Exercise adjusts at night
WarmDontBurn
Posts: 1,253 Member
I am trying to help a friend figure out her fitbit/mfp and she seems ok until she goes to bed then when she wakes up everything adjusts putting her over for the day.
I assume she has a setting off but not sure where or what.
Can anyone offer her help to set this up so that it is accurate!
Here is last night at 11 before she went to bed -- all good -- then she gets up and she is over.
Her overage wasn't too bad but the night before she had like 300 calories left -- had a small snack and in the morning was way over!
I assume she has a setting off but not sure where or what.
Can anyone offer her help to set this up so that it is accurate!
Here is last night at 11 before she went to bed -- all good -- then she gets up and she is over.
Her overage wasn't too bad but the night before she had like 300 calories left -- had a small snack and in the morning was way over!
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When you sync your Fitbit, it estimates what your total burn will be throughout the day based on activity up to that point. If you move more than it expects between that sync and the next one, you get more calories. If you move less, it takes them away. If she hadn't synced in several hours, that explains the discrepancy, especially since it subtracted 338 calories in that time.
When I had my accounts linked, I would usually sync up before I had dessert to see how many calories were left and what I could eat to keep within my deficit.0 -
She syncs before she goes to bed so within that hour it shouldn't change that much. I have never gone to bed in the green and woke up in the red! I even told her to add even a glass a water last night before bed to make sure it was syncing.
I mean I get if it is noon and she has the whole day to burn but at 11pm it shouldn't change that much!0 -
Can you check on a desktop or laptop computer? I find the phone app is often messed up on the adjustment, but the website is up to date and working fine. I'm going to guess that the phone app was behind on updating. This happens to me a lot. I generally track via the website, it is more accurate.0
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When you sync your Fitbit, it estimates what your total burn will be throughout the day based on activity up to that point. If you move more than it expects between that sync and the next one, you get more calories. If you move less, it takes them away. If she hadn't synced in several hours, that explains the discrepancy, especially since it subtracted 338 calories in that time.
When I had my accounts linked, I would usually sync up before I had dessert to see how many calories were left and what I could eat to keep within my deficit.
Actually, the rest of the day past the current sync is estimated to burn whatever you told MFP your activity level was.
That is added to whatever you burned up to that point.
Rest of the day is NOT assumed to burn the same amount as the first part of the day.
So if you had serious workout and burn 1000 calories by breakfast, plus normal sleeping time burn, say 6 hrs x 80 cal = 480 + 1000 = 1480 @ 7 am, the hourly burned for rest of the day is NOT
1480 / 7 = 211 hr x 24 = 5064. That is obviously not done.
What is done is even different than Fitbit's method.
It's 24-7 = 17 hrs day left / 24 hrs = 71% of day left x daily maintenance say 1800 = 1278 + 1480 Fitbit reported burn = 2758.
Now that estimated daily burn 2758 - 1800 MFP estimated with no exercise = 958 calorie adjustment.
1300 eating goal say + 958 = 2258
If you happened to log that 1000 calories on MFP actually because of say biking, it would actually be:
2758 - 1800 - 1000 = -42 cal adjustment.
Eating goal 1300 + 1000 - 42 = 2258
Now, if rest of the day is indeed sedentary and on track to only burn 1278 - then that 958 remains.
If more active, it'll go up, if less active because workout wiped you out, then less.0 -
WarmDontBurn wrote: »She syncs before she goes to bed so within that hour it shouldn't change that much. I have never gone to bed in the green and woke up in the red! I even told her to add even a glass a water last night before bed to make sure it was syncing.
I mean I get if it is noon and she has the whole day to burn but at 11pm it shouldn't change that much!
Next time to go the calorie adjustment in exercise section, and get the info as to the time that sync is based on.
Without a new device sync, Fitbit syncs to MFP like after a 100 cal increase in daily burn based on however it's estimating your hourly burn.0 -
I am wondering if it has something to do with allowing MFP to track steps (USE STEPS TO ADJUST YOUR DAILY CALORIE GOALS) -- I never knew this feature existed until she pointed it out. I added it to mine and it messed with my day -- unchecked it -- uninstalled my app and reinstalled and it seems good again.
I will link her here and let her respond
Thank you for all the help!0 -
WarmDontBurn wrote: »She syncs before she goes to bed so within that hour it shouldn't change that much. I have never gone to bed in the green and woke up in the red! I even told her to add even a glass a water last night before bed to make sure it was syncing.
I mean I get if it is noon and she has the whole day to burn but at 11pm it shouldn't change that much!
Next time to go the calorie adjustment in exercise section, and get the info as to the time that sync is based on.
Without a new device sync, Fitbit syncs to MFP like after a 100 cal increase in daily burn based on however it's estimating your hourly burn.
Ok so if this is her most recent one why is the adjustment so high -- mine are always negative.
