question about fitbit burn vs BMR

kayemme
kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
I have a fitbit that I mostly wear full-time. There are all kinds of syncing problems between FitBit & MFP, so I'm thinking of just manually adding the exercise calories instead of trying to get it all to work.

Should I take my daily calorie burn, for example, and subtract my BMR? Or is there a factor I am not considering?

I'm active. Some days are more active than others, but I'm not often sedentary. What do you think?

Replies

  • capaul42
    capaul42 Posts: 1,390 Member
    You'd have to subtract what MFP says your maintenance is. For example if you're set to lose 1lb a week and your calories are 1400 (1400+500=1900) then 1900 would be your maintenance which you would subtract from fitbit's number to get your adjustment.
  • kayemme
    kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
    Thanks for your response, but I'm not sure I totally understand. :(

    So my fitbit says that yesterday I burned 2,921 calories yesterday. It only counted something like 450 as exercise, though I did do a little more than that. I don't always push the "workout" button because I'm reasonably active, but fitbit won't pick up an "exercise" unless it's performed more than a certain number of minutes.

    I'm pretty sure the 2,921 includes my BMR of roughly 1800, which would mean that I actually burned (if I understand this correctly) a little more than 1000 calories.

    The maintenance number makes sense for consumption, but I'm talking about exertion. Or am I totally confused?


  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    if you add it manually then dont have fitbit synced with MFP or the calorie count will be higher and it may even double the calories(it did this to me awhile back because it wasnt showing my calorie burns on MFP,so when I entered them manually it doubled them). what did you do to burn 1000 calories?.
  • kayemme
    kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
    I don't have it automatic because it doesn't work very well, and it was adding to my fitbit dashboard, too.

    I bicycle commute & teach in an old school with no elevator. Before work yesterday, I biked to the yoga studio and did yoga sculpt). Fitbit counted my bike commute to the studio & back, and I used the function to log the yoga. What it did not catch was my all day running around, biking to work & back (because it's not a very long ride, but it is still a ride), up and down the stairs to classrooms & to my 2nd floor apt.

    The yoga & biking to the studio was the 450; the other 550 was in the rest of my regular day. The whole day added up to almost 3000.

    I'm just not sure if I should only count what the fitbit catches (because I'm noted as lightly active on mfp), or if I should take out my BMR & log the difference.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    well you can let fibit do its work for awhile and see if it makes any difference in weight loss. just eat back 25-50% of exercise calories it gives you and adjust from there.
  • kayemme
    kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
    edited October 2016
    But that's the thing: I'm not sure what I'm supposed to count as calories: a bit over 1000 for yesterday, or only 450?
  • socioseguro
    socioseguro Posts: 1,679 Member
    @kayemme
    I recommend you join MFP Fitbit group. You will find it at "Group" option, dark blue banner above
    here is a link to the "Frequenst Asked Questions" about MFP and Fitbit
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy/p1
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    kayemme wrote: »
    But that's the thing: I'm not sure what I'm supposed to count as calories: a bit over 1000 for yesterday, or only 450?

    Your BMR does not include non-exercise activity. So, based on your self-reported BMR of about 1800 and Lightly Active activity level, which adds about 33% or about 590 Cals to your BMR, your daily maintenance Cals as estimated by MFP are about 2390 Cals.

    Using your MFP Daily Goal of 1390, I am going to assume you are set to lose two pounds per week, 2390 maintenance - 1000 deficit Cals per day gives you a Goal of 1390 Cals per day.

    Your TDEE yesterday as estimated by Fitbit was about 2920. Since the Fitbit adjustment of 550 is pretty close to MFP's estimate of 590 Cals per day for Lightly Active non-exercise activity, I would say you only add the extra 450 Cals you recorded from the purposeful exercise.
  • kayemme
    kayemme Posts: 1,782 Member
    okay, great! that's exactly what I was trying to figure out.. I don't want to double it up.
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