mfp calories vs fitbit calories
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meleel
Posts: 10 Member
MFP is giving me 1200 calories a day...Fitbit roughly 1500....should I aim for somewhere in the middle?
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Replies
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Follow the calories given to you by MFP. Set your activity level to Sedentary & enable Negative Adjustments.
Fitbit will forward its calorie burn information to MFP and your calories on MFP will adjust accordingly
By the end of the day, the number of calories you consume should be about the same between the two, but I would definitely stick with MFP's number.
~Lyssa0 -
MFP is giving me 1200 calories a day...Fitbit roughly 1500....should I aim for somewhere in the middle?
MFP's calories are determined without exercise factored in. Fitbit's are determined with exercise. Both sound correct for someone who is sedentary. Aim for MFP's numbers but make sure you eat back at least half of the exercise calories Fitbit gives you on MFP.
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Thanks!0
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MFP is giving me 1200 calories a day...Fitbit roughly 1500....should I aim for somewhere in the middle?
MFP's calories are determined without exercise factored in. Fitbit's are determined with exercise. Both sound correct for someone who is sedentary. Aim for MFP's numbers but make sure you eat back at least half of the exercise calories Fitbit gives you on MFP.
Why bother exercising if you're just going to blow your efforts and put the energy back in? You might as well remain on your butt.
But in relation to the question, I'd suggest going with the lower amount because if you go with the higher amount and it's wrong, then you could be going over your daily target.
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ProcrastinationIsMyCrime wrote: »MFP is giving me 1200 calories a day...Fitbit roughly 1500....should I aim for somewhere in the middle?
MFP's calories are determined without exercise factored in. Fitbit's are determined with exercise. Both sound correct for someone who is sedentary. Aim for MFP's numbers but make sure you eat back at least half of the exercise calories Fitbit gives you on MFP.
Why bother exercising if you're just going to blow your efforts and put the energy back in? You might as well remain on your butt.
But in relation to the question, I'd suggest going with the lower amount because if you go with the higher amount and it's wrong, then you could be going over your daily target.
because the point is to create a sustainable, healthy deficit and if you eat too little compared to your activity level, you can run into serious problems both healthwise and set yourself up for cravings and binges. If you don't want to eat back exercise calories, go by TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) numbers and eat to the same target every day. In the OP's case, this would be the Fitbit number.
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ProcrastinationIsMyCrime wrote: »
Why bother exercising if you're just going to blow your efforts and put the energy back in? You might as well remain on your butt.
Exercise has well-known benefits beyond calorie burn. If one is already creating a deficit through diet, eating some exercise calories back can help prevent excessive muscle loss and fuel daily activities. I don't think of it as "blowing efforts," as much as it is a way to achieve my fitness goals and stay on-plan.
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Its not blowing your efforts. I want to be able to have enough energy to continue exercising and maybe push it a little further the next time. I cant do that if I am constantly eating at bare minimum. Thats not saying you have to eat all your exercise calories but if I want an extra serving or something a little special I go for it.ProcrastinationIsMyCrime wrote: »MFP is giving me 1200 calories a day...Fitbit roughly 1500....should I aim for somewhere in the middle?
MFP's calories are determined without exercise factored in. Fitbit's are determined with exercise. Both sound correct for someone who is sedentary. Aim for MFP's numbers but make sure you eat back at least half of the exercise calories Fitbit gives you on MFP.
Why bother exercising if you're just going to blow your efforts and put the energy back in? You might as well remain on your butt.
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ProcrastinationIsMyCrime wrote: »MFP is giving me 1200 calories a day...Fitbit roughly 1500....should I aim for somewhere in the middle?
MFP's calories are determined without exercise factored in. Fitbit's are determined with exercise. Both sound correct for someone who is sedentary. Aim for MFP's numbers but make sure you eat back at least half of the exercise calories Fitbit gives you on MFP.
Why bother exercising if you're just going to blow your efforts and put the energy back in? You might as well remain on your butt.
But in relation to the question, I'd suggest going with the lower amount because if you go with the higher amount and it's wrong, then you could be going over your daily target.
