Fitbit/fitness pal sync messing me up!

I'm waiting for a response, too. I have a fitbit, and I think maybe I should unsync it from my fitness pal? It keeps saying I've burned a ton of calories, and adding it to my eating, but I know I'm not burning that much just sitting at my desk!

I thought I synced my Fitbit with my fitness pal, although the steps I log on my Fitbit are not the same as what my fitness pal indicates I've walked. My fitness pal also says steps are iPhone adjustments!

I think MFP gives a "forecasted" amount of calorie burn and FitBit gives a real-time cal burn. I think that's part of the problem. To be on the safe side, I always go with who gives me the least amount of cal allowance. Still would like to see more replies though.

malibu927 - did you unsync the two?

I had a similar problem ages ago, I *believe* the fix is to go to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings and turn off (or on, if it's off) Enable Negative Adjustments. I think that was what fixed it for me, but this was months and months ago and I can't quite remember. You could also toggle the Calorie Estimation option on Fitbit's website and see what that does.

GoalWeight165by2016 wrote: »

malibu927 - did you unsync the two?

I only did because I now follow the TDEE method rather than MFP's goals. But I had them together for a year and lost 50+ pounds in that time, including eating back a portion of what was added by Fitbit.

mfp gives an estimate based on what fitbit sayd on your last sync + what your rest of the day should be like based on your activity level you told fitbit. If you told fitbit you were active it will think the rest of your day will be very active too. In order to avoid these things happenening be cautious with your activity level on mfp.

I always leave some calories because I also have gone close to the limit but gone to bed thinking I was still under and then awoke to find that MFP says I went over. Now 15 cal on a 1000 cal deficit isn't really a problem, but I hate to see the red. Most days I end with about 300 cals under. Since I'm 6'2 and burn 3000 cals a day with exercise, that still lets me eat about 1700 cals a day, which is plenty.

I have not had this experience with mine being synced... It takes them away in the morning, but then gives them back as I burn.

marycharron wrote: »

No I didn't enable neg adjustment thanks to those who mentioned it I will try that and see if it works!

Negative adjustments just allows the ability to drop your calories under what MFP gives you if you don't burn enough over the day, up to the 1200 calorie floor.

I've had this happen to me before too... I think that the fitbit "thinks" you will be just as active for the rest of the day, so it estimates how much extra you will burn but really we just go to bed. I've found that I just use my fitbit to make sure I'm more active during the day and not to really eat back extra calories ya know? I'll eat some back if I truly am HUNGRY (not craving) but other than that I don't eat those back. It changes too much and I don't trust it.

I've never lost more than 100 calories at most.
I do wonder though if your selected activity level on MFP makes a difference. I only recently upped my activity level to lightly active, but when I had it on Sedentary I rarely lost any calories. I have noticed that my "full day projection" on MFP is now higher than what it was with similar calorie burns and sedentary.

I tend to go to bed however around 10-11 pm, so that might be why I don't lose many. I have my fitbit set to only add calories to my food plan (on fitbit) as I earn them. This way as it gets closer to the end of the day, I just check the fitbit website to see where I'm at for the day. The number tends to be lower than what is displayed on MFP and generally leaves me waking up with either being under goal or right at goal.

The 'problem' I think is that MyFitnessPal assumes you're going to be active every hour of the day. Like if based on your stats, activity level MFP predicts you're going to burn 2400 a day - they assume 100/hour. When in reality you have sedentary hours that you burn less and active hours you burn more. And your last few hours of the day are probably sedentary.

The way to work around this... look at the Fitbit app. Make sure your calorie settings are for sedentary. This way Fitbit will show you your calories burned so far & estimate sedentary for the rest of the day. If you move more you burn extra, but you won't lose anything. Fitbit will show the result in the 'xxx calories over/under' comment on the app. Right now I've prelogged my day, and I'm at ~1700 calories in. Fitbit shows I'm 333 calories over - which means if I don't move anything extra I'll only burn a about 1360. But its 11am, and I get much of my activity in during the evening hours - so I'll be fine. I'll end the day at 1800-1900 burned.

marycharron wrote: »

Hi everyone! Ok so I am feeling frustrated, I have synced my Fitbit and fitness pal and yesterday fitness pal took into consideration my exercise on Fitbit and adjusted (increased) my calories. I thought it seemed a bit excessive so I didn't eat them all back, I saved about 100. Well I'm glad I did because I woke up this morning, looked at yesterday's entry and it had adjusted again AFTER I had signed off for the day and now it says my exercise wasn't as much as originally calculated and I actually over ate by 150 cals!! Wtf!? Should I just ignore my exercise adjustment and follow what Fitness pal originally set up for me or is there a way to fix this? Thank you!!!

hmvanwink wrote: »

Fitbit will give you calories for your workouts and also if you add a workout into MFP you are essentially doubling your workout calories. I enter my workout on MFP as 1 calorie and then let Fitbit make its own adjustments so they are not doubled up. If that makes sense.

I've only seen my FitBit recognize my "walking" as being active. It hasn't yet recognized my work-outs or even playing the Wii. Could that be because I have my FitBit on my non-dominant wrist and the Wii on my dominant wrist? I log my Wii playing time since my FitBit does not. I don't think I'm doubling up here because I never saw FitBit recognize it. I just logged it on MFP, and then checked FitBit and it was there.