Right way to log Exercise and Food
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sdmarkow
Posts: 2 Member
I apologize in advance if this has been answered, but I cannot seem to find a definitive answer or maybe just a clear enough one for someone as dumb as me.
I have been logging my meals, water and exercise on MFP. I just received a Fitbit Charge2. I linked MFP and the Fitbit and the data seems to flow between them. I get a calorie adjustment from Fitbit on MFP and my calories from meals and water intake flows from MFP to fitbit.
The problem I have been having is with logging exercise. I used to log my gym visits on MFP and use the estimates of calories burned (though, I tended to reduce them since they seemed high). I can now tell my Fitbit that I'm walking on the treadmill or doing the elliptical or lifting weights and it logs the excerise there. However, I think the calorie adjustment comes over but not the specific exercise I am doing. Is there a way to have the exercise logged from the fitbit Charge 2 flow to the MFP exercise log? Or, a way to log it on MFP such that when the fitbit info comes over, it is not double counting the calories and recognizes that it is the same workout? I'm not sure how to do this properly. I think that the fitbit calories are probably more accurate, but I really want to continue the MFP exercise log since I've kept that up since I started.
Thanks in advance and again, sorry if this is already answered, but I could not find a simple explanation and directions for what I am trying to accomplish.
I have been logging my meals, water and exercise on MFP. I just received a Fitbit Charge2. I linked MFP and the Fitbit and the data seems to flow between them. I get a calorie adjustment from Fitbit on MFP and my calories from meals and water intake flows from MFP to fitbit.
The problem I have been having is with logging exercise. I used to log my gym visits on MFP and use the estimates of calories burned (though, I tended to reduce them since they seemed high). I can now tell my Fitbit that I'm walking on the treadmill or doing the elliptical or lifting weights and it logs the excerise there. However, I think the calorie adjustment comes over but not the specific exercise I am doing. Is there a way to have the exercise logged from the fitbit Charge 2 flow to the MFP exercise log? Or, a way to log it on MFP such that when the fitbit info comes over, it is not double counting the calories and recognizes that it is the same workout? I'm not sure how to do this properly. I think that the fitbit calories are probably more accurate, but I really want to continue the MFP exercise log since I've kept that up since I started.
Thanks in advance and again, sorry if this is already answered, but I could not find a simple explanation and directions for what I am trying to accomplish.
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Replies
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All MFP sees when you sync your Fitbit are the number of steps taken and total calories burned. It can't tell whether you burned those calories from exercise, general activity, or BMR. The best thing to do is to let Fitbit do what it is doing and make a post to your wall saying you exercised and burned so much for your friends to see. Even if you do log it it wouldn't double-count the calories, as MFP would ask for the exact time you worked out and would adjust what you get from Fitbit.
This is addressed in the FAQ linked at the top of this group.0 -
Ah, when I clicked on the FAQ, I didn't realize it brought me to the 5th page of comments. I thought that the "FAQ" was just a bunch of people talking about it, but no actual FAQ. Now I see it. I'll check it out from the beginning and hopefully it will be more helpful than Page 5 was.0
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I let the Fitbit log as it does and I put in an exercise log for 1 calorie in MFP to log what I did each day.0
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I let the Fitbit log as it does and I put in an exercise log for 1 calorie in MFP to log what I did each day.
Guess what you just did for any chance of accuracy for your Fitbit?
Now this is assumed they are synced as most are and OP was talking about.
When you logged 1 calorie for an MFP workout, entered your start and duration times - you just replaced the Fitbit block of calories for that with1 calorie.
So if Fitbit originally said you burned 500 calories in that 1 hr cardio session.
And you logged 1 calorie for it on MFP.
You just replaced 500 calories with 1 calorie.
Talk about screwing up any hope of these tools working correctly.
Why even log it in exercise diary, the calorie burn is obviously useless info to review later?
Just make a wall post about your workout.
But just want to warn people that the 1 calorie method has terrible consequences, since some still recommend doing that when they don't understand how MFP works.
Include Fitbit sync, really bad side effect.2 -
Make a wall post or you can add a 'food note' and list what/how much exercise you did in MFP.
Or if you log 1 calorie under "Exercises" as a manual activity, then log it as 1 minute of time (such as start time 12:01 and end time 12:02). As a manual logging you should be able to give the 'exercise' a name and include the duration in the name.0
