Fitbit taking away calories
xandrapn6
Posts: 13 Member
I recently linked my Fitbit and MFP accounts to try and get more accurate calorie and exercise stats. I think the opposite is happening. I have my settings so that Fitbit can take calories away based on my activity level. I have a Flex so if I do any workout that doesn't involve a lot of walking or steps it takes the calories away. Should I just turn this off?
It's just so frustrating to do a bunch of lifting or something and lose all the calories because I wasn't running laps around the gym in between sets.
Opinions on this?
It's just so frustrating to do a bunch of lifting or something and lose all the calories because I wasn't running laps around the gym in between sets.
Opinions on this?
0
Replies
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Sounds like your activity level on MFP is set to high.
What's your activity like without exercise?
What do you have MFP set to?
Do your stats match in both programs?
Are you wearing your fitbit all day or only when you workout?
For the record, my daily activity before exercise was so low when I first got my fitbit that it would take away calories even at sedentary activity on MFP. I made small changes that made me more active in my day to day life so that it stopped happening.2 -
I turned it off on mine as it didn't make sense to me to have MFP take away activity calories. I have MFP set at sedentary. I may ride the exercise bike and generally the fitbit does not record that activity accurately, so I take a guess at adding this as an activity on mine.0
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What you're describing is different from the negative adjustment. You're logging exercise on MFP, which in turn is adjusting the adjustment you receive from Fitbit as it overwrites that time period. The best way to combat this is to log your non-step based activity in Fitbit (which will give you a better estimate as to what you burned anyway).0
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What you're describing is different from the negative adjustment. You're logging exercise on MFP, which in turn is adjusting the adjustment you receive from Fitbit as it overwrites that time period. The best way to combat this is to log your non-step based activity in Fitbit (which will give you a better estimate as to what you burned anyway).
But that's what it is, the negative adjustment. I log activity then Fitbit makes a negative adjustment and wipes all the calories out.0 -
But that's what it is, the negative adjustment. I log activity then Fitbit makes a negative adjustment and wipes all the calories out.
The negative adjustment option is for when you have a less active day and don't burn the amount of calories MFP believes you do at maintenance.
A better explanation of the difference between these: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy0 -
If Fitbit already credited you some calories for the time you were working out, and you add for example 250 calories through MFP, you'll probably see a -250 calorie adjustment from Fitbit, because otherwise you get Fitbit's activity credit AND MFP's. After a while, the Fitbit negative adjustment should decrease, but unless Fitbit thinks you were just sitting down the whole time, there's going to be some kind of negative adjustment to avoid double-counting. I find I get an adjustment that wipes out the activity I just entered completely straight away (had +50 from Fitbit, enter a 300 cal workout in MFP, get -250 adjustment from Fitbit) but this sorts itself out after a while to a more reasonable level, so I might end up with a Fitbit adjusment of +50 still, or I might have only +10, or even -20. It's just so MFP and Fitbit agree on how many calories you burned, using data Fitbit actually recorded, unless there's a manual entry for that time period.
Eg. Let's assume you have MFP set to sedentary and it thinks you will therefore burn 1500 calories per day, and a standard non-exercising day on Fitbit shows 1500 calories.
Today you're not even as active as sedentary expects, so you're on track to burn 1400 calories all day. At this point, MFP probably has a -100cal Fitbit adjustment.
So then you work out for an hour. Fitbit records your workout as 200 calories, because it didn't pick up very much. At this point MFP shows a Fitbit adjustment of +100cal. But you know (as much as it's possible to know accurately) you actually burned 450 calories, so you enter "workout - 450 calories - 4pm-5pm) in MFP. You'll probably see a negative adjustment immediately of -450cal. But after a minute or two, once MFP and Fitbit have had a chance to sync data again, you'll probably see a Fitbit adjusment of -100 or thereabouts. Yes, this looks like Fitbit is taking away your calories, but because MFP counts exercise and activity differently, and you didn't do the general activity it expected, it uses Fitbit data to adjust down. Both will still have the same total daily burn:
Fitbit: 1400 calories burned excluding 4pm-5pm +450 calorie exercise entry in MFP (for 4pm-5pm)
MFP: 1500 calorie expected burn - 100 calorie Fitbit adjustment + 450 calorie exercise entry in MFP
Both think you burned 1950 calories.
Then let's add in your deficit. Assume you have a 250 calorie deficit.
Fitbit: 1400cals burned excluding 4pm to 5pm + 450cal MFP exercise entry - 250cal deficit
MFP: 1250cal daily goal (from 1500cal exp burn for activity level - 250cal deficit) + 450cal MFP exercise entry - 100 cal Fitbit adjusment for lower than expected activity
Both agree that you can eat 1700 calories today.
OK, Fitbit might tell you that you can eat 1750, then adjust it down to 1690 just before you go to bed, then only tell you the next day that you could have eaten exactly 1700 calories, but MFP will likely decide on roughly 1700 straight away and not change unless you do a load more activity, or way less activity than expected for the last few hours of the day.
If you have Fitbit and MFP targetting the same rate of loss (.5lb/1lb/1.5lb etc per week), and both Fitbit dashboard and MFP's (adjusted) daily goal are within 50 cals of each other by the time you close your diary at the end of the day, there's nothing to worry about.1
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