FAQ - Syncing, logging food & exercise, calorie adjustments, activity levels, accuracy

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Replies

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Hi Heybales and all - THANK YOU FOR THE AMAZING SUMMARY ABOVE -- VERY HELPFUL!!!!- I am new to group and FITBIT. I just got a Fitbit Charge HR and I am just learning to navigate it so I'd love tips on a few things.
    - Is there a way to search these particular posts if I don't have time to read each one? I was trying to find an answer to my question about manual logging and "pressing the start/finish button" - WHERE IS THAT BUTTON?!?
    - I had my HR set to sensitive to sleep because I wanted good tracking since I am such a terrible sleeper...however I am wondering if anyone has thoughts on this...last night it logged me as sleeping only 3.5 hrs and restless 125 times and awake for various moments (which I don't doubt as i am a terrible sleeper) adding up to several hours overall -- that last part is the hard part to understand...I don't remember being awake for longer than 1 hr at time from 1am to 6am....I know i slept more than 3hrs because I feel more rested than days before....
    - 3rd - I am concerned about double logging or not logging properly enough - I have a sedentary office job 3-4 days a week from 6:30AM-5PM and then I am in traffic for an hour or more coming home....it is very hard to leave the family to get in a work out and as you can see above, I am not a great sleeper...but I know SOMETHING has to give so I can get more regular workouts in....also I don't belong to a gym right now and the snow only just stopped coming...I don't have a lot of time to log but I do log calories as I eat them or before so I don't forget. I was hoping my HR would take care of the rest of my "real calories burned" whether at work, running errands, exercising, or with home chores, etc....Is that not correct?
    - I have used Bodybugg (which I actually loved and hated to see it go), and Bodymedia (which IMO was not anywhere nearly as good or efficient nor did it have as good a website as Bodybug - then I received the Garmin Vivofit for Christmas and I was disappointed that it did not seem to track my miles walking right even after I calibrated my pace into it. The only issue I see with calibrating my pace for exercise here, is that I have to reset that every day so that I don't show fewer miles logged for "office" days, no? I definitely walk at a much more intense pace...about 4.0mi/hr sometimes 4.2 when I am walking my 5-6 miles. How can I make that transition for accurate accounting easy?

    Thank you.

    I'd suggest reposting that in it's own topic so it's actually seen in the new posts. It won't be seen here.
    Check your manual for your device - there is a button.
  • winterjade
    winterjade Posts: 55 Member
    Just a quick question. I synced my fitbit one yesterday and my steps and calorie burn showed under the exercise tab YAY! but today I had more steps and a higher caloric burn, but nothing showed in today's exercise diary? is there something special that I need to do to make it show every day?
  • gibinel
    gibinel Posts: 2
    "Am I doubling up on calories by manually logging a workout, what about the activity record from the device?"

    About the above issue, I'm not clear about this. So i go to the gym workout for about 60 min, then when i finish do i also log "weights lifting" on fitbit dashboard? (so doing this it doesn't double my calories burned?).
    Also i see that active minutes do double, or am I wrong?
    And the last question, how do i know the difference between "low intensity" and "high intensity" weight lifting, what's the difference??
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    winterjade wrote: »
    Just a quick question. I synced my fitbit one yesterday and my steps and calorie burn showed under the exercise tab YAY! but today I had more steps and a higher caloric burn, but nothing showed in today's exercise diary? is there something special that I need to do to make it show every day?

    Hope there isn't a syncing issue with your account.

    No, normally you don't change a thing - all automatic.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Yes log lifting manually no matter what device.
    The activity record that is already showing prior to your manual logging is a snapshot of Fitbit stats for that chunk of time.
    Your manually logging replaces only calories in the daily totals. Those other stats are already a developed picture, they don't change. But unless curious about steps and distance during lifting - not really useful either, you already got the calories logged.
    Active minutes don't double.
    Low is like deload weeks, purposely light, not almost failing by last reps on last set.
    High is the normal lifting, heavy for you, should be failing almost.
  • gibinel
    gibinel Posts: 2
    heybales wrote: »
    Yes log lifting manually no matter what device.
    The activity record that is already showing prior to your manual logging is a snapshot of Fitbit stats for that chunk of time.
    Your manually logging replaces only calories in the daily totals. Those other stats are already a developed picture, they don't change. But unless curious about steps and distance during lifting - not really useful either, you already got the calories logged.
    Active minutes don't double.
    Low is like deload weeks, purposely light, not almost failing by last reps on last set.
    High is the normal lifting, heavy for you, should be failing almost.

    Thank a lot for the answer. I think i understand now :smiley:
  • winterjade
    winterjade Posts: 55 Member
    Thank you haybales :) Looks like it was user error...and it is all good now. Although for the day that it did not sync, it still does not show my step adjustment, so I assume that when you sync and update it is just for the current day?
  • Robbnva
    Robbnva Posts: 590 Member
    edited March 2015
    Nvm
  • swky99
    swky99 Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks for the post heybales. I was a little confused on how to record a particular workout even though all the info is in the original post. I will set out my question and answer in case its helpful.

    I logged a workout on the Fitbit Charge HR while using an elliptical that took into account my weight, age, HR (had chest strap too). Periodically, I compared HRs and they corresponded very well each time. At the end of the workout the machine reported about 1100 calorie burn while the fitbit app reported about 649.

    From heybales helpful post, I concluded that elliptical is not step based and so is given to inaccuracy. Since the machine manufactures account for machine resistance, had HR, weight and age, it should be much more accurate.