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This is so informative. I was wondering why my FitBit added cals to my profile today, but I just got it this afternoon, so I am going to still try to stay within my (regular) goal. I think I can even stay within my adjusted FitBit goal if I try hard.0
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So MFP estimated she would burn 2236 calories with no exercise, and whatever activity level in MFP she selected.
If she did no exercise and the projected daily burn is 2944 - I'd suggest she selected the wrong activity level, as she's obviously more active than she thought.
And you are opposite then if always getting negative.
If that Fitbit calories of 2414 contains a workout of around 700 calories, then her activity level is right. If it was 300, then she's still wrong by about 400 calories.
If you are ending up with negative calorie adjustment, are you manually logging workouts you shouldn't be, like walking and running?
Or, you could have such a good workout, that you are even more sedentary for rest of the day, so that extra calorie burn actually doesn't cause more during the day as a whole.
Calorie burn is more than just the exercise calorie burn. If exercise makes someone more lazy than they would be otherwise, they may get no weight loss benefit from it.
If the right kind, still body improvement.
When I do a 3-4 hr bike ride during the summer, my adjustment is no where near the workout calorie burn, because I get real lazy for rest the day, I make it a hard workout.0 -
So MFP estimated she would burn 2236 calories with no exercise, and whatever activity level in MFP she selected.
If she did no exercise and the projected daily burn is 2944 - I'd suggest she selected the wrong activity level, as she's obviously more active than she thought.
And you are opposite then if always getting negative.
If that Fitbit calories of 2414 contains a workout of around 700 calories, then her activity level is right. If it was 300, then she's still wrong by about 400 calories.
If you are ending up with negative calorie adjustment, are you manually logging workouts you shouldn't be, like walking and running?
Or, you could have such a good workout, that you are even more sedentary for rest of the day, so that extra calorie burn actually doesn't cause more during the day as a whole.
Calorie burn is more than just the exercise calorie burn. If exercise makes someone more lazy than they would be otherwise, they may get no weight loss benefit from it.
If the right kind, still body improvement.
When I do a 3-4 hr bike ride during the summer, my adjustment is no where near the workout calorie burn, because I get real lazy for rest the day, I make it a hard workout.
For her -- Her Fitbit average is like 2200-2300 a day so I think her MFP was pretty low - she bumped up her "goal" to 1690 and that made her numbers a bit better. Not to mention her timezones were a bit off which could have been causing her to be in the red every morning.
Now for me. I do enter walking/jogging when doing C25K and I wear my Polar FT4 during it. I generally walk/jog for an hour or about an hour and a half. I also do my walk/jog and then pretty much sedentary for the day -- So far mine has been working for me!
Am I being counter productive by logging my HRM reading? I guess I just figured my HR was up -- meaning I burned more and it was more accurate then the fitbit.
This is mine from a few days ago with adding my HRM reading:
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For walking and jogging, unless doing a fast pace and good inclines and lots of time - the Fitbit is using formula's that is more accurate than HRM would be actually.
That is if the distance is correct, or within 5% at least.
Since your HR is not steady-state, going up and down and you walk & run, you are getting inflated HR reading for the effort being done, combined with very real potential of inflated calorie burn anyway - you are overestimating calorie burn.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/774337-how-to-test-hrm-for-how-accurate-calorie-burn-is
Your friend, if she just manually changed her eating goal - she didn't change a thing as to how the math works.
The only difference now is the calorie adjustment will be added to an already higher eating goal.
Now, if she actually changed the activity level like I said, that will effect the math.0 -
So I don't need to log time on a treadmill or walking or actually running? I think this is where I have made my mistake.0
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Hi i have a question after reading all this....so wearing the fitbit i dont need to log my exercise in mfp? today is my first full day wearing it so im just trying to get the hang of it0
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I can only tell you how I made it work for me. I have MFP set to sedentary - so pretty much any activity fitbit records will mean I amass more calories than MFP expects. The only time I've had MFP take calories off me is when I've been ill and not gotten out of bed. that's with negative adjustments enabled.
I also have my fitbit settings as sedentary. This means it doesn't assume I'll do more throughout the day.
That way I only get extra calories to eat depending on how much I move through out the day. My calorie allowance can look pretty depressing in the morning - but I know that if I want to eat more than that all I have to do is get up and move - and as I'm not sedentary in reality I always get quite a lot more.0 -
mindybell1983 wrote: »Hi i have a question after reading all this....so wearing the fitbit i dont need to log my exercise in mfp? today is my first full day wearing it so im just trying to get the hang of it
Correct.
Unless wearing the non-HR devices, and you did a non-step-based workout - like swimming, rowing, lifting, biking, elliptical, ect.
Then you should manually log that, either MFP or Fitbit doesn't matter actually.
Fitbit has more options for intensity on all those except lifting, and their method of computing calorie burn is better.
MFP is based on weight, Fitbit is based on resting metabolism burn.0
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