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New user. what calories should I trust?

jvaughn1031
jvaughn1031 Posts: 38 Member
edited November 12 in Social Groups
rding to my fitbit, I have 120 calories left to eat but myfitnesspal says 320. ummm...which one do I go with? lol I have been logging my activity into fitbit and my food into myfitnesspal. I know it's synching. I can see it in both. Why radically different numbers?

Replies

  • jvaughn1031
    jvaughn1031 Posts: 38 Member
    *According*
  • Liftin4food
    Liftin4food Posts: 175 Member
    edited February 2015
    Sounds like something is off with your settings. They shouldn't be that big a difference between the two. Most likely explanation:

    - Your MFP activity level is different to what fitbit records
    - you have different deficits set as your goal on MFP and fitbit
    - Your time zone is off on one or the other
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Don't attempt to follow to paths to the same destination.

    MFP already corrects it's daily calorie burn from Fitbit syncs.
    Eating level is based on that, so just use it.

    Fitbit bases daily burn on couple of options available that can mess with the daily goal.

    Hence best just to use MFP and sync device decently often, every 4 hrs if possible.
  • daw0518
    daw0518 Posts: 459 Member
    I use MFP always, & it seems to be pretty accurate (for me, at least). No matter how often I try to change my goals on the Fitbit site to match what I have on MFP, it never syncs up properly & the goals are always different. Using the numbers MFP gives me, even when I eat all of my Fitbit exercise calories, I lose roughly the amount I'm set to lose (1lb a week), so for me the numbers here work best.
  • jvaughn1031
    jvaughn1031 Posts: 38 Member
    thanks all for the suggestions. I'll check my settings to see if they match
  • Karen_LM
    Karen_LM Posts: 61 Member
    Basically, they use two completely different algorithms, and will never match. I use MFP for all food related, and Fitbit for all activity.
  • mattjmillersr
    mattjmillersr Posts: 1 Member
    If you read the syncing instructions on MFP, it says to still log food and exercice only on MFP. I am new to my Surge HR, but I've noticed the difference as well. FB is assuming your calorie difficiency based on your weight loss goals, where MFP bases that info on total consumed. I 'm curious how this is going to work out in the long run.
  • jvaughn1031
    jvaughn1031 Posts: 38 Member
    as of right now, MFP says I have 431 calories left to eat and fitbit says 275. what the?... If I eat all of my MFP calories, it will say I'm over my calories in fitbit. I dunno. I'm starting to not like this thing. I checked my settings. They are accurate.
  • Liftin4food
    Liftin4food Posts: 175 Member
    Have you got negative adjustments enabled?

    My numbers never match exactly - but that's a much bigger difference. There will be a way to get them closer.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,739 Member
    Also, make sure your stats are the same on both mfp and fitbit along with calorie goal and activity level. I have both set to sedentary and maintenance and they're usually maybe 1 or 2 calories off at the end of the day.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Nilzed wrote: »
    Basically, they use two completely different algorithms, and will never match. I use MFP for all food related, and Fitbit for all activity.

    ^^^This. Ignore Fitbit's calorie goal and follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments.
    mattjmillersr wrote: »
    If you read the syncing instructions on MFP, it says to still log food and exercice only on MFP.

    That's just a "serving suggestion." Exercise syncs both ways, so you can log exercise either in Fitbit (I do) or in MFP—never both. Exercise logged in MFP overrides your Fitbit burn during that time.
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