We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Fitbit charge 2 and calories earned

Addiesmama10
Addiesmama10 Posts: 5 Member
edited November 2024 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?

Replies

  • capaul42
    capaul42 Posts: 1,390 Member
    The way MFP is designed, yes.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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: 7,796 Member
    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
    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
    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: 14,568 Member
    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!
This discussion has been closed.

Categories