    So how to switch the 649 for the 1100?
    The trick is to make sure the data entered is a switch and not an addition. In the fitbit app you can enter the time started and duration. That information is reported for the workout I recorded and so the manual entry I made with the machine reported 1100 calories had the same time stamp information and fitbit could do the swap, make the adjustments and report it out to MFP. I dont recall ever seeing timestamp info in MFP so I could not figure how I would have edited there. All that was in my exercise log there was the daily adjustment and not a workout.

    Thanks.

    I don't see an exact time stamp of my exercise on the elliptical yesterday but I just happened to know exactly when I started from the TV show on at the gym and double checking my highest heart rates on FB app, so I get much lower calorie results from the Fitbit app than the elliptical shows. I tried substituting like you suggest by adding a new manual entry for yesterday at almost to the minute start time. When I entered it as elliptical the app showed my 25 minutes should total 145 calories which actually almost exactly matches the elliptical machine readout (with just pressing my charge HR button, the calories were 79). After substituting, it still showed both a workout and elliptical during yesterday for 25 minutes, so I deleted the automated entry. I was surprised to see that my heart rate data was still intact exactly as before but for this elliptical exercise instead. There's a calories burned tab that changed as well as an Impact tab which also changed.

    This seems more accurate. Do you think there is a way to enter elliptical at the time we start the exercise? I don't even bring my cell phone to the machine. So I use the long press on the charge to start the exercise.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    No there isn't. A manual entry is overwriting existing data. If that data doesn't exist yet I'm not sure what happens, but I suppose you could test. But not a good idea probably.
    And true, once you make a manual workout to correct the calorie burn, the activity record really isn't needed with bad calorie info and distance info, though the steps could be useful I suppose down the road to compare. Then again with changing tension, probably not that either.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,563 Member
    I prelog all my exercise and all it does is replace what might have been.
  • sandishmily
    sandishmily Posts: 5 Member
    So i still don't understand how to fix the doubling of any activities on fitbit, whether entered manually or otherwise. They all show up twice.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    So i still don't understand how to fix the doubling of any activities on fitbit, whether entered manually or otherwise. They all show up twice.

    This should be viewable public.
    https://www.fitbit.com/user/2FBZWW

    Look at Logged Activities section, and Activity Records section.
    I manually entered the activity record first because the Zip has no button to create it on the device. I wanted to see what stats Fitbit saw during the workout.
    Which is the ONLY thing an activity record does - view what Fitbit saw and put in the daily stats.

    I then manually entered the workout with better info - that replaced the stats in the daily info - but not in the activity record - which is merely a snapshot.
    There is no doubling of stats.

    Where do you think yours is showing up doubled?
    Do you have other accounts linked in?
    Are you manually entering on Fitbit and MFP for some reason?

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  • Andreake08
    Andreake08 Posts: 179 Member
    My Samsung Core Plus is not compatible with my FitBit's App... Is there any way around it? Also, my battery doesn't even last a day, and the device is brand new. I charged it until the five leds were blinking but via a usb hub... Could that be it? Should I let it "charge" for a certain amount of time?

    Thank you in advance for any input and sorry if I sounded dumb... I'm pretty new to this...
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Should probably post issues and questions that are device specific under that device or in general forums - and mention what device you have, you forgot.

    And when you repost - mention if you have computer to sync with - it doesn't require constant syncing or app use.
  • Andreake08
    Andreake08 Posts: 179 Member
    Thank you for the tips. Already did. :blush:
  • sandishmily
    sandishmily Posts: 5 Member
    Thanks heybales,
    I enter both manually ( because i drive school bus and my stats go wacky when i dive the bus, so i enter "driving" for the duration of my drive to cancel out crazy amounts of steps and floors etc. ) i do that on my phone under track your exercise - the plus sign on the top right - previous exercise - and then i enter in the start time and duration. I am on a galaxy 3. I also hold in the button on my charge hr to start a run and again when I'm finished. Both of these methods show my activities as logged twice under the track your exercise banner on my phone. Sorry i can't figure out how to get a picture on here. Hope that makes sense. :#
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Thanks heybales,
    I enter both manually ( because i drive school bus and my stats go wacky when i dive the bus, so i enter "driving" for the duration of my drive to cancel out crazy amounts of steps and floors etc. ) i do that on my phone under track your exercise - the plus sign on the top right - previous exercise - and then i enter in the start time and duration. I am on a galaxy 3. I also hold in the button on my charge hr to start a run and again when I'm finished. Both of these methods show my activities as logged twice under the track your exercise banner on my phone. Sorry i can't figure out how to get a picture on here. Hope that makes sense. :#

    Look carefully at the full line of the 2 entries, one likely has a slightly different symbol showing it is an activity record, or one line is missing steps, that's the manual entry.
    Activity records are snapshots of existing stats for that chunk of time FROM the daily stats when it was done, NOT added TO the daily stats.
    Workouts logged manually replace daily stats, but unless walking/running, there is no steps along with it.

    You are NOT getting double logged.
    Check your web account for better view perhaps to assure yourself, and/or take a pic of the screen to see.

    Here's mine above in a row. Notice the differences, not just between the numbers, but the other items.
    Activity records manually logged don't allow seconds, workouts manually logged do.
    Activity records have stop watch symbol, and ability to edit.
    Workouts have view details, but no edit (really annoying when you missed the am/pm).

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  • ChelleBelle2708
    ChelleBelle2708 Posts: 131 Member
    Do I need to make both FitBit and MFP calorie goals match?
    After completing the profile in MFP it says I should aim for 1870 calories per day, and when I completed the FitBit foodplan goal it says 250 calories deficit - I don't actually know what this means.
  • sandishmily
    sandishmily Posts: 5 Member
    Ok Thank you :)