FitBit & MFP - incredibly confused
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velvet_moon
Posts: 80 Member
Hello,
I've been using MFP for a while now and have been doing well - losing weight steadily, logging exercise and food correctly, etc. I used MFP's suggested goals and it's suggested a calorie deficit of 400kcal to lose 0.8lbs a week, which comes out at 1200kcals a day.
I bought a FitBit yesterday and unfortunately feel like I've just made everything very confusing, and am finding it quite demotivating. I can't get the hang of this 'adding/losing calories throughout the day' thing, and don't know whether to trust the extra calories it's giving me in MFP or not. I like to plan what I'm going to eat during the day, and find that I just can't with the FitBit because I can't trust that my calories aren't going to change again by the end of the day. The FitBit is also suggesting I aim for a deficit of 500kcal which takes me under my 1200 kcals - yesterday it said that I should have eaten 998kcal!!
Could somebody please explain how this all works to me? Ideally, I'd like my fitbit to just log activity that I do and add it to mfp - but this doesn't look possible. I could override my 'food goals' on the FitBit - I get that - but then surely any extra exercise I do won't get logged?
Very confused and would appreciate some advice, please! At the moment I feel like I've just wasted a fair amount of money
. I was doing so well and I'm actually feeling quite upset about the whole thing (overreaction, I know, but the weight loss was going so well and I was so pleased with it that I don't want to do anything that throws it off).
I've been using MFP for a while now and have been doing well - losing weight steadily, logging exercise and food correctly, etc. I used MFP's suggested goals and it's suggested a calorie deficit of 400kcal to lose 0.8lbs a week, which comes out at 1200kcals a day.
I bought a FitBit yesterday and unfortunately feel like I've just made everything very confusing, and am finding it quite demotivating. I can't get the hang of this 'adding/losing calories throughout the day' thing, and don't know whether to trust the extra calories it's giving me in MFP or not. I like to plan what I'm going to eat during the day, and find that I just can't with the FitBit because I can't trust that my calories aren't going to change again by the end of the day. The FitBit is also suggesting I aim for a deficit of 500kcal which takes me under my 1200 kcals - yesterday it said that I should have eaten 998kcal!!
Could somebody please explain how this all works to me? Ideally, I'd like my fitbit to just log activity that I do and add it to mfp - but this doesn't look possible. I could override my 'food goals' on the FitBit - I get that - but then surely any extra exercise I do won't get logged?
Very confused and would appreciate some advice, please! At the moment I feel like I've just wasted a fair amount of money
. I was doing so well and I'm actually feeling quite upset about the whole thing (overreaction, I know, but the weight loss was going so well and I was so pleased with it that I don't want to do anything that throws it off).0
Replies
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Fitbit doesn't have a minimum intake like MFP does, so that's why it gave you a number below 1200. As for the burns, once you get the hang of it you'll have a better guess at how much more you can eat. When I was set to lightly active I tried to leave about 100 calories at the end to account for not moving very much at night. Now that I'm on sedentary, I can eat a little more.0
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1) Set up your fitbit and MFP the same: same goals, same time zone, same stats
2) join the app to MFP and enable negative calorie adjustments
3) set your stride length on fitbit
Log all your food on MFP
Log all you exercise outside step-based on MFP (cut the calories in half still .. MFP overestimates in its database)
Ignore the fitbit readout - focus on the MFP one
BUT
- be aware that fitbit extrapolates your expected burn across the day based on what you've already synched and will add the difference in calories to MFP each time you synch it
- so if you have a monster walk first thing in the morning it will assume you will continue at that pace
- next time you synch it will readjust the extrapolation and the next etc .. sometimes you can go in the next day and it will take some calories away because you didn't achieve the extrapolation
- so watch your MFP bottom line and you can eat to that but be careful ... don't take it as gospel until you're used to it (plan your day based on your basic MFP allowance, use the fitbit for additional treats across the week)
BUT over time it learns your patterns of movement and gets more and more accurate
and over time you get used to how much extra you'll earn
I know if I walk around 2000 steps I've hit my sedentary goal - if I walk around 10,000 I've earned an additional 350-450 calories .. I find it motivating to move more
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Connect your Fitbit and MFP accounts, enable negative calories in MFP, don't set any goals in Fitbit, log your exercise with Fitbit (or a 3rd party app like Runkeeper) and log your food with MFP.
I've been set up like that for a year and it works, eat back part of your exercise calories or don't that part is up to you.0 -
Thank you to both; that's really helpful. Essentially, then, I should just ignore the calorie counter in FitBit and use it for movement and for motivation to move more, and should just be eating to my base level of calories in MFP? I think it's going to take some getting used to, but I was a bit aghast at the fact that the FitBit was telling me to eat <1000kcal a day to reach my goal.
I guess I'll just get rid of the food goals etc. on the FitBit dashboard until I've used it for a few weeks, and will then see if I can figure it out when it's worked out my average daily exercise, etc. It's a little disappointing that the two don't sync properly, but I suppose we can't have everything!0 -
There is actually two ways to calculate your calories in fitbit and fitbit does only does 250, 500, 750 and 1000 calories deficits. It will never allow a 400 deficit that will exactly match MFP.0
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Maybe I'll have to wait until MFP suggests a 250 calorie deficit for them to line up!
