Fitbit charge 2 and calories earned

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Addiesmama10
Addiesmama10 Posts: 5 Member
edited November 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
My sweet husband bought me a fitbit charge 2 a couple days ago. I linked it to my fp and as I accrue steps it adds my calories back. My question is, do I need to eat those, or no?

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  • capaul42
    capaul42 Posts: 1,390 Member
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    The way MFP is designed, yes.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    Yes. You might want to be conservative and only eat back *most* of the calories during the first couple of weeks as the device "gets to know you" - but you should quickly get an idea of how accurately the tracker is measuring your burn by looking at your intake and your weight. Mine gives me a very accurate average daily burn.
  • carlosapolinarioferreira
    carlosapolinarioferreira Posts: 31 Member
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    SusanMFindlay wrote: »
    Yes. You might want to be conservative and only eat back *most* of the calories during the first couple of weeks as the device "gets to know you" - but you should quickly get an idea of how accurately the tracker is measuring your burn by looking at your intake and your weight. Mine gives me a very accurate average daily burn.

    I just purchased a Charge 2 this weakend, you mean the device gets to know you and it adjusts as we go?
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
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    carlosapolinarioferreira wrote: »
    SusanMFindlay wrote: »
    Yes. You might want to be conservative and only eat back *most* of the calories during the first couple of weeks as the device "gets to know you" - but you should quickly get an idea of how accurately the tracker is measuring your burn by looking at your intake and your weight. Mine gives me a very accurate average daily burn.

    I just purchased a Charge 2 this weakend, you mean the device gets to know you and it adjusts as we go?

    Actually yes it does. I have had mine for about a week now. Last week I was getting double the calories that was shown as my calories burned. So far this week the numbers on MFP is the same as is showing on my Charge 2.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    Have a read of the very helpful info at the MFP Fitbit Group page to see how to set up properly :)

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • Bearbo27
    Bearbo27 Posts: 339 Member
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    Yes, you set your activity level to sedentary and as soon as you go over the sedentary level of activity, mfp will start adding on calories to eat. I am down just shy of 60 lbs from using this exact method so it definitely works.
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
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    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Have a read of the very helpful info at the MFP Fitbit Group page to see how to set up properly :)

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    Thank you to all who keep telling me to read something about the setup.. I had the fitbit charge right before this one. I am aware of how to set it up. My question was not about set up. I was just curious about the calorie disparity.
  • jontywontytong
    jontywontytong Posts: 33 Member
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    My Fitbit charge hr is a bit overzealous with calories it gives me to consume.everytime I use it it gives me over a thousand calories to eat back for a hour of cardio at the gym so I only use it now to count steps and hours slept
  • leooftheyear
    leooftheyear Posts: 429 Member
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    jontywontytong wrote: »
    My Fitbit charge hr is a bit overzealous with calories it gives me to consume.everytime I use it it gives me over a thousand calories to eat back for a hour of cardio at the gym so I only use it now to count steps and hours slept

    every time you use it? Do you not use it every day?
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,651 Member
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    Ugh, every time I give up on my chargeHR, y'all pull me back in. :)

    I was having the same problems with wayyyyy overestimation of my calories burned.

    May be a dumb question but *how* does it get to know you? What do you have to do? I'd worn it all day for a few days and it usually doubled my purposeful exercise calories. (I was comparing it to my One which is way closer to what I burn).
  • jaedwa1
    jaedwa1 Posts: 114 Member
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    I bought my HR2 in order to more accurately calculate my TDEE. To do that, I'm subtracting all the exercise calories it gives me and averaging the difference (using 7 days of data). Then I will set my MFP goals by either subtracting 500 calories or 20%, whichever keeps me above my estimated BMR/RMR.

    I walk a 3 mile loop for exercise. I have noticed that the HR2 assigns way more calories then I believe I really burn (based on my experience with chest strap HRMs). For example, yesterday I walked 3.5 miles and the HR2 said I burned 579 calories. Even though there are two steep hills on the loop, I know I didn't burn that much. So I subtracted 200 calories from that total (or only added 379 calories to my daily calorie allowance).

    Also, last night I went out to dinner and the theater for a play. By the end of the night, FitBit added another 325 calories to my total. To me, those calories are not exercise but part of daily life, so I ignored them.

    I know this might sound tedious, but it really appeals to the data nerd in me!
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    edited December 2016
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    jontywontytong wrote: »
    My Fitbit charge hr is a bit overzealous with calories it gives me to consume.everytime I use it it gives me over a thousand calories to eat back for a hour of cardio at the gym so I only use it now to count steps and hours slept

    Wow! Are you (or does it think you are) a large male? Mine only gives me about 400 calories for my 50-60 minute long workout class (which usually has me in the "cardio zone" most of the time with a couple of minutes of "peak zone"). But I'm a 160 pound 40 year old female.

    I haven't had any of the problems some people report with overestimation of steps or calories burned. While my daily burn from FitBit *seems* high (averaging 2700 cals/day this month), if I eat 500 cals less than it, I lose weight as predicted. Similarly, I've spent the whole morning marking tests - which means both hands moving a *lot* as I flip through papers and move them around - and I got, at most, 50 "fake" steps out of that (probably closer to 20).
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,939 Member
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    Take the dang estimates as given. Connect mfp and fitbit and enable negative adjustments.

    Take calories in from mfp. Calories out from fitbit. Eat 10% to 20℅ less than your total burn on average every week (up to 25℅ if currently classified as obese).

    Plot your weight ins through trendweight.com by automatically connecting that sote to your fitbit.com account.

    Do this for a month then evaluate your progress and adjust!

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