Fitbit Flex and My Fitness Pal

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BoaRestrictor
BoaRestrictor Posts: 194 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I got my Fitbit today (I love it), but I know from doing my homework that their food data base isn't as big so I already plan to just keep using MFP for logging. I know I can create a custom food, so I was thinking I'd just at the end of the day make a food called "MFP [date]" and then enter the days calories, protein, fat, carbs, sodium, ect. To fitbit it will look like I ate a magical meal that contained all my sustenance. Is there a down side? I have Windows 10, and I'd honestly rather not sync my fitbit account with MFP because this is my third MFP account and who knows if I'll be making a fourth fifth or eighteenth (Don't judge I forget passwords and yes I write them down it's the paper that I lose).

Any thoughts?

How do you guys use your fit bits w/ MFP?

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    edited February 2016
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    If you sync the accounts, your nutritional details will go to Fitbit automatically. You shouldn't have to do anything. I get a summary of the calories and macronutrients from each meal on Fitbit when I log my food on MFP.
  • erinc5
    erinc5 Posts: 329 Member
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    I have mine synced. All food and exercise gets input into MFP. everything transfers over fine to the fitbit tracker.
  • BoaRestrictor
    BoaRestrictor Posts: 194 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    If you sync the accounts, your nutritional details will go to Fitbit automatically. You shouldn't have to do anything. I get a summary of the calories and macronutrients from each meal on Fitbit when I log my food on MFP.

    Further question, I use both MFP and Fitbit on my laptop. My smart phone is from 2012 and I can't use MFP on it because it lags to bad, in fact I have had to delete a lot of apps off the thing. Will the syncing work from PC windows 10 app to Website?
  • minamina27
    minamina27 Posts: 89 Member
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    However there's a glitch at the moment with fit bits and the like syncing properly with mfp.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    H4N4H wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    If you sync the accounts, your nutritional details will go to Fitbit automatically. You shouldn't have to do anything. I get a summary of the calories and macronutrients from each meal on Fitbit when I log my food on MFP.

    Further question, I use both MFP and Fitbit on my laptop. My smart phone is from 2012 and I can't use MFP on it because it lags to bad, in fact I have had to delete a lot of apps off the thing. Will the syncing work from PC windows 10 app to Website?

    I'm honestly not sure. I usually sync my Fitbit using my phone. When I didn't have my phone for a few days last summer, I did sync using the Fitbit website and it worked fine. I use too, if that helps.
  • BoaRestrictor
    BoaRestrictor Posts: 194 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    H4N4H wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    If you sync the accounts, your nutritional details will go to Fitbit automatically. You shouldn't have to do anything. I get a summary of the calories and macronutrients from each meal on Fitbit when I log my food on MFP.

    Further question, I use both MFP and Fitbit on my laptop. My smart phone is from 2012 and I can't use MFP on it because it lags to bad, in fact I have had to delete a lot of apps off the thing. Will the syncing work from PC windows 10 app to Website?

    I'm honestly not sure. I usually sync my Fitbit using my phone. When I didn't have my phone for a few days last summer, I did sync using the Fitbit website and it worked fine. I use too, if that helps.

    I'm gonna try and sync 'em....and if they screw up each other I'll get a divorce.
  • heatherbarbosa9
    heatherbarbosa9 Posts: 2 Member
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    I just got a charge HR and sync. Absolutely LOVE it. No issues whatsoever
  • sarahanne1125
    sarahanne1125 Posts: 14 Member
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    it's been buggy since since the end of Jan. There was an announcement on the Tech help page about all fitness devices not syncing. Mine was working today though
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,941 Member
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    Whether integration is currently broken or not... is an open question. (it works for me; doesn't for others)

    Fitbit passes Total Daily Energy Expenditure to MFP. This is good. Most people can eat all of those calories back while keeping to their desired deficit.

    MFP passes meal information to fitbit. This is also good as Fitbit's graph of calories in vs out that can be found on their website is a handy tool to verify how well your logging works.

    Fitbit.com passes your weight info to www.trendweight.com and MFP (once you connect them). This is supremely good because you get to see your weight level trend as opposed to worrying about daily water weight variations. Don't hesitate to do this.

    Now, down the road you may run into one or more or all of the following situations:

    sometimes Fitbit passes the caloric information twice to MFP. Click on the little i. Find out which one is older delete it.

    Sometimes MFP passes multiple meals of the same type to fitbit (10x dinner for example all with different calories). You can tell because you have a day with a huge food intake when you don't recall hitting an AYCE buffet! Go to Fitbit web... seek the daily food info... find the day.... delete the bad meals... you now have clean data.

    MFP (or connected apps) pass exercise info to Fitbit. This can be fun and good if fitbit hasn't recorded much during the exercise (for example swimming or cycling). Or it could be bad if map my walk has given you less calories for your walk than Fitbit would (because Fitbit rewards your movement a bit extra to balance out the rest of the time where it under-estimates your standing up, or working at a desk). Quickly go to your dashboard, find the imported activity... and delete it. This restores the data your Fitbit had recorded for the time period.
  • reddeament
    reddeament Posts: 51 Member
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    I've got a Charge HR but used to have a Flex. Having a fitbit encourages me to move more - e.g. take the stairs, get off a stop early when I'm on the bus, pace when I'm on the phone.

    I aim for a net of 1200, so eat back most of the calories I burn. Not sure how much I trust my fitbit in terms of calories burnt to be honest. But one thing I've noticed is that it underestimates my heart rate sometime.
  • smotheredincheese
    smotheredincheese Posts: 559 Member
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    H4N4H wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    If you sync the accounts, your nutritional details will go to Fitbit automatically. You shouldn't have to do anything. I get a summary of the calories and macronutrients from each meal on Fitbit when I log my food on MFP.

    Further question, I use both MFP and Fitbit on my laptop. My smart phone is from 2012 and I can't use MFP on it because it lags to bad, in fact I have had to delete a lot of apps off the thing. Will the syncing work from PC windows 10 app to Website?

    It should work, I don't have a smartphone either so log on MFP on my laptop (I just use the website, not the app) and sync my fitbit on there too, and my fitbit steps seems to be syncing with MFP with no problems.

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