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1) Set up your fitbit and MFP the same: same goals, same time zone, same stats
2) join the app to MFP and enable negative calorie adjustments
3) set your stride length on fitbit
Log all your food on MFP
Log all you exercise outside step-based on MFP (cut the calories in half still .. MFP overestimates in its database)
Ignore the fitbit readout - focus on the MFP one
BUT
- be aware that fitbit extrapolates your expected burn across the day based on what you've already synched and will add the difference in calories to MFP each time you synch it
- so if you have a monster walk first thing in the morning it will assume you will continue at that pace
- next time you synch it will readjust the extrapolation and the next etc .. sometimes you can go in the next day and it will take some calories away because you didn't achieve the extrapolation
- so watch your MFP bottom line and you can eat to that but be careful ... don't take it as gospel until you're used to it (plan your day based on your basic MFP allowance, use the fitbit for additional treats across the week)
BUT over time it learns your patterns of movement and gets more and more accurate
and over time you get used to how much extra you'll earn
I know if I walk around 2000 steps I've hit my sedentary goal - if I walk around 10,000 I've earned an additional 350-450 calories .. I find it motivating to move more
The only thing I would add is, at the beginning, you might want to disable negative adjustments if it is confusing you. Basically, you are telling MFP that you want to ignore the Fitbit readout early in the day. Your MFP calorie target is calculated by the NEAT method so it is calories you need without exercise, less the deficit you chose. By disabling the negative adjustments, you eat what MFP tells you until you burn more than your stated activity level, which is when Fitbit will give you additional exercise calories to eat back.
0 -
1) Set up your fitbit and MFP the same: same goals, same time zone, same stats
2) join the app to MFP and enable negative calorie adjustments
3) set your stride length on fitbit
Log all your food on MFP
Log all you exercise outside step-based on MFP (cut the calories in half still .. MFP overestimates in its database)
Ignore the fitbit readout - focus on the MFP one
BUT
- be aware that fitbit extrapolates your expected burn across the day based on what you've already synched and will add the difference in calories to MFP each time you synch it
- so if you have a monster walk first thing in the morning it will assume you will continue at that pace
- next time you synch it will readjust the extrapolation and the next etc .. sometimes you can go in the next day and it will take some calories away because you didn't achieve the extrapolation
- so watch your MFP bottom line and you can eat to that but be careful ... don't take it as gospel until you're used to it (plan your day based on your basic MFP allowance, use the fitbit for additional treats across the week)
BUT over time it learns your patterns of movement and gets more and more accurate
and over time you get used to how much extra you'll earn
I know if I walk around 2000 steps I've hit my sedentary goal - if I walk around 10,000 I've earned an additional 350-450 calories .. I find it motivating to move more
All of this.
OP it is a great tool, it just takes some getting used to. What I love about FitBit is that I realized just how active I am and how I needed to refigure my numbers. I upped my activity level on MFP from Sedentary to Lightly Active, then Active, and now my base calorie goal is higher but my calorie adjustments are smaller and more in line with actual exercise. I don't start seeing positive adjustments until I get to about 8,000 steps, which is fine because I average 14,000 or so a day.
I trust my FitBit numbers and eat back all the calories but I do leave a little room at the end of the day because I get a downward adjustment of about 100 or so cals depending what time I go to bed.
It made losing my last 15 lbs and transitioning into maintenance really smooth.
Give it some time!
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Connect your Fitbit and MFP accounts, enable negative calories in MFP, don't set any goals in Fitbit, log your exercise with Fitbit (or a 3rd party app like Runkeeper) and log your food with MFP.
I've been set up like that for a year and it works, eat back part of your exercise calories or don't that part is up to you.
LOL, I have mine set up exactly the opposite. I disabled negative adjustments and log all exercise in MFP. The only thing we do the same is log food in MFP. I've had mine for 15 months now and it is working really well set up like this ( 111 lb. gone so far)0 -
Personally, I returned my Fitbit (the Charge HR) because I found the displays on the site to be very confusing -- the little dials that registered "under" or "over" or "in the zone". These would change throughout the day, randomly. They would even change for days past. ugh.
I know I could have just ignored all that, but I figured why spend that much money and not use the features that the money was giving me. lol. So I'm using my dd's old Nike Fuelband and MFP's food/exercise calculations.
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Your Fitbit burn is TDEE, the number of calories to maintain your current weight. If you eat at a reasonable deficit from that (way more than 1,200 calories), you will lose weight.
Set your goal to .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided
Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users0 -
velvet_moon wrote: »Thank you to both; that's really helpful. Essentially, then, I should just ignore the calorie counter in FitBit and use it for movement and for motivation to move more, and should just be eating to my base level of calories in MFP? I think it's going to take some getting used to, but I was a bit aghast at the fact that the FitBit was telling me to eat <1000kcal a day to reach my goal.
