Fitbit Calorie Adjustment wrong

145791012

Replies

  • kcdambuster
    kcdambuster Posts: 217 Member
    Is it possible to sync one way only?

    That is, input food to MFP so that it syncs to Fitbit, but not have Fitbit transfer exercise to MFP.
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    Nope. Not that I know of.
  • kcdambuster
    kcdambuster Posts: 217 Member
    That's a pity.
    Thanks anyway.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,455 Member
    segacs wrote: »
    Yeah. It seems pretty clear by now that the problem is in the second line, not in the first line. Which means the problem is on MFP's side, not on Fitbit's side.

    @segacs and others who have submitted tickets - are you getting any responses back? I admit, I have not submitted my own, but am curious if there is acknowledgement that the issue is on the MFP algorithms and not on the FitBit side?
  • weemsdm
    weemsdm Posts: 12 Member
    I was having the problem of the "MFP Calories Burned" number changing with every sync (this number should only change if your stats change), typically much more than my usual sedentary setting. As said above, this made the adjustment useless, because eating goal was not changing (I'm in maintenance too), and I was not getting as big an adjustment as I should (sometimes even negative when should be several hundred positive).

    What has fixed it for me through several syncs was the suggestion above to go to the app (I'm on iPhone), More, Steps and select Fitbit. Previously I had "Don't track steps" selected.
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    @segacs and others who have submitted tickets - are you getting any responses back? I admit, I have not submitted my own, but am curious if there is acknowledgement that the issue is on the MFP algorithms and not on the FitBit side?

    Yes, I've been exchanging emails on and off with an MFP staff member named Jacen for the past 3 weeks.

    For the first couple of weeks he ran me through the usual clear cookies and cache, disconnect and reconnect gamut. But finally last week he emailed to say that they were able to reproduce the bug and were working on it. I emailed him again today with my theory about the steps tab in the app, and he acknowledged and said he'd pass the info along to the integration team. Still no ETA on a fix, and I'm not sure whether the support team is aware that there seem to be two separate problems. But it's something, at least.
    That's a pity.
    Thanks anyway.

    One temporary solution would be to simply disconnect your Fitbit and your MFP app altogether. Set Fitbit's food plan to the same deficit as you have set up on MFP (0.5, 1, 1.5lbs/week). And Fitbit will give you a total number of calories that you should eat that day. Just subtract your MFP calorie allowance from that, and manually give yourself an adjustment in exercise for the calorie difference.

    Example: MFP tells you to eat 1400 calories as a base. Fitbit tells you to eat 1550 calories that day. Give yourself an 150 calorie adjustment manually.

    Note that this will only work well at the end of the day, since Fitbit's number will adjust throughout the day.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,455 Member
    weemsdm wrote: »
    I was having the problem of the "MFP Calories Burned" number changing with every sync (this number should only change if your stats change), typically much more than my usual sedentary setting. As said above, this made the adjustment useless, because eating goal was not changing (I'm in maintenance too), and I was not getting as big an adjustment as I should (sometimes even negative when should be several hundred positive).

    What has fixed it for me through several syncs was the suggestion above to go to the app (I'm on iPhone), More, Steps and select Fitbit. Previously I had "Don't track steps" selected.

    So I had kind of glossed over all the workaround suggestions up till now, have just been sort of trying to eat intuitively and stay under my FitBit calories to see what happens this week, however, I did just try this solution and you're right, it does look like that gets things back on track, for today anyway. I was kind of hoping it would retroactively adjust, but maybe it is just on a go forward basis. I do like seeing the FitBit steps under my summary on the front page of the app too - maybe this is all just MFP's way of forcing us to accept their new enhancements...
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    I was kind of hoping it would retroactively adjust, but maybe it is just on a go forward basis.

    You can kind of force it to retroactively adjust the past few days by inputting a 1-calorie 1-minute cardio exercise manually on those days. Then, the Fitbit adjustment should recalculate, and then you can delete the 1-calorie adjustment.

    This doesn't always work. But it's worth a try.
  • katesmash
    katesmash Posts: 30 Member
    weemsdm wrote: »
    I was having the problem of the "MFP Calories Burned" number changing with every sync (this number should only change if your stats change), typically much more than my usual sedentary setting. As said above, this made the adjustment useless, because eating goal was not changing (I'm in maintenance too), and I was not getting as big an adjustment as I should (sometimes even negative when should be several hundred positive).

    What has fixed it for me through several syncs was the suggestion above to go to the app (I'm on iPhone), More, Steps and select Fitbit. Previously I had "Don't track steps" selected.

