a lot of knowledge in this thread! I'm a new fitbit flex user (started yesterday). When I put it on this morning, in the fitbit app it said 380 calories. I haven't done anything yet today! I did not see those calories on mfp so I'm a little confused. Any ideas? Thanks!0
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jensmith28 wrote: »It seems like there's a lot of knowledge in this thread! I'm a new fitbit flex user (started yesterday). When I put it on this morning, in the fitbit app it said 380 calories. I haven't done anything yet today! I did not see those calories on mfp so I'm a little confused. Any ideas? Thanks!
Those calories represent your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Your body is always burning calories, even when you're asleep. Both FitBit and MFP know this. The calories burned don't show up on MFP (or could show as negative calories, if you have that enabled) because they're not in excess of what MFP assumes you should have burned so far today (MFP assumes a constant calorie expenditure over 24 hours based on your selected activity level).0
