Fitbit Surge

tabl_23
tabl_23 Posts: 46 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I recently purchased a Fitbit Surge. So far I love it. , but I'm having trouble with the "active minutes"...when I sync the Fitbit with MFP it only shows my "steps taken"...activity and gives me a calories adjustment for those steps. The "activity minutes"are not logging on MFP....so basically it shows no excercise for days I use my Surge. I assumed the active minutes and calories burned during those minutes would sync into MFP...the way it did with my previous tracker. Any idea what I can do to fix this? I could obviously manually enter my excercise in MFP....but wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having a tracker? Any help would be appreciated.

Replies

  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Fitbit doesn't do that. Fitbit's make adjustments to your calorie goals here based on your Full day calorie burn.

    Copying my reply to you from the other thread:
    That's because Fitbit sends over your Full day calorie burn. MFP then subtracts what it thought you would burn from your Fitbit calorie burn to give you an adjustment.

    Example:
    bfvop46wuvbg.jpg
    I put a little red arrow showing wear I clicked on the website to pull this up


    If you are not seeing an adjustment like this in your Fitbit diary, make sure your accounts are linked by going here:
    https://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/show/30

    When I first got one, I had MFP set to Sedentary. I was so lazy that when my Fitbit would sync I was losing calories on Sedentary. Workouts only brought my Fitbit calorie burn to what MFP expected of a Sedentary person with my stats. If Fitbit had just sent over my workouts and not considered the fact that I was really lazy the rest of the time, I would have been over eating. Fitbit adjusts your TDEE here on MFP based on your tracked activity.
  • tabl_23
    tabl_23 Posts: 46 Member
    Okay....so just to make sure I understand correctly....I DO NOT manually enter my excercise in MFP then? Fitbit and MFP have a crazy little program....and it works...lol. and if my calorie adjustment shows a positive number....do I eat back a portion of those calories as I would (used to) with my "excercise calories"? I just hate that it doesn't show my excercise and calories burned during that time....that was always kind of a goal I would try to beat myself everyday. Granted I can look on my fitbit app but it was nice to see all the "likes" and "comments" on MFP for the calories burned... kind of motivational.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    You can always make a status post about your exercise for the day.

    Yes, you can eat part of your adjustment. I actually eat all of mine. If you want to play it safe, eat say 50% now and re-evaluate in 4 weeks.
    On average did you lose more than your planned deficit? Yes. You can eat more of your adjustment back then.

    On average did you lose less than your planned deficit? Yes. First evaluate your logging for errors (entries from the database labeled homemade can be highly inaccurate for example). Consider weighing food if your not already. If all that checks out or you don't want to weigh food, then eat say 40% of your adjustment and evaluate in another 4 weeks.

    On average did you lose exactly what you should based on your planned deficit? Yes. Do nothing. Continue to eat 50% of your adjustment.


    ________

    You can log exercise on MFP. It will overwrite the calorie burn on Fitbit's side (video in the other Fitbit thread you posted in that shows what happens). You just have to make sure that you are using correct start time and duration. If you want to use the calorie burn that the Surge picked up during the workout, you will have to open the Fitbit app, see what it says and put that number into the space for calories burned when logging exercise (MFP auto fills it, but you can change it). I personally find it easier to just let MFP do it's thing and maybe post a status about the workout.
  • tabl_23
    tabl_23 Posts: 46 Member
    Perfect! Thanks for the help!
  • MyTurn2BHappy
    MyTurn2BHappy Posts: 475 Member
    I just started using my Surge, did 1.8 miles on the elliptical this morning and it only recorded that I did 74 steps. WTH?? How can I get this to record the steps I actually take? I even set it to "elliptical", but It didn't seem to help. Can someone pleeeease help me? This is really messing with my daily goals! Ugh!
  • questionfear
    questionfear Posts: 527 Member
    Shonniec wrote: »
    I just started using my Surge, did 1.8 miles on the elliptical this morning and it only recorded that I did 74 steps. WTH?? How can I get this to record the steps I actually take? I even set it to "elliptical", but It didn't seem to help. Can someone pleeeease help me? This is really messing with my daily goals! Ugh!

    Put the Surge on your shoe. Seriously. The Surge probably isn't getting the full motion, since your hands don't move as much on the elliptical as your feet/legs do. So loop it through your sneakers and it should get a better measure.
  • MyTurn2BHappy
    MyTurn2BHappy Posts: 475 Member
    questionfear wrote: »
    Shonniec wrote: »
    I just started using my Surge, did 1.8 miles on the elliptical this morning and it only recorded that I did 74 steps. WTH?? How can I get this to record the steps I actually take? I even set it to "elliptical", but It didn't seem to help. Can someone pleeeease help me? This is really messing with my daily goals! Ugh!

    Put the Surge on your shoe. Seriously. The Surge probably isn't getting the full motion, since your hands don't move as much on the elliptical as your feet/legs do. So loop it through your sneakers and it should get a better measure.

    I'll try that! Thank you!
  • sheermomentum
    sheermomentum Posts: 827 Member
    Shonniec wrote: »
    I just started using my Surge, did 1.8 miles on the elliptical this morning and it only recorded that I did 74 steps. WTH?? How can I get this to record the steps I actually take? I even set it to "elliptical", but It didn't seem to help. Can someone pleeeease help me? This is really messing with my daily goals! Ugh!

    Steps are distinct and separate from your cardio exercise. In other words, you should get one number for basic activity (including steps), and a separate number for the work on the elliptical. If you were to look at the Fitbit app, you should see each laid out separately there, and labelled accordingly. So the total numbers that you import into MFP would include both added together. I don't think you want to put the Surge on your foot. It should be using heart rate to estimate calories once you tell it you are doing the elliptical activity, and I don't know what it would do if it couldn't read your heart rate. Similarly, It SHOULDN'T count any steps at all once you tell it you are doing elliptical, but if you try this, let me know what it says. I would be curious.

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