FAQ - Syncing, logging food & exercise, calorie adjustments, activity levels, accuracy
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Has anyone changed the food log settings in Fitbit? I did and now aren't sure if I should have. I picked the same deficit as MFP (250 cals a day), and chose sedentary in Fitbit for this.
Not sure if I should have set it to what MFP gives me per day? Or left it alone.0 -
@melissa112: You did it right. Just pick the same deficit as MFP. Since Fitbit has a different way of determining the number of calories you have to eat, you don't set that. Just go by MFP. And, the "Sedentary" setting in Fitbit is different than the "Sedentary" activity level in MFP. It doesn't make any difference to how many calories Fitbit ultimately decides you can have for the day, just how many it estimates you have remaining. Your actual activity level determines how many calories you are allotted at the end of the day.0
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@melissa112: You did it right. Just pick the same deficit as MFP. Since Fitbit has a different way of determining the number of calories you have to eat, you don't set that. Just go by MFP. And, the "Sedentary" setting in Fitbit is different than the "Sedentary" activity level in MFP. It doesn't make any difference to how many calories Fitbit ultimately decides you can have for the day, just how many it estimates you have remaining. Your actual activity level determines how many calories you are allotted at the end of the day.
Thanks
So this in the FAQ is not telling me not to set the Fitbit deficit goal? Does everyone set the deficit in Fitbit too?
"Why does MFP have a different eating goal than Fitbit's?
So even if you have both sites setup for same 500 cal deficit say, they will not match for eating goal until the day is finished. While the day is progressing, they use different methods, more on that later.
Recommend don't follow 2 roads to same destination, use MFP for food and eating goals, use Fitbit for daily movement goals and exercise logging."0 -
melissa112 wrote: »@melissa112: You did it right. Just pick the same deficit as MFP. Since Fitbit has a different way of determining the number of calories you have to eat, you don't set that. Just go by MFP. And, the "Sedentary" setting in Fitbit is different than the "Sedentary" activity level in MFP. It doesn't make any difference to how many calories Fitbit ultimately decides you can have for the day, just how many it estimates you have remaining. Your actual activity level determines how many calories you are allotted at the end of the day.
Thanks
So this in the FAQ is not telling me not to set the Fitbit deficit goal? Does everyone set the deficit in Fitbit too?
"Why does MFP have a different eating goal than Fitbit's?
So even if you have both sites setup for same 500 cal deficit say, they will not match for eating goal until the day is finished. While the day is progressing, they use different methods, more on that later.
Recommend don't follow 2 roads to same destination, use MFP for food and eating goals, use Fitbit for daily movement goals and exercise logging."
No, you SHOULD set the Fitbit deficit goal, for consistency. But you have less control over the eating goal than you have in MFP. In MFP, you enter your stats - height, weight, age, gender - and your activity level and MFP sets your eating goal (or, you can set it manually, I think, but that's a completely separate discussion). So, you can affect your eating goal by picking a different activity level. You can't do that in Fitbit. In Fitbit you can choose Sedentary - where it assumes you're going to be very inactive for the rest of the day - or Personalized - where it uses your activity history to predict how active you're going to be - but there isn't a "this is my normal daily activity level" setting. As a result, the "calories remaining" for the day never match between MFP and Fitbit until the end of the day, when your total calorie burn for the day is sent over from Fitbit to MFP. That's why the "don't follow 2 roads to the same destination" advice is given. Just use MFP, because it's generally easier to use for meal planning. Fitbit either starts the day really, really low (Sedentary setting) or possibly way too high (Personalized setting).0 -
melissa112 wrote: »@melissa112: You did it right. Just pick the same deficit as MFP. Since Fitbit has a different way of determining the number of calories you have to eat, you don't set that. Just go by MFP. And, the "Sedentary" setting in Fitbit is different than the "Sedentary" activity level in MFP. It doesn't make any difference to how many calories Fitbit ultimately decides you can have for the day, just how many it estimates you have remaining. Your actual activity level determines how many calories you are allotted at the end of the day.
Thanks
So this in the FAQ is not telling me not to set the Fitbit deficit goal? Does everyone set the deficit in Fitbit too?
"Why does MFP have a different eating goal than Fitbit's?
So even if you have both sites setup for same 500 cal deficit say, they will not match for eating goal until the day is finished. While the day is progressing, they use different methods, more on that later.
Recommend don't follow 2 roads to same destination, use MFP for food and eating goals, use Fitbit for daily movement goals and exercise logging."
No, you SHOULD set the Fitbit deficit goal, for consistency. But you have less control over the eating goal than you have in MFP. In MFP, you enter your stats - height, weight, age, gender - and your activity level and MFP sets your eating goal (or, you can set it manually, I think, but that's a completely separate discussion). So, you can affect your eating goal by picking a different activity level. You can't do that in Fitbit. In Fitbit you can choose Sedentary - where it assumes you're going to be very inactive for the rest of the day - or Personalized - where it uses your activity history to predict how active you're going to be - but there isn't a "this is my normal daily activity level" setting. As a result, the "calories remaining" for the day never match between MFP and Fitbit until the end of the day, when your total calorie burn for the day is sent over from Fitbit to MFP. That's why the "don't follow 2 roads to the same destination" advice is given. Just use MFP, because it's generally easier to use for meal planning. Fitbit either starts the day really, really low (Sedentary setting) or possibly way too high (Personalized setting).