So if I run 6.2 miles (plus whatever walking I get in that day), I shouldn't eat back a single calorie? My goal set by MFP is 1280 before exercise (I have it set at Sedentary), Fitbit reported that I burned 680 yesterday with my run + my walking, and that would be a net of 600 calories, with my deficit for the day being 930 calories (250+680 exercise).
That just doesn't sound like a sustainable idea to me!
MFP builds in a deficit already. You can increase the deficit through exercise if you choose to do so, but it's not necessary in the least.
To the OP:
@earlnabby brought up a good point. Eat back around 50% of the calories that Fitbit reports to MFP for about 4 weeks. Evaluate your weight loss after those 4 weeks and see how you're doing.
For some people, the calorie burn from Fitbit is very accurate, and they can eat back just about everything Fitbit reports. For others, this isn't the case, and eating back half is more appropriate.
You will have to experiment a little yourself and see
~Lyssa
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macgurlnet wrote: »ProcrastinationIsMyCrime wrote: »MFP is giving me 1200 calories a day...Fitbit roughly 1500....should I aim for somewhere in the middle?
MFP's calories are determined without exercise factored in. Fitbit's are determined with exercise. Both sound correct for someone who is sedentary. Aim for MFP's numbers but make sure you eat back at least half of the exercise calories Fitbit gives you on MFP.
Why bother exercising if you're just going to blow your efforts and put the energy back in? You might as well remain on your butt.
But in relation to the question, I'd suggest going with the lower amount because if you go with the higher amount and it's wrong, then you could be going over your daily target.
To the OP:
@earlnabby brought up a good point. Eat back around 50% of the calories that Fitbit reports to MFP for about 4 weeks. Evaluate your weight loss after those 4 weeks and see how you're doing.
For some people, the calorie burn from Fitbit is very accurate, and they can eat back just about everything Fitbit reports. For others, this isn't the case, and eating back half is more appropriate.
You will have to experiment a little yourself and see
~Lyssa
I actually eat back about 75% of my Fitbit calories but closer to 25% of my workout calories (lap swimming and a water aerobics class) because I don't trust MFP's exercise database as much as I do Fitbit's estimation of my walking calories, since Fitbit has actual data to work with. It has worked for me so far:
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macgurlnet wrote: »ProcrastinationIsMyCrime wrote: »MFP is giving me 1200 calories a day...Fitbit roughly 1500....should I aim for somewhere in the middle?
MFP's calories are determined without exercise factored in. Fitbit's are determined with exercise. Both sound correct for someone who is sedentary. Aim for MFP's numbers but make sure you eat back at least half of the exercise calories Fitbit gives you on MFP.
Why bother exercising if you're just going to blow your efforts and put the energy back in? You might as well remain on your butt.
But in relation to the question, I'd suggest going with the lower amount because if you go with the higher amount and it's wrong, then you could be going over your daily target.
To the OP:
@earlnabby brought up a good point. Eat back around 50% of the calories that Fitbit reports to MFP for about 4 weeks. Evaluate your weight loss after those 4 weeks and see how you're doing.
For some people, the calorie burn from Fitbit is very accurate, and they can eat back just about everything Fitbit reports. For others, this isn't the case, and eating back half is more appropriate.
You will have to experiment a little yourself and see
~Lyssa
I actually eat back about 75% of my Fitbit calories but closer to 25% of my workout calories (lap swimming and a water aerobics class) because I don't trust MFP's exercise database as much as I do Fitbit's estimation of my walking calories, since Fitbit has actual data to work with. It has worked for me so far:
I do about the same - though I eat back 95% of the calories Fitbit reports (I don't do much exercise other than running and walking and a little yoga, which I don't log).
I'm down 17lbs since January 12 or so...I would say it's working for me, too
~Lyssa0 -
I learned the hard way. Please eat back your calories.
1) you will be very weak
2) lose Muscle Mass
3) you can't get through a work out
I did that for 2 weeks, and I can't lift like I use to.
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macgurlnet wrote: »macgurlnet wrote: »ProcrastinationIsMyCrime wrote: »MFP is giving me 1200 calories a day...Fitbit roughly 1500....should I aim for somewhere in the middle?
MFP's calories are determined without exercise factored in. Fitbit's are determined with exercise. Both sound correct for someone who is sedentary. Aim for MFP's numbers but make sure you eat back at least half of the exercise calories Fitbit gives you on MFP.
