fitbit calorie burn count

Geekyfatgirl
Geekyfatgirl Posts: 164 Member
edited November 11 in Fitness and Exercise
Hey guys! I've got a question for those of you who are using Fitbit along with MFP and have it synced. I realize that Once you link the two together, fitbit will adjust the amount of calories you burned and put it on MFP as exercise. With that, does that mean we should not log our exercise already because Fitbit is doing that for us? I don't want to say I burned more calories than I actually did. I put in the time where I worked out, and duration on MFP, and it just seemed to add that on to what Fitbit adjusted onto MFP as well. Should I just not track my exercise then and let the app do all the work?

I am also thinking of buying an HRM to get a more accurate look at how many calories I'm burning as these sort of things take into consideration height and weight and not your overall mass, or heartrate. Still trying to find the best and accurate way of tracking this. Anyone have any suggestions?
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Replies

  • Geekyfatgirl
    Geekyfatgirl Posts: 164 Member
    Any suggestions could help. Wondering if I should get the HRM as well, or if that would interfere.
  • NezyRumRunner
    NezyRumRunner Posts: 74 Member
    im considering a FITBit and was wondering the same thing.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
    I don't have a Fitbit, but I understand from reading other posts that if your workout is step-based (ie. running/walking) then you might be fine with letting Fitbit calculate the numbers. However, if you are using some other way to calculate, such as with a heart rate monitor, then the best thing to do is to go onto the Fitbit dashboard, and replace the time period of your workout with the numbers from your heart rate monitor. If you do it on the Fitbit dashboard instead of MFP, then you won't be counting that period of time twice.

    Someone with Fitbit experience is welcome to come along and correct if I've misunderstood.
  • Geekyfatgirl
    Geekyfatgirl Posts: 164 Member
    Oh I see, I think that would help a lot. I really just didn't want it to double the calories from my workout to make me believe I burned way more than I did.
  • JCLondonUK
    JCLondonUK Posts: 159
    I just got the Fitbit Charge HR, which has a heart rate monitor built in, and it's great. I've only had it a few days, but it seems pretty accurate. You press the button when you start your workout, and again when you finish, and it automatically calculates calories burned and sends the info to MFP. So clever!
  • Weezoh
    Weezoh Posts: 171 Member
    Once you link your fitbit to MFP when you enter cardio on MFP it asks you the time in addition to the duration; it then automatically removes tracked activity by the fitbit in that period. If you're walking or running you probably don't need to bother; but anything else you'll log as normal and MFP/FB will work it out for you. You don't actually need to log anything on fitbit (and it's much less confusing that way) because of the automatic syncing.
  • brookesdsu
    brookesdsu Posts: 47 Member
    I just started using my Fitbit flex with MFP and it specifically told me NOT to add my calories to the fitbit system, but add them to MFP. What happens when they sync then is they compare the two and if the fitbit indicates more calories burned than what I input it gives me additional calories. For instance, I walked on the treadmill for 95 minutes and entered the exercise on MFP. When my fitbit later synced, the fitbit indicated I burned two hundred more calories than I indicated I did, so MFP adjusted for that.
  • mallory_2014
    mallory_2014 Posts: 173 Member
    If your exercise is step based, do not log it on MFP. If it is not step based, log it on MFP.
  • Geekyfatgirl
    Geekyfatgirl Posts: 164 Member
    thank you everyone for the input. I think I was just a little curious on how things go, I appreciate the feed back.
  • tthevarge
    tthevarge Posts: 1 Member
    Thank you for starting this thread, I'm a new fitbit user and was just wondering the same thing.
  • sgthaggard
    sgthaggard Posts: 581 Member
    I've had a fitbit One for 3 years now. I log my exercise calories (as determined by my HRM) separately, and I do it in the fitbit app. When you do that, the calories that are determined by your fitbit for that period of time are overridden.
  • CM9178
    CM9178 Posts: 1,251 Member
    You can log it on either side, the calories will still be overridden for that time period.
  • brightsideofpink
    brightsideofpink Posts: 1,018 Member
    I've been using a fitbit for 9 months and I use it for all of my step-based activities. The only time I log anything separately is if I swim, or if I've forgotten my fitbit at home. So far I feel its doing a pretty good job. I weigh my food and log meticulously. I'm losing at the rate projected with the deficit given me by mfp after fitbit's adjustment, so I feel as though its accurate enough for me without switching to a heart rate monitor. I think it underestimated activities like Zumba, but I only did that once per week and a hundred calories or so weren't going to leave me starving.
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
    I log ALL exercise (even the non-step-based type, which is manually added) in Fitbit and ALL food/beverages in MFP. They talk to each other. Seems to work fine.
  • freechewy
    freechewy Posts: 111 Member
    I am using a Fitbit for over a year now. It ONLY tracks steps so I allow it to track my steps but I log my spin classes and yoga, exercise bike because Fitbit does not track those.
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,371 Member
    You bought the FitBit to make your activity calculations for you so I'd leave it to it rather than mixing and matching calculations if I were you. I only enter swimming and aqua aerobics separately now but use the burn rate FitBit would have given me had I logged it there but actually log in in here so my friends know I'm keeping busy!
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,371 Member
    edited April 2015
    For gym cardio sessions (bike/treadmill/cross trainer) I've found my FitBit One pretty much bang on against the burn rate the Precor machines are giving me (across the session) so only bother with my HRM if I'm having a bash at interval training. My Polar readings for calorie burn can be a bit wayward.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Here's a link to the FitBit group. You can find your particular model and get a feel for what others are doing.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    I have a FitBit One......my cardio is step based, so I don't bother recording cardio. I have a heart rate monitor (from years ago) and basically don't use it. HRM's are only designed for steady state cardio....not other forms of exercise (anyway).
  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
    I didn't sync Fitbit with MFP.