HI
Thanks for the reply. I've already set the Fitbit to one or the other (Personal, Sedentary). Now I can't change it to just nothing! I've set the deficit the same as MFP, but not sure how to get rid of the personal or sedentary option,0 -
You can't get rid of the personal or sedentary option, I don't think. It's one or the other, once you've chosen a food plan. But, you can ignore that tile, or just take it off your dashboard. I keep the Food Plan tile on my dashboard even though I go by MFP for eating, but not the Calories in vs. Calories out tile. That one is pretty useless as far as I'm concerned.0
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Hey everyone!! The last few days I noticed that my aria scale has stopped syncing my weight and it's pulling in my husbands instead. I have looked at both fitbit and MFP to see if there is some kind of setting to tell it to pull mine again but I can't find anything. I've disconnected and reinstalled, still didn't fix it. Any suggestions? Am I the only one having this issue?0
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I killed my iphone by dropping it in the toilet.
I tried using my work phone today to sync my fitbit but it won't work. Its a windows phone and I can't even get MFP to work on it. So annoyed. I now have to wait until I get home to sync my fitbit with my Laptop. #firstworldproblems0 -
Windows phone app store doesn't come up with MFP. It does appear that fitbit is in there. Since MS now has its own fitness band and apps to go with that I doubt MFP app for Windows phone with be a priority for them.0
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MFP only synced FitBit calories as of sometime between 10 and 11pm last night, although I've synced this morning and have updates for today. is this a known bug? I notice failure to sync for entire day occasionally. same thing happened on Sat 3/12 but I discounted that as something to do with time change to daylight savings time.1
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Problems and issues should be in the main topics for the group, not the stickies which are specific to whatever they are about - the FAQ in this case.
Mainly because most don't see responses in the FAQ, more views as a topic main group.0 -
I've read most of this thread but still can't find an answer.
I log my food on MFP and use my fitbit HR for cardio. I don't care about my steps, I only put it on to ride my spin bike. I press and hold the button to record my workout. It seems ridiculous that I then have to manually log it in either fitbit or MFP - isn't that why I recorded it in the first place? Today I burned 400 calories according to fitbit but it has yet to show up in MFP. I have done everything suggested in this thread to sync them and I think they are. Why isn't my workout showing up in MFP?0 -
I've read most of this thread but still can't find an answer.
I log my food on MFP and use my fitbit HR for cardio. I don't care about my steps, I only put it on to ride my spin bike. I press and hold the button to record my workout. It seems ridiculous that I then have to manually log it in either fitbit or MFP - isn't that why I recorded it in the first place? Today I burned 400 calories according to fitbit but it has yet to show up in MFP. I have done everything suggested in this thread to sync them and I think they are. Why isn't my workout showing up in MFP?
2nd question in the FAQ actually confirms your method of usage. You are doing it right.
4th question clears up your misunderstanding of your workout showing up in MFP. They don't.
No question on all possible sync issues, but couple of them do mention what is seen and not seen, and how to confirm they are syncing.
Is your food diary meals on Fitbit?
Are steps showing on MFP?
Do you have an MFP Exercise diary Fitbit adjustment?
You don't mentioned any of those to give a clue.
But since that is the remaining question - it would be best in the general Fitbit group topics so people actually see it, or read over the threads - there could be an issue right now - or another topic posted with exactly your question.
Might reread the 1st half of the FAQ again, because some info you may not even know you don't know about, or haven't seen something to know what it's talking about yet.0 -
@lmoore600 : If you only wear your Fitbit while you're exercising, then it will think you're asleep the rest of the day - totally inactive. So, the calorie burn it computes is going to be quite low and you'll get a Fitbit calorie adjustment that is low or even negative (or zero if you have negative adjustments disabled). Wearing it only for exercise isn't really the way a Fitbit is intended to be used. However, if that's how you want or need to use it, then don't connect your accounts and use the data your Fitbit gives you for your workout to manually log the exercise in MFP, just like you would if you used a chest strap HRM.0
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how could I get the most accurate readings on my fit bit charge?
I work a desk job warehouse supervisor so I am on my feet here and there riding a forklift as well and noticed the fit bit picks up my driving as steps even when am driving my car .
can anyone help out with this.
also ive had my charge for about 3 weeks and it does not keep a a charge longer then a day and a have even while I charge it when I am in the shower or on my lunch break .
I also picked up a fit bit blaze and notice the count was pretty identical so don't think the hrm is much of a of a difference .
Thanks0 -
You could attempt to change the sensitivity settings regarding prominent arm, and hope that cuts out the majority of the false bounce steps from the forklift, but not too many actual steps taken - or a better balance between them at least.
Otherwise you can tag blocks of time as activity of car or bus driving, not sure which it still works with, which will wipe out the step count and attempt to give better calorie burn for still being active with something non-step based.
As to how those steps accuracy translates to calorie accuracy, depends on how much distance is being given already for those false steps - may be so minor the increased calorie burn is actually correct compared to the BMR level burn you'd get with no steps seen.
The battery should be doing better, you done a computer sync so the device can get a software update?0 -
i think my question was answered in the FAQ, but just to be clear, i do not need to manually add my elliptical work out in MFP if i have a fitbit HR device (i have the blaze)?0
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I often wonder if I should add extra things, even minor things like housework etc, as I never do since getting my fitbit zip. I see so many other people adding extra exercise etc.0
