Fitbit charge HR help

Jewels31972 wrote: »

I just bought the Fitbit charge HR. I have it synced with MFP. My problem is I'm so confused on the information. I'm not great at math so that may be part of the problem. When I just used MFP it added food and exercise together. I wouldn't eat the exercise calories but I liked keeping track of it. Now that I have the Fitbit it subtracts exercise calories and it looks like I have barely any food calories left to eat for the day. How do you correctly read the information? When I look on Fitbit it's telling me I ate over my target and I just ate lunch and barely reached 1000 calories

The fitbit app will compare what you have eaten compared to what you have burned up to that point in the day. It adjusts as time goes by in the day and it's calculated burn rate.

On the MFP app, it will give you exercise calories burned by importing the steps you have taken and the right side shows what you have NET. My personal numbers as an example:

MFP gives me 1770 for a daily goal. If I eat 1700 cals without syncing my fitbit, it shows 70 cals left. If I walk a ton, it will say I burned 700 cals exercising (which is an overestimate), and say I have a NET of 770 cals left. I generally eat half back, so I would have 420 left (70 original plus 50% of 700cals).

I hope this helps clear it up.

The negative is when you sync it during the day (too early during the day) and you've not "moved enough" based on your activity level. For this reason, I have mine set to lightly active. And though I walk to work, and am fairly active at work, I might still get a negative (not a big one) if I sync it mid-day. So for that reason I'm trying not to sync until in the evening. I've had mine for a while now so I can tell (not totally accurate of course, but ballpark) based on my steps how many surplus calories I will get that day; great for when I'm shy of my goal and need the extra push to walk.

I would suggest, until you get more into it, put your activity level to sedentary. I believe the lightly active is at 6-7k steps per day; anything under that (if you're set to lightly active) will give you a negative.

As for the fitbit saying that you're over your calorie goal; make sure you have the same goals listed on MFP and fitbit. Hope it helps and you figure it out! It gets easier when you have had time to "collect some data".