    If you do, don't log exercise on MFP, as you will be double counting your exercise.

    I got the Fitbit to make me walk more (I have a desk job), and MFP to track calories.
  • boredfatman
    boredfatman Posts: 100 Member
    Lastly, make sure you set the activity level in mfp to sedentary. That way any exercise that the Fitbit logs will be your only exercise and therefore any exercise calories will only be counted once.

    If you set your activity level to something higher it will automatically give you a higher calorie allocation which will throw things off balance.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    ASKyle wrote: »
    I didn't sync Fitbit with MFP.

    If you do, don't log exercise on MFP, as you will be double counting your exercise.

    I got the Fitbit to make me walk more (I have a desk job), and MFP to track calories.

    @ASKyle - The bolded statement is incorrect. I made a video to show why this is incorrect below. I logged a workout with 1 calorie burned on MFP. Look at what happens to the calorie burn graph on Fitbit, it vanishes. Logging 1 calorie burned on MFP literally wiped out my calorie burn, including BMR, for the time period.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8duevx9y9TY&feature=youtu.be
  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
    Well, since you had the time to make that, do whatever you want!

    I should add that I don't log exercise calories ever, at all, so I don't care.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    ASKyle wrote: »
    Well, since you had the time to make that, do whatever you want!

    I should add that I don't log exercise calories ever, at all, so I don't care.
    @ASKyle
    .....I'm sorry I didn't make it just for you. I made it over a month ago to help someone else. Just thought I'd inform you that logging exercise doesn't end up double counting. Logging calories on MFP will overwrite Fitbit's calorie burn for that duration. Which is what the video shows. The reason I pointed that out is because I've seen people log there exercise here with "1" calorie burn because they had the same thought you did (that it would double count), but what happens is really they wipe out the calories burned for that period of time.

    That's fine that you don't log exercise calories, but I was just correcting misinformation for others who may happen to read your post and I tagged you so that you would know for future reference that it doesn't double count.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I've got myself set as sedentary in mfp, but it's on personalised on my fitbit page.
    Should I also set fitbit to sedentary? ?
  • trusty48
    trusty48 Posts: 75 Member
    ASKyle wrote: »
    I didn't sync Fitbit with MFP.

    If you do, don't log exercise on MFP, as you will be double counting your exercise.

    I got the Fitbit to make me walk more (I have a desk job), and MFP to track calories.

    This is what I do too- I have a Fitbit Charge HR and keep that data separate from MFP.

    Decided to do it this way because I find that the Fitbit tends to overestimate my calories burned.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited April 2015
    I actually log my exercise through Fitbit. It is my activity tracker and MFP is my food tracker although the food is synced to Fitbit giving me actual calorie burn.

    I guess I do things backwards but it works well that way.. Fitbit never over estimates my calories and seems to be spot on.

    And both MFP and Fitbit are set to sedentary and the BMR's are 100 calories difference this is because the deficit in Fitbit will only allow 200, 500 and 750 (nothing in between).

    Edited to add: sedentary is used in Fitbit to use the Calories in Calorie Out function/tile. Personalized does not allow you to see this tile on your dashboard.
  • rosebette
    rosebette Posts: 1,660 Member
    I just got a FitBit Charge HR a little less than a week ago. I sync'd it to MFP. I wear the FitBit Charge all day and it logs my daily burn; I log my food with MFP, but with the sync, MFP adjusts for the calories. I'm amazed at how accurate the FitBit Charge is. My daily calories turn out to be between 1350-1500, pretty much what my TDEE is estimated as. MFP adjusts for my deficit, so I'm usually eating in the 1200 range.
  • aliasproject
    aliasproject Posts: 1 Member
    dsieda wrote: »
    Any suggestions could help. Wondering if I should get the HRM as well, or if that would interfere.

    Adding your exercise to MFP while using a synced fit it device leads to double counting of calories burned.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    aliasproject wrote: »
    dsieda wrote: »
    Any suggestions could help. Wondering if I should get the HRM as well, or if that would interfere.
    Adding your exercise to MFP while using a synced fit it device leads to double counting of calories burned.
    @aliasproject
    Not with Fitbit. As long as you input the correct start time and duration there is no double counting. See video I posted above. Logged workouts overwrite Fitbit calorie burns (even the BMR estimate).
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    @shadow2soul do you recommend setting fitbit to sedentary if you have mfp at sedentary? My fitbit is set to personalised and mfp sedentary
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