Fitbit calorie adjustment

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johngordon14
johngordon14 Posts: 9
in Getting Started
Hope this is OK to post here, rather than the Fitbit section (I just use my phone not a Fitbit tracker), but would be grateful if anyone could clarify how its supposed to work.

As an example, the other day I walked 10781 steps, and it gave me an exercise adjustment of 371 calories. Literally just walking, and the steps recorded by the phone.

Today I walked to and from the gym, which I tracked in the Fitbit app - 7627 steps.

Plus:

2752 steps on the treadmill (161 calories)
10 mins rowing (106 calories)
15 minutes on the bike (120 calories)

But for all of that MFP is only showing an exercise adjustment of 298 calories.

Surely the exercise today should be showing a bigger adjustment than the one the other day which was just the walking steps?

Replies

  • Amanda4change
    Amanda4change Posts: 620 Member
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    I use a fitbit , I'm not 100% sure how your phones tracking works. The Fitbit that I have is linked to MFP. For an example the other day I did a total of 12,574 steps while working out. Because I log my workouts (and include a start time) I get a 0 fitbit adjustment for those steps. However my daily steps usually end up around 16,000 so by the end of the day I usually get 225-315 calories under my fitbit adjustment on MFP. The way it is set up to interact with MFP is to keep you from getting credit for the same calories twice. Having said that, if you have a fitbit linked to MFP you may get a negative calorie adjustment if you are set to anything other than sedentary until you take enough steps to hit your basic (not work out) activity goal.
  • sjp_511
    sjp_511 Posts: 476 Member
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    Did you log your gym workout separately into MFP? If so, then the Fitbit data is ignored (except for steps) during the time you were exercising. This is to prevent from double counting calories burnt.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    Fitbit won't track the bike and rowing exercises unless you manually enter them; it only tracks steps. I always enter additional exercises into Fitbit and all of my food into MFP. That seems to work out properly.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    johngordon14 wrote: »
    Hope this is OK to post here, rather than the Fitbit section (I just use my phone not a Fitbit tracker), but would be grateful if anyone could clarify how its supposed to work.

    As an example, the other day I walked 10781 steps, and it gave me an exercise adjustment of 371 calories. Literally just walking, and the steps recorded by the phone.

    Today I walked to and from the gym, which I tracked in the Fitbit app - 7627 steps.

    Plus:

    2752 steps on the treadmill (161 calories)
    10 mins rowing (106 calories)
    15 minutes on the bike (120 calories)

    But for all of that MFP is only showing an exercise adjustment of 298 calories.

    Surely the exercise today should be showing a bigger adjustment than the one the other day which was just the walking steps?

    Fitbit adds calories but your workout rowing and bike would need to be logged separately

    I often get the same counts for a 10K day and a 5-7K day plus a 45min gym workout because it takes me 2.5K-4K steps before I even hit sedentary
  • johngordon14
    johngordon14 Posts: 9
    edited February 2015
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    Thanks for the replies.

    I should have said - I did log the exercises in the Fitbit app. So I assumed all the data from the Fitbit app (steps recorded + exercise logged) would be pulled through to MFP.

    Should it matter if I log the exercise in the Fitbit app or the MFP app?

    Not worried about getting too anal about it, but it just seemed like the walking plus the gym should be a bigger adjustment than just the walking.

    Amanda - with the phone it just works as though the phone is the Fitbit, so it records steps automatically. And you can log other exercise as described above, entering a start time, duration and calories burnt (if you know, but machines at the gym will give you them).

  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited February 2015
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    johngordon14 wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies.

    I should have said - I did log the exercises in the Fitbit app. So I assumed all the data from the Fitbit app (steps recorded + exercise logged) would be pulled through to MFP.

    Should it matter if I log the exercise in the Fitbit app or the MFP app?

    Not worried about getting too anal about it, but it just seemed like the walking plus the gym should be a bigger adjustment than just the walking.

    Amanda - with the phone it just works as though the phone is the Fitbit, so it records steps automatically. And you can log other exercise as described above, entering a start time, duration and calories burnt (if you know, but machines at the gym will give you them).

    Nope

    You should log exercise on MFP by time ...half the calories there and then it feeds through to fitbit app and overwrites any steps logged during that timeframe

    Remember that gym machines tend to be innaccurate as is the MFP database so best to log 50-75% of workout burns and see how that equates to your actual weight loss
  • johngordon14
    johngordon14 Posts: 9
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    Thanks - I deleted the logged exercise in the Fitbit app, and logged it in MFP instead. So the exercise adjustment is recorded correctly.

    The Fitbit steps adjustment went right down to 6 for my 10379 steps, although 2752 were on the treadmill so covered by the run logged in MFP. Although 6 calories for about 7,500 steps doesn't seem very generous!

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