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Why does MFP not give me all my Fitbit calories?

ParadiseLost91
ParadiseLost91 Posts: 28 Member
edited November 28 in Social Groups
I've tried reading FAQ's etc but I cannot understand why my Fitbit calories are not transalted exactly to MFP.

Today I did a 42 minute walk, Fitbit says I burned 278 calories. Great!
When I come home and sync, MFP gives me..... 8 calories from excersice. 8!

I'm on a strict diet (1200 kcal daily) and I want to eat my exercise calories because I don't want to get below 1200 calories in total.
But MFP gave me 8 calories in that "Fitbit calorie adjustment" box. Why?

I know there's a difference between how MFP and Fitbit calculates your calories, but I dont' understand any of it (from FAQ's etc).

English isn't my first language so maybe that's why. Can someone please explain in a simple way: why does MFP not give me the calories from excercise that my Fitbit calculated?
I don't enter any exercise on MFP, I only sync with Fitbit.

Thanks in advance..

Replies

  • AddieOverhaul
    AddieOverhaul Posts: 734 Member
    I'm having a similar issue - none of my Fitbit info comes into MFP, even thought my Fitbit gets my MFP food diary.
  • tialessa
    tialessa Posts: 4 Member
    Same here - I was using the Pacer app, but Fitbit isn't giving an adjustment that's even close to what it says (and Pacer says) I burned.
  • ParadiseLost91
    ParadiseLost91 Posts: 28 Member
    Well I'm glad it's not just me then. I'm considering manually logging the calories in MFP, however I would perefer it to just sync.

    The weird part is that it has worked before. I've had MFP display my exercise calories from Fitbit no problem, and then all of a sudden it stops and just gives me 8 calories when Fitbit says I burned 278.

    I don't understand why it has changed all of a sudden.
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    Because that's not how sync works.

    It's not giving you calories from a specific type of exercise. It's giving you calories based on the projection for how many calories you'll burn in the course of the day. And comparing them to the calories that you set in MFP based on your activity level.

    So, let's say it's noon and you are set to lightly active in MFP. You go out for that walk. MFP extrapolates based on your activity thus far and assumes you'll be right on for the "lightly active" setting, and doesn't add any calories. It will update several times during the day, syncing again by midnight to correspond to your actual calorie burn for the day.
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    If you go to the MFP exercise page (website) or diary (phone app), you should find a Fitbit Calorie Adjustment entry. On the website, look for the little 'i' next to the entry and click on it (on the phone app, you touch the entry, then touch again). That will pop up a window or screen showing you exactly how your calorie adjustment is calculated. This is what it should look like:

    4d14h6ghg3uq.jpg

    segacs has it right. What is happening is that you may be exercising, but you're not being as active as you specified in MFP for your activity level, so part (or all) of the calories from your exercise are going into what MFP thinks should be your non-exercise calorie burn.

    However, if you don't have a Fitbit Calorie Adjustment entry at all (or if the time shown on the above screen is way older than it should be), then you may be having syncing problems. Check the MFP help page to see if there is a current notice about syncing problems and if there isn't, then do a disconnect/reconnect procedure. That is 1) in MFP, disconnect from Fitbit; 2) in Fitbit, revoke access for MFP; 3) wait a while (you want to allow some time for the changes to propagate through the various servers, just in case) and finally; 4) in MFP, reconnect.
  • ParadiseLost91
    ParadiseLost91 Posts: 28 Member
    Thank you so much, it makes more sense now!
    I do find it strange still, since my MFP activity level is set to sedentary, so it shouldn't really be expecting me to burn a lot.

    However thank you for the explanations both of you, now I at least understand how it's calculating :)
  • LLT38
    LLT38 Posts: 172 Member
    I have mine set at sedentary as well. I find that until I reach about 1700 steps for the day, it puts me calorie adjustment into negative. For a 40 minute walk, I am surprised it gave you such a small calorie bump though.
  • rimmella
    rimmella Posts: 3 Member
    Hi NancyN795,

    I'm glad you posted the screen shot of the "Fitbit Calorie Adjustment" because I wasn't sure what it looked like or what I was looking for.

    With that said, I'm curious if you have any thought as to why I don't have a "FitBit Calorie Adjustment" entry under my exercises page? I've been using the Fitbit for 2 weeks now and pairing it with MFP was fairly easy. Also, my calorie and fluid intake is successfully syncing back from MFP to my Fitbit dashboard.

    I did remove the pairing, waited 4-5 hours, and then paired FitBit with MFP again, with no luck.

    I'm pulling my hair out trying to solve this. I emailed Fitbit and they said this needed to be addressed on the MFP dashboard. I just opened up a case with MFP support, but was curious if you or anyone else had some insite.

    Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    Nope, sorry. If the accounts are linked, you should get an adjustment. Is your food that you log on MFP showing up on Fitbit? Since I turned off All Day Sync on my Fitbit (to save battery), I sometimes don't show an adjustment first thing in the morning, but it always shows up once I force a Fitbit sync.
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