Fitbit Calorie Adjustment wrong
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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.0 -
Nope. Not that I know of.0
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That's a pity.
Thanks anyway.0 -
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?0 -
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.
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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.kcdambuster wrote: »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.0 -
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...
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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.0 -
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".0 -
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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! :P0
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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.0 -
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.0 -
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.0 -
benevempress 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:WilsonFilson wrote: »I was about to post here that mine was behaving today, and then it did this:
These were snapped literally five minutes apart.
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.
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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.
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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.0 -
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? 0 -
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.0
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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.0 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »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.
I linked them to this thread a few days ago. Not sure if they are still paying attention. They told me the issue was forwarded to their developers.0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »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.
I've also followed the advice provided above to (on the app) go to "More," then click "steps," and then select "Fitbit Tracker."
I'll report back today if things continue correctly or not. So far so good.0 -
Yes - the mfp burn changing, which should only change if you change height/weight etc, is what is changing for me. super frustrating and confusing.0
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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.
I have already read the entire thread and tried several of the suggestions, including making sure my step tracker option was set to fitbit instead of "don't track steps". So there is no reason for my calorie adjustment to get lower at the end of the day.0 -
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.
I have already read the entire thread and tried several of the suggestions, including making sure my step tracker option was set to fitbit instead of "don't track steps". So there is no reason for my calorie adjustment to get lower at the end of the day.
Hi @mclark552 - Can you clarify for us (perhaps with a screenshot) which adjustment is getting lower at the end of the day? Maybe we can put our heads together and help. There are 3 adjustments I'm aware of and I just want to make sure we're speaking the same language.0 -
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.
I have already read the entire thread and tried several of the suggestions, including making sure my step tracker option was set to fitbit instead of "don't track steps". So there is no reason for my calorie adjustment to get lower at the end of the day.
My exercise adjustment almost always gets lower at the end of the day/overnight due to the inactivity between when I go to bed and midnight. That's not a glitch, that is how the system is supposed to work, is that what you're referring to?0 -
hbarnstein wrote: »Yes - the mfp burn changing, which should only change if you change height/weight etc, is what is changing for me. super frustrating and confusing.
It wouldn't matter what MFP guessed the burn was, if only they'd use the SAME number to a) calculate the correction from fitbit, and then b) add to that correction to get your actual calorie burn (and thus your budget for food). The problem is they are continually using two different numbers .. so they calculate the fitbit correction with an assumed MFP burn of, say 2000, then they calculate your calorie goal using (fitbit-2000) added to 1500 instead of added to 2000. And despite claiming to have rolled back the change that broke it, it is STILL broken.
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I think I got mine fixed...for the time being. Here's what I did. It's an unnecessarily long process for something that is supposed to just work.
1. In excel (I'm a data kinda person and can quickly analyze in excel), put it what MFP was reporting as "fitbit Calories Burned", "MFP Calories Burned", the math assoc with the difference. There were 10 days (since the first of the year) that had bad math. 9/10 time fitbit = mfp as far as calories burned.
2. I confirmed the "fitbit Calories Burned" match what my fitbit account was report. These all matched. No issue with the "in between FT and MFP" business.
3. Within the MFP app on my phone, added step tracking via fitbit. Which is completely useless, as I have fitbit doing that.
4. On the bad math days, I added a dumby cardio to force the sync. I checked the fitbit adjustment math. Deleted dumby cardio. Checked math and it was all good.
The other thing I noticed during my data collection was the "MFP Calories Burned" were all over the place. Generally, it's between 1568 and 1582 (my MFP maintenance calories are 1579); I weigh daily so maybe my weight fluctuations have caused these calorie burned fluctations. There were a handful of days (like in the last week) that "MFP Calories Burned" were either way low (1514) or way high (1717). I did the dumby cardio on those days too and it corrected itself.
Again, everything was looking correct as of the last 20 minutes.
MFP you've got some issue you NEED to get worked out. I shouldn't have to double check your work!0 -
The other thing I noticed during my data collection was the "MFP Calories Burned" were all over the place. Generally, it's between 1568 and 1582 (my MFP maintenance calories are 1579); I weigh daily so maybe my weight fluctuations have caused these calorie burned fluctations. There were a handful of days (like in the last week) that "MFP Calories Burned" were either way low (1514) or way high (1717). I did the dumby cardio on those days too and it corrected itself.
As a test, I did the dumby cardio on the last day that didn't show MFP Calories Burned = 1579 and deleted. This corrected MFP Calories Burned = 1579. I basically just corrected my exercise diary for the last 35 days.
Thanks, MFP, for working so imperfectly. I didn't have anything else to do today *sarcasm*0 -
WilsonFilson wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »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.
I've also followed the advice provided above to (on the app) go to "More," then click "steps," and then select "Fitbit Tracker."
I'll report back today if things continue correctly or not. So far so good.
So far so good!!! the MFP calories burned has remained the same all day since I made this change. I'll confirm again tomorrow if it continues correct. I suggest anyone still having the problem to do the above and report back whether it helps fix the MFP calories burned.0
This discussion has been closed.