Fitbit help

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sparkle126
sparkle126 Posts: 132 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
i have just got a Fitbit hr charge. A little confused, it shows me my resting carlorie burn then syncs this to MFP. Surely I just want my actually exercise tracked not all my resting BMR. Help!
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  • sparkle126
    sparkle126 Posts: 132 Member
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    Bump
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    What do you mean it syncs your resting calorie burn to MFP? Can you explain exactly what you're seeing?

    What I see with my sync isn't exercise calories or resting calories, but activity calories.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Fitbit tracks your calories burned for the entire day...BMR, general activity, and exercise. It will send over the excess burns over what MFP believes to be your maintenance calories.
  • sparkle126
    sparkle126 Posts: 132 Member
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    It's syncs my BMR which is resting carlorie burn not done any exercise except what I generally would be doing through day but syncs it over from my Fitbit.x
  • sparkle126
    sparkle126 Posts: 132 Member
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    It shouldn't sync all my carlorie burned should it or are my settings wrong? X

  • d_thomas02
    d_thomas02 Posts: 9,049 Member
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    Try posting this to the FitBit group.

    While you're waiting, read through this post:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy/p1
  • wandererlust
    wandererlust Posts: 64 Member
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    It absolutely should sync all of your calorie burn. It shows you how much you burn just being alive- this is how you can keep track of your calorie deficit after eating food. It also tracks your workouts and 'active minutes ' when your heart rate is elevated and burn more calories and shows them to you separately in your dashboard.
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
    edited January 2016
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    So what you are saying is you want to use MFP's TDEE estimate rather than Fitbits actual calories burned?
    I have to say I prefer Fitbit's numbers. If I am truly sedentary for a day Fitbit will keep me in a deficit, and the calorie burns I get from Fitbit are more realistic. MFP calculates a generic burn & was giving me 250 calories for a yoga class and about 550 for Zumba; IRL I burn about 115 in yoga & anywhere from 375-450 in different Zumba classes according to my Fitbit HR.
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
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    Fit bit will indeed sync total calorie expenditure for the day (BMR plus activity).
  • d_thomas02
    d_thomas02 Posts: 9,049 Member
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    scolaris wrote: »
    So what you are saying is you want to use MFP's TDEE estimate rather than Fitbits actual calories burned?
    I have to say I prefer Fitbit's numbers. If I am truly sedentary for a day Fitbit will keep me in a deficit, and the calorie burns I get from Fitbit are more realistic. MFP calculates a generic burn & was giving me 250 calories for a yoga class and about 550 for Zumba; IRL I burn about 115 in yoga & anywhere from 375-450 in different Zumba classes according to my Fitbit HR.

    I prefer FitBit to estimate my calorie burn and adjust MFPs static calorie goal according to my activity (i.e. I don't log additional exercises into MFP). I prefer MFP to track calorie intake.
  • sparkle126
    sparkle126 Posts: 132 Member
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    No I want to use Fitbit ..am on over 2000 calories burned today is this right it's all my calorie burn today including being in bed from midnight. Newbie at this, I have being walking a lot today. I am loving the Fitbit and sleep tracking etc.
  • sparkle126
    sparkle126 Posts: 132 Member
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    So on my Fitbit I have burned 1094 calories today and out of that its transferred 665 to MFP, is this right? Xxx
  • racheladkins2002
    racheladkins2002 Posts: 211 Member
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    It will depend on your settings in MFP. If you chose mostly sedentary, and then have more activity than it predicts, you will see an adjust for Fitbit. This is because your total calories minus MFP estimate was higher. This difference is then added.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    This is a post I made back in June, but hopefully it helps clear things up for you a bit.
    shadow2soul wrote: »
    Fitbit sends over the current calorie burn at whatever time you synced it last. We can use my numbers for an example. 599 @ 8:14 am
    MFP expects that I should burn 1907 by the end of the day. That's equal to 79.458 calories per hour or 1.3243 per minute.
    MFP then calculates a new expected burn from what I've burned already from my Fitbit.
    My day (as of last sync) has 15 hours 46 mins left.
    15 * 79.458 = 1191.87
    46 * 1.3243 = 60.9178
    599 + 1191.87 + 60.9178 = 1851.7878
    So MFP is expecting that based on my last sync, my Fitbit will report a burn of 1851 at 11:59 pm tonight. I'm currently losing calories, but I will get more as the day goes on.