Why bother exercising if you're just going to blow your efforts and put the energy back in? You might as well remain on your butt.
But in relation to the question, I'd suggest going with the lower amount because if you go with the higher amount and it's wrong, then you could be going over your daily target.
To the OP:
@earlnabby brought up a good point. Eat back around 50% of the calories that Fitbit reports to MFP for about 4 weeks. Evaluate your weight loss after those 4 weeks and see how you're doing.
For some people, the calorie burn from Fitbit is very accurate, and they can eat back just about everything Fitbit reports. For others, this isn't the case, and eating back half is more appropriate.
You will have to experiment a little yourself and see
~Lyssa
I actually eat back about 75% of my Fitbit calories but closer to 25% of my workout calories (lap swimming and a water aerobics class) because I don't trust MFP's exercise database as much as I do Fitbit's estimation of my walking calories, since Fitbit has actual data to work with. It has worked for me so far:
I do about the same - though I eat back 95% of the calories Fitbit reports (I don't do much exercise other than running and walking and a little yoga, which I don't log).
I'm down 17lbs since January 12 or so...I would say it's working for me, too
~Lyssa
I also set my MFP goals to lose 1 lb a week so I have wiggle room. By setting a conservative weight loss goal and eating back about half of my calories I am feeling great, rarely hungry, and have averaged a little over 1.4 lb a week over 15 months.
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If you setup MFP as it guides you to, you are supposed to eat back your true net exercise calories because MFP already includes your target deficit in the numbers it gives you.
This is particularly true if you've set yourself as sedentary when you are not. For example if you are hitting more then 3,500 to 5,000 steps during your daily living you should probably be setup as light active.
The reason people suggest just a portion of your exercise calories instead of a 100% eat back is because of the potential errors in this process.
First you may not always be logging your food accurately because of your database entry choices, incorrect estimate of food serving sizes, variability of nutritional value in the food you eat, manufacturer lies about the calories the food contains in the first place, or variability in the manufacturing process.
Secondly exercise calories are hard to estimate and many machines and online calculators give out what appear to be wrong values.
Often this is because the user did not enter their stats on the machine. Almost always because the machine gives a gross caloric burn for the time you spent exercising. You need the net burn because the "I lived during this execise hour" portion of your calories has already been accounted for in your MFP calories.
Sometimes the manufacturers inflates their values because they want to make themselves look kick *kitten* and you to feel good about your efforts. And lastly it could be too high of a burn value for you, specifically, because as our muscles adapt to the types of exercise we perform often they become more efficient. This can reduce the true calories burned for a given intensity and time by up to 20%.
So people guess that eating back just 50% to 85% of exercise calories will cover all the errors discussed.
The case of all day trackers is different than just adding a single exercise burn estimate.
The tracker is making an independent guess as to you TDEE (living plus exercise) for the whole day based on their proprietary formula and this estimate is then compared with MFPs.
In my opinion you should enter purposeful exercise beyond daily living in both the tracker and MFP. If the sync operation is working correctly the exercise activities and calories you enter in both will NOT be double counted.
When the tracker connects with MFP you get a positive adjustment if the tracker thinks your total day burned more calories than MFP figured out you burned during your total day. This is the only time you will get a positive adjustment and having your exercise on both sides of the equation will not affect your total calories, it will just make the adjustment smaller.
If you enable negative adjustments you are telling MFP to butt out of the estimating business and to just go ahead and use the tracker's values both up and down.
Negative adjustments should not be enabled if you're setup as sedentary in MFP unless you really have a reason not to trust MFPs sedentary estimate as you are extremely unlikely to be burning less than that!
And now we come to the trust but verify part.
Everything in this process is based on estimates upon estimates and has measurement errors... including your scale! But, if that's all we got, that's all we got! Lemons and lemonade!
You do all this for 2-4 weeks and you observe your results.
Are you medically classified as overweight or obese and losing at between 0.5% and 1% of your body weight per week? Then keep on doing what you're doing and modify your eat back only to ensure compliance and to meet your goals.
Are you losing at above 1% and you are not classified as medically obese? You're going too fast and quite possibly losing more fat free mass than you have to.0
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