I guess I'll just get rid of the food goals etc. on the FitBit dashboard until I've used it for a few weeks, and will then see if I can figure it out when it's worked out my average daily exercise, etc. It's a little disappointing that the two don't sync properly, but I suppose we can't have everything!
I think what is happening with this is that MFP will bottom out at 1200 and FB will go lower. You could tell MFP that you want to lose 2 lbs a week and it will still give you 1200 but FB will actually deduct the entire 1000 calories every day and give you the real number.
Lots of good advice above. Set your goal appropriately, enable negative adjustments and eat what MFP tells you to. Oh, and visit the FB user group...so much helpful info there!
Good luck!
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I think what is happening with this is that MFP will bottom out at 1200 and FB will go lower. You could tell MFP that you want to lose 2 lbs a week and it will still give you 1200 but FB will actually deduct the entire 1000 calories every day and give you the real number.
Fitbit prorates your calories by time of day, and goes way below 1,200. Ignore Fitbit's calorie goal and follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments.
2 lbs. per week is an appropriate goal for someone who's 100 lbs. overweight. The less you have to lose, the more slowly it comes off—that's just the way the human body works. Undereating will not get you to goal any more quickly. In fact, it usually leads to bingeing.
If you follow my directions above, you'll be eating TDEE minus an appropriate deficit.0 -
Oh, I agree. Not advocating she try to lose 2 lbs a week, just pointing out that you will often get 1200 no matter what goal you put in because MFP will just give you 1200 as a minimum. It's not that the two aren't syncing properly, she is just hitting MFP's minimum calorie level.0
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I have negative calorie adjustment enabled and the most obvious time I see it enforced is if I sleep in late and sit for an hour enjoying my coffee. MFP will then show a negative adjustment and my calories left to eat for the day will be less than 1200. So, even though MFP won't assign than 1200 calories it will display a balance that is less than 1200, due to the negative calorie adjustment.0
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Give it a few days. If you bought it and synced it yesterday the information will not be accurate for that day because the Fitbit is assuming that you were inactive from midnight until the time that you put it on.0
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Negative calorie adjustments never put your calories below 1,200.0
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Thanks, everyone. Yeah, I really don't need to eat less than 1200 a day - I've only got about 17.5lbs to lose in total and I've lost weight too fast before and just put it straight back on again, so don't want to do that! I was just concerned that the FitBit seemed to be suggesting it was a good idea.
I've turned their calorie counters off for now and am just using MFP - I'll let it just log steps for the next couple of weeks and revisit when it's picked up my averages. Out of interest, does anybody use the premium service and find it's worth it?0 -
To start, for a week, I'd say to wear the Fitbit and get an idea of what your total daily burn, step count, etc. is now. Then use that information to set goals for yourself. Such as my goal is to burn 1850 per day and hit 12.5k steps per day. (I'm in maintenance by the way - my total daily burn #s were higher when I still had weight to lose. Fitbit estimates your total daily burn from BMR & movement.
AS for calories out, Fitbit does not have the safety net of 1200/minimum. BUT you can earn more calories per day as you move more. If Fitbit is telling you 900 something to eat, then the assumption is that a) if you don't move any more then your total daily burn will be 900-something + your planned deficit and b) you can move more to burn more which will earn more calories. Right now its 9:55am for me, I get my activity in during my lunch hour & an evening walk so have not done much today so far. If I did not move move any more today I'd only burn 1305. If I had a 500 deficit, Fitbit would tell me to eat 805. But I will move enough to hit my 1850 goal.velvet_moon wrote: »Hello,
I've been using MFP for a while now and have been doing well - losing weight steadily, logging exercise and food correctly, etc. I used MFP's suggested goals and it's suggested a calorie deficit of 400kcal to lose 0.8lbs a week, which comes out at 1200kcals a day.
I bought a FitBit yesterday and unfortunately feel like I've just made everything very confusing, and am finding it quite demotivating. I can't get the hang of this 'adding/losing calories throughout the day' thing, and don't know whether to trust the extra calories it's giving me in MFP or not. I like to plan what I'm going to eat during the day, and find that I just can't with the FitBit because I can't trust that my calories aren't going to change again by the end of the day. The FitBit is also suggesting I aim for a deficit of 500kcal which takes me under my 1200 kcals - yesterday it said that I should have eaten 998kcal!!
Could somebody please explain how this all works to me? Ideally, I'd like my fitbit to just log activity that I do and add it to mfp - but this doesn't look possible. I could override my 'food goals' on the FitBit - I get that - but then surely any extra exercise I do won't get logged?
Very confused and would appreciate some advice, please! At the moment I feel like I've just wasted a fair amount of money. I was doing so well and I'm actually feeling quite upset about the whole thing (overreaction, I know, but the weight loss was going so well and I was so pleased with it that I don't want to do anything that throws it off).
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PS-always ignore the area on the Fitbit dashboard that says in the zone/you are under or over budget. This is really only useful for looking back at past days in my opinion. Unless you want to try and keep it balanced all days, only eating calories as you burn them...0
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