Elliptical and fitbit syncing

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jadeyq1
jadeyq1 Posts: 178 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Help! So my Fitbit is synced with my MFP account and all is well but if I add the Elliptical to my exercises, the calories that I earned from my steps that day will drastically decrease. It doesn't happen if I add any other exercise so what is it about the Elliptical that it doesn't like?? I'm telling it what time I did it so it can't be confusing the steps I've already done with my time on the machine. Any ideas or anybody with the same issue?

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  • jadeyq1
    jadeyq1 Posts: 178 Member
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    Bumping for help!
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    Well i know for me when I do an elliptical I do get steps at the same time. If I enter elliptical and the correct start time and duration it replaces the calories burned from fitbits calculations with the elliptical burn for that time. Usually, my calorie burn from an elliptical is way for than from steps. Are you just entering something small like 1 calorie burned? If so, then I can see how it messes things up.
  • Froggymcconnell
    Froggymcconnell Posts: 92 Member
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    I don't know why this and cant answer question but I just wanted to say I never add the exercises I do. I just use the calorie adjustment side of it because I don't want it to over calculate or under calculate.
  • jadeyq1
    jadeyq1 Posts: 178 Member
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    I usually do the Elliptical for around 12 minutes which MFP tells me burns around 130 cals. But on a day when I've done a good amount of steps, my fitbit adjustment will have earned me around 440 cals but when I add the Elliptical that drops to around 180! So the maths doesn't even add up there!
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    sorry, that doesnt make sense to me. There is what MFP does as an adjustment and there is how many calories Fitbit actually calculates. If you forget about the adjustment itself and look in the fitbit app under calories burned, do you see more calories than you would expect? You can also look at the calories burned for that specific day and see what impact those 12 minutes of elliptical have. The lines should be higher for that time than any other time. If not, it probably didnt go over correctly. Once you verify that the fitbit side of things, then the next step would be to see what MFP is doing as an adjustment. Your calorie goal and a number of other factors can impact that.
  • motivatedsister
    motivatedsister Posts: 544 Member
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    It sounds to me like you're double counting....you're taking what Fitbit says you burned, but then also coming to MFP and manually entering in that you did the elliptical and MFP spits out calorie burned for the duration...correct?

    You need to do one or the other. Either sync your Fitbit with MFP and don't manually input exercise in MFP, or don't sync your Fitbit and manually enter your exercise calories here. I've never entered exercise here on MFP, but I know if I did that on Fitbit it's going to delete your steps done if you add in exercise that takes place at the same time your tracker tracked you exercising...so maybe that's what's happening with your steps. Plus, don't know where you wear your tracker while doing elliptical, but I know for me it doesn't track steps very well if I wear it on my wrist when using the elliptical.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    motivatedsister wrote: »
    You need to do one or the other. Either sync your Fitbit with MFP and don't manually input exercise in MFP, or don't sync your Fitbit and manually enter your exercise calories here. I've never entered exercise here on MFP, but I know if I did that on Fitbit it's going to delete your steps done if you add in exercise that takes place at the same time your tracker tracked you exercising...so maybe that's what's happening with your steps. Plus, don't know where you wear your tracker while doing elliptical, but I know for me it doesn't track steps very well if I wear it on my wrist when using the elliptical.

    The first part isn't true. Many people successfully enter exercise through MFP and still sync with fitbit. Its a matter of preference. You are right that if you manually enter exercise it will overwrite the Fitbit calories from steps for that time with the calories obtained from MFP. It does not erase the steps - otherwise I would be way behind in step challenges. It is true that the elliptical can be tricky in giving steps on an elliptical when you are holding on to something. However, generally you burn more calories from an elliptical than you do for steps in the same time.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    either log your exercise in fitbit (which is what ive been doing the past month or so) OR mfp - not both.

    if you use the moving arms handles on the elliptical your steps will be counted. mine always are (its really where i get most of my steps)
  • heatherheyns
    heatherheyns Posts: 144 Member
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    I have found that entering all exercise into Fitbit works best. It then sends over that information to MFP, where I enter all food. Some people do it other ways, but after some trial and error, I find that to be the easier and least likely to make mistakes.

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