    These numbers are recalculated every time you sync your Fitbit (or shortly after at least). So say you get up in the morning and go workout; your calorie burn for that time frame is probably higher per min/hour than it will be at other times during the day and you end up with a large adjustment at first. Then you go to work and sit at a desk for several hours; thus lowering your calorie burn per min/hour to lower than MFP's expectation and you lose some of the adjustment you were originally given.

    I hope that's not too confusing of an explanation. The simple explanation is your adjustment is a comparison of your Fitbit calorie burn and your MFP calorie burn.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    When you don't have a tracker connected, MFP estimates how much you'll burn in a day based on your stats and stated activity level. (Like if you say you're sedentary, lightly active, etc.) When you use a tracker, it estimates your total daily burn based on your actual activity. When you sync the tracker to MFP, MFP compares your actual burn (according to the tracker) to its estimated (according to your stated activity level). You then get an adjustment if your actual burn is higher.

    It does change throughout the day, because tracker #s are always changing. And because MFP has no way to know that you're more active some hours than others.
  • sparkle126
    sparkle126 Posts: 132 Member
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    I have adjusted my settings to negative calorie adjustment and ticked the box. Starting from now it should log my calorie burn correctly...am hoping :wink:
    Thank you for everyones help, hope this sorts it. x
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
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    At the end of every day, though, Fitbit gives me about 50 calories less than MFP. Despite them being set to the same goals, activity levels etc. I do not log activity twice and only my food thru MFP.
  • sparkle126
    sparkle126 Posts: 132 Member
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    Yeah I only log food on MFP. It says on the negative calorie adjustment that if your using a tracker like fitbit you need to tick the box so everything is logged/synced-properly. X
  • sparkle126
    sparkle126 Posts: 132 Member
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    Should I turn on Negative Calorie Adjustments?
    Enabling a negative calorie adjustment from your integration with a total daily calorie partner will give you the most accurate information about your calorie expenditure for the day. A negative calorie adjustment indicates that you are using fewer calories on a given day than our original MyFitnessPal estimate.

    The option for allowing negative calorie adjustments can be found by logging in to your account at www.myfitnesspal.com, then clicking "My Home" then "Settings" then "Diary settings". Check the box for "Enable Negative Adjustments" then click "Save Changes." Your settings will take effect the next time data syncs from your device.

    We recommend enabling negative adjustments if:
    you expect to wear your tracking device consistently
    you would like the most accurate calorie feedback MyFitnessPal can provide
    your device is able to sync its data multiple times over the course of the day
    We recommend disabling negative adjustments if:
    you do not expect to wear your device consistently
    your device can only sync occasionally, or only late in the day
    you wish to use the device only for the motivational experience of earning additional calories.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    Turning on negative cals will ONLY matter if you are now seeing 0 Fitbit adjustment on completed days.

    When MFP estimates your total daily burn, and your Fitbit actual burn (calories total per day) is higher you earn extra calories. But if your Fitbit actual # is lower, you'd see a 0. Or if you have negatives enabled, it would lower your MFP calorie goal. So if you're regularly seeing extra calories from Fitbit, it won't matter. That means you're moving enough to burn more than MFP expected.

    The problem happens when someone sets their profile to a higher activity level (example only) like moderately active, but they don't move enough. They eat what MFP tells them, they don't have as much of a deficit as expected so either don't lose weight or lose less than expected.

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