Fitbit Charge HR help

kkauz42
kkauz42 Posts: 537 Member
edited November 12 in Fitness and Exercise
i have had my Fitbit charge HR for about 2 weeks now. So far, so good and everything is synced with MFP. My only question is if my calories burned during exercise is automatically synced in the "Fitbit calorie adjustment " in my diary under cardio exercise.

For example, tonight I played in a basketball game. Before it started I set my Fitbit to the "exercise mode" and stopped it after the game. Per my Fitbit app I burned 856 calories in the time I played. My question is if exercise calories are included in the "Fitbit calorie adjustment" or if I have to add them manually as if I had a chest strap HRM.

Replies

  • walruslike
    walruslike Posts: 11 Member
    The exercise specific record doesn't come across, but the calories you burned during it do.

    You can see on your Fitbit dashboard the calories you've burned today which is an 'all up' figure. It is a combo of the standard steps, any timed exercise, and an algorithmic adjustment up or down based on heart rate if it's available.... (Ie you didn't have it badly positioned etc). That figure will also be listed exactly on MFP. The two sites send data to each other... Food and calories burned.

    Just make sure in the MFP settings that you have ticked 'negative adjustment' so if you've been idle it will also adjust downwards.

    I hope that was what you were asking....
  • kkauz42
    kkauz42 Posts: 537 Member
    edited February 2015
    Ok got ya! Definitely makes sense, I just was not sure! I wish it was itemized on MFP like it is my dashboard! Thank you!!
  • Schninie
    Schninie Posts: 35 Member
    Yes I know what you mean. I was hoping to ditch my Charge and Polar HRM and just buy the Charge HR but all exercise/steps just comes through as an adjustment... Well I want mfp to see what exercise I have done, especially because I do more than 1 workout per day... This is the reason why I won't get the Charge HR. Unless someone can come up with a really good idea and can persuade me otherwise...?!?!
  • hannydeee
    hannydeee Posts: 155 Member
    Schninie - I wondered about this too, but the Charge HR seems to make more sense to me: it's everything in one, and beats having to faff about with my Polar HRM and chest strap, as well as Fitbit One. I think I'll upgrade. As far as logging exercise for MFPals to see, I was thinking that once I've got mine I'll either not bother, or just write a status manually to say what exercises I've done.
  • dougpconnell219
    dougpconnell219 Posts: 566 Member
    Schninie wrote: »
    Yes I know what you mean. I was hoping to ditch my Charge and Polar HRM and just buy the Charge HR but all exercise/steps just comes through as an adjustment... Well I want mfp to see what exercise I have done, especially because I do more than 1 workout per day... This is the reason why I won't get the Charge HR. Unless someone can come up with a really good idea and can persuade me otherwise...?!?!

    Here is what I do.

    I add the exercise into mfp, being careful to put the correct time parameters, and using the calorie burn from the fitbit. It then removes said calories from your adjustment.
  • spally2
    spally2 Posts: 22
    doug - are you finding that it double counts calories if you set the timer on the charge hr and it appears as an activity in fitbit and then log it is MFP or does it automatically adjust when you add the time parameter?
  • omarghazi
    omarghazi Posts: 3 Member
    edited February 2015
    *changed username*
  • omarghazi
    omarghazi Posts: 3 Member
    edited February 2015
    When I've tried adding my workout on MFP based on the calorie estimate from my Fitbit Charge HR activity logging, I lose the heart rate/calorie burn/steps compensation data (since MFP data overrides Fitbit with the time and calorie estimate) and I would like to keep everything.

    So I am not sure if I should only log my workouts on Fitbit for all the dashboard data, and my food on MFP with the negative calorie adjustment enabled. Any thoughts?

    Sorry about the previous post, MFP was causing issues with my changed username. Mods, can you please delete my post above? Thanks!
  • fatjon73
    fatjon73 Posts: 379 Member
    Not sure if I am doing it right, but here is my view.....please tell me if I am very wrong....new user also....

    I got my HR last week, and changed nothing in MFP, but I did sync them together.....anyways on Sat I did some work round the house, usual pottering stuff......did 6500 steps, my "cash back" was 1800 cals.......far too much for me, giving me 3600 cals for the day....I have eaten at 1800 average for 7 weeks and only lost 4lbs (I am 250lbs so plenty to lose) so eating 3600 in a day would not be good.....lol

    so with this info, I thought right, set my MFP to Sedentary now instead of Light active then let the FB work out my cals back through my activities.....seems sensible to me I thought....today at work I did 6500 steps again and got 580 cals back, so this seems a much closer figure to being real than the weekend one.... so the negative adjustment to me seems as thought you have that on if you are set to anything other than sedentary so if you do have a day off it will then take some off you for being lazy.....but set at sedentary and let FB work it out seems the best way to be accurate......in my head anyways....

    Please tell me the best way to set myself up if I am doing it wrong....

    Cheers

    Also you read about eating back only half your "exercise" cals, does this also apply to the FB recalculation???
  • anwesha1
    anwesha1 Posts: 3 Member
    Hey!

    I got to this forum as I was searching for more info on logging exercise while wearing the fitbit charge HR. Just got my toy on Sunday, so have just started using it. Have a few qs:

    1) Where is the -ve adjustment option?
    I can't see it although I think it's on because Mfp has been doing a very weird thing since I've started syncing to fitbit - it 'gives' me (say) 850 calories more to eat and I complete the day well within the limit, but over 1200 and the next day, when I look at the entry, it seems to have readjusted downwards (say, from 850 to 350) so that now I've gone over the limit.

    2) Also, is it possible on either dashboard to log the exercise?
    I also like to keep track of what workouts I'm on to see what I'm doing and to vary things up. Also, I'd love to have an idea of what activity burns how many calories.

    3) Presumably Fitbit Charge HR is more accurate than MFP's estimation of calories burnt during an activity?
  • anwesha1
    anwesha1 Posts: 3 Member
    dougpconnell219 wrote: »
    Schninie wrote: »
    Yes I know what you mean. I was hoping to ditch my Charge and Polar HRM and just buy the Charge HR but all exercise/steps just comes through as an adjustment... Well I want mfp to see what exercise I have done, especially because I do more than 1 workout per day... This is the reason why I won't get the Charge HR. Unless someone can come up with a really good idea and can persuade me otherwise...?!?!

    Here is what I do.

    I add the exercise into mfp, being careful to put the correct time parameters, and using the calorie burn from the fitbit. It then removes said calories from your adjustment.

    Doug, how accurate are you about time parameters? Is it like 11:02 to 11:18 treadmill or a rougher estimate?
  • fatjon73
    fatjon73 Posts: 379 Member
    For me I do not log any exercise now in MFP...I let the FB to all the work....if you want to track your workouts use the FB....when you start your workout, press and hold the button, the FB will vibrate....this starts it tracking for the workout,.......press again at end to stop the timer.....you can then see this workout logged in FB dashboard as an Activity....you can add this to MFP but the timings need to be spot on and the calories between the 2 are different, so I just leave the FB to do it all...
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