Fitbit vs MFP calorie stats re eating back exercise calories

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maribeari
maribeari Posts: 2 Member
edited April 2015 in Health and Weight Loss
so, when I exercise, MFP takes into account the calorie burn and makes the adjustment by ADDing to my set/allowed daily calorie allotment. But with Fitbit, it does not do the same. So if I eat back any of those burned calories, Fitbit shows me that I am going OVER the daily calorie goal set. I don't like mental anguish I feel when I see an overage on Fitbit.

Granted I realize these are two different apps. Trying to figure out which I should go by and asking all of you which would you follow and why?

My goal is weight loss and overall health. I do 45 to 55 min. Cardio and 20 min. strength training 6 days a week. I have a lot to lose and definitely want to lose more than 2 pounds per week to be honest. 5'9 and 49 years young!

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  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Do you have your Fitbit and MFP accounts linked? They shouldn't be that far off. For yesterday, MFP shows me going 38 calories over, and Fitbit says I was 44 over.
  • NoMoreLittleDebbies
    NoMoreLittleDebbies Posts: 2 Member
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    I had same problem until I realized I had my goals set differently on each app. One was set to lose 1 lb per week and the other was set to lose 1.5 lb per week. Minor difference but showed up in calories left to eat. Hope that helps?
  • maribeari
    maribeari Posts: 2 Member
    edited April 2015
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    Yes both are linked. Just rechecked goals on each everything is the same. Cannot figure this out. Was starting to think that fitbit does not provide "eat back" calories after working out. Which fine I guess just hate the difference when I look at them both on days where I ate back some. It's lie getting an "F" on my report card lol
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    Having your goals set the same should mean the end of day results are approximately the same. (Off by no more than 10-25 calories, due to rounding I suppose.)

    But to make sense of the mid-day results, you need to understand what they're saying. MFP & Fitbit have a different 'process' there.

    MFP takes your stated activity level (sedentary, lightly active, etc.) and your stats and says 'you should burn X per day'. They also assume you will burn X/24 each hour. But of course you don't - when you're sleeping you are burning less than X/24 and when you're active you burn more...

    When you sync your Fitbit, Fitbit tells MFP you've burned Y as of when you synced. MFP compares that to X. MFP says you have burned Y so far as of 10:30 am, and will burn X/24 for the next 13.5 hours left in the day. So you'll end the day with Y + 13.5 * X/24. If that is more than X, you earn extra calories. BUT remember how MFP thinks you burn the same amount every hour but you don't? That means if you sit around for the rest of the day, the amount you burn for the rest of the day is not the same as what MFP thinks. So it can change up or down, depending on if you move more or less.

    Now to Fitbit. The phone app shows 2 areas about your calories. In one, it shows calories out (so far) and calories in (all that's logged so far). If you log your entire day in the morning this will show your calories in to be higher than your calories out until evening/night when your calories burned catches up. IGNORE this.

    The 2nd place on Fitbit app to pay attention to is calories left. You can set (thru Fitbit.com dashboard) to sedentary or personalized. Sedentary means Fitbit looks at actual calories burned so far and BMR for rest of the day. So if you use Sedentary, calories left will go up if you move more. Or use Personalized and Fitbit will assume your rest of the day burn will be similar as it has been in the past. Meaning if you are less active than usual, the calories left will go down.

    I know that's alot of info and I apologize if I've confused you... I do log all my food in MFP but I use Fitbit sedentary and look at my calories left to know what I'll burn in total by the end of the day. And I use that info to move more, burn more, as needed to hit my goals.
  • shannonstube
    shannonstube Posts: 64 Member
    edited April 2015
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    NoMoreLittleDebbies wrote: »
    I had same problem until I realized I had my goals set differently on each app. One was set to lose 1 lb per week and the other was set to lose 1.5 lb per week. Minor difference but showed up in calories left to eat. Hope that helps?

    This was my problem, too. I had MFP set to lose 1 pound per week, but Fitbit set to have a 1,000 calorie deficit. If they are set the same, the numbers should be pretty close if you have your Fitbit linked to MFP.

    ETA: I was coming back to add that they should be pretty close at the END of your day. But the above poster explained it much better than I could have. Right now, Fitbit shows that I have several hundred calories less left than what MFP shows. But I haven't moved much yet today. I will later, then my Fitbit calories left will go up.
  • kpkitten
    kpkitten Posts: 164 Member
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    I find MFP overestimates most of the day, and ends up being pretty accurate from 5-7pm. It's worse if I'm really active (steps rather than logged workout) because I think MFP thinks I will continue the day being that active!
    However, my calories are the same on MFP and Fitbit the following day (if I go back to check them) and they tend to be somewhere between where each were during the day, so I'd recommend going by what MFP says at dinnertime, but if you think it seems like too much, don't eat back 100% and aim to be 50-100 calories under?

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