    I'm going to try this as well. I had the same setting as you, "Don't track steps".
  • WilsonFilson
    WilsonFilson Posts: 83 Member
    segacs wrote: »
    Yeah. It seems pretty clear by now that the problem is in the second line, not in the first line. Which means the problem is on MFP's side, not on Fitbit's side.

    exactly
  • AsellusReborn
    AsellusReborn Posts: 1,112 Member
    Well, I'm glad to see this isn't just me. My diary numbers aren't making any sense. I'm supposed to be at 250cal deficit TOTAL, MFP says my goal is 250 cals lower than fitbit says it should be...if I wanted a 1lb deficit I'd have set it that way! :P
  • MandiSaysHey
    MandiSaysHey Posts: 304 Member
    Okay so new question. Earlier today when I was around 8k steps my fitbit adjustment here on mfp was showing 348 calories under exercise. Now, I ended the day with about 9.5k steps and my fitbit adjustment lowered to 296. Why?

    I don't generally eat back exercise calories but I'd still like to understand this.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    mclark552 wrote: »
    Okay so new question. Earlier today when I was around 8k steps my fitbit adjustment here on mfp was showing 348 calories under exercise. Now, I ended the day with about 9.5k steps and my fitbit adjustment lowered to 296. Why?

    I don't generally eat back exercise calories but I'd still like to understand this.

    Suggest you read the last 2 pages of this topic - question has been answered already, and suggestions for fix.
  • CoachJen71
    CoachJen71 Posts: 1,200 Member
    This morning MFP had given me two 508 cal adjustments and a 0 one for yesterday. This did not surprise me. What did surprise me was Fitbit telling me that I earned 2500 cals for not quite 11K steps with no active minutes. I have to more than double my steps to get that kind of burn! And upon deleting my extra exercise on MFP, Fitbit's burn for yesterday also changed.

    I'm having trouble getting the old pages of this topic to load on my tablet this morning. Will try it on my desktop later on today and see what the latest work-around is. Crossing my fingers that this nonsense is almost over. In the meantime, I think I will disable the calorie adjustment and try to manage working with just fitbit for a while.
  • MrAstro
    MrAstro Posts: 24 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    In the scheme of things - when the MFP Calories Burned increases and makes the adjustment to the Fitbit Calories Burned smaller - it's a wash.

    No, it isn't. Because my Net Calories do not increase when the MFP Calories Burned increases. When things are working correctly, as they had for the last 10 months that I've been using both sites, the MFP Calories burned number stays the same ALL DAY EVERY DAY unless my weight or goals change. The Fitbit adjustment then is added or subtracted from that to get my net calories available for the day. But when on my Home and Food Diary pages the Calories allowed and net calories aren't changing but on the Exercise adjustment page the MFP calories burned changes and THAT results in my fitbit adjustment becoming negative when I've really got more food available to eat... that is wrong, and that is what is happening. Like this:
    I was about to post here that mine was behaving today, and then it did this:

    These were snapped literally five minutes apart.


    egsok9hhbiz2.jpg
    svy8bh8rrd4b.jpg

    So this person went from having an 1100 calorie positive adjustment to having less than 200 in five minutes. That is NOT a wash. This is what is happening. The MFP calories burned number is changing in ways that we can't predict and that it did NOT used to do, and it is messing with our net calories in unpredictable ways.

    By the way, for anyone who was hoping my "work-around" from last night might work... this morning mine is back to being erratic again, so apparently it does NOT help. Sorry.

    This illustrates the problem perfectly - exactly the same as what is happening to me.

    My profile was set up as sedentary and it's like MFP is dynamically changing my base activity level to something higher which causes it to give me a really small exercise adjustment. Then other times if I delete the exercise adjustment manually and refresh it via my phone (IOS) instead of using the web interface it will correct it for a little while until I resync on my computer and then it will revert back to a small exercise adjustment instead of the large adjustment that would be required considering the large amount of exercise I do vs the MFP activity level which is set to Sedentary.
  • MrAstro
    MrAstro Posts: 24 Member
    These screens should show the problem at a single point in time. Compare the first three images with the "Daily Goal" that MFP calculates in the fourth and final image.

    ybyvhhiwnecj.png
    ck8facaedh3z.png
    k8nndotc99ce.png
    m1onozgtm3mk.png
  • veganbaum
    veganbaum Posts: 1,865 Member
    edited February 2016


    I'm just so over these issues. Double adjustments. Negative adjustments. You never know what you're going to get. I've had my fitbit since last April. No problems until now. Seemed okay for a few days, then back to issues.
  • I keep getting it to work and then my adjustments disappear, I had a 500 calorie adjustment from my run yesterday and woke up this morning and it was gone :( I am really tired of this issue, I have made sure my goals on fitbit and mfp are synced- 1.5lbs a week, both set to sedentary, clicked to track steps using fitbit. Am I missing something?
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,581 Member
    edited February 2016
    Has anyone linked the unhelp desk to this thread? Might help them realize that this is not an isolated issue with one or two users.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,455 Member
    Mine still seems to be working since I followed the steps above to have my steps tracked using Fitbit on the app. The adjustment was correct yesterday and was still there when I woke up, plus the negative adjustment this morning is based on the correct number of MFP calories.

    Crossing fingers this holds but still frustrated that so many people are impacted and also that people are frustrated with FitBit when this clearly seems like a MFP problem.