Fitbit no longer giving me extra calories
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swimmchick87
Posts: 458 Member
I've been absent from MFP for about a month 
. I just started logging calories again yesterday and wore my fitbit for the first time in forever today. I haven't changed any of my goals or diary settings since I was on here before. I used to earn somewhere around 100 extra calories for getting in my 10,000 steps. Today my fitbit synced just fine to MFP and the 10,000 steps show up under exercise, however, it shows my calories earned as 0. Nothing about the timing or way I got the steps was any different than what I was doing before either.
Is this a problem with MFP? Or has the system somehow been "updated" and the extra calories I earned before were inaccurate? I don't get a lot of steps in my regular routine, so to get my 10,000 I have to spend a significant amount of time pacing in my living room while I watch TV. If I'm really not burning any extra calories, it doesn't seem worth it to keep that up. I do short workouts as well (usually about 30 minutes, but not step based so they don't show up on fitbit), but I was hoping to keep that up as well as getting the 10,000 steps daily.
. I just started logging calories again yesterday and wore my fitbit for the first time in forever today. I haven't changed any of my goals or diary settings since I was on here before. I used to earn somewhere around 100 extra calories for getting in my 10,000 steps. Today my fitbit synced just fine to MFP and the 10,000 steps show up under exercise, however, it shows my calories earned as 0. Nothing about the timing or way I got the steps was any different than what I was doing before either.Is this a problem with MFP? Or has the system somehow been "updated" and the extra calories I earned before were inaccurate? I don't get a lot of steps in my regular routine, so to get my 10,000 I have to spend a significant amount of time pacing in my living room while I watch TV. If I'm really not burning any extra calories, it doesn't seem worth it to keep that up. I do short workouts as well (usually about 30 minutes, but not step based so they don't show up on fitbit), but I was hoping to keep that up as well as getting the 10,000 steps daily.
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Replies
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A previous 100 Calorie Fitbit adjustment is not a log of Calories added to your MFP Activity Level. What is you MFP Activity Level set at? Do you have negative adjustments enabled? Enabling negative adjustments will show the progress throughout the day each time MFP and Fitbit sync. If you have not moved enough to exceed the current MFP Activity Level setting, then the adjustment will be negative. As you move more, it will get closer to zero then eventually turn positive. I would suggest setting your MFP Activity Level to a lower setting.
Also, check that the MFP and Fitbit time zones are still set properly, mismatched time zones could cause inaccurate adjustments.0 -
I would try unlinking and relinking the apps. My steps still show up as exercise calories.0
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The Fitbit adjustment is the difference between what MFP thought you burn in a day (based on activity level choice) and what Fitbit shows you burn (based on actual movement).
You indicate you started wearing it today after a break. Did you have it on all day? OR did you put it on at some point after the day started? If the latter, then even though it shows X number of steps for you, it does not reflect all of the calories you have burned for movement. Wear it from midnight onward to be more accurate. So ignore a partial day...0 -
A previous 100 Calorie Fitbit adjustment is not a log of Calories added to your MFP Activity Level.
That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that previously, on days I wore my fitbit and got 10,000 steps, the 10,000 steps would show up under exercise and I would "earn" about an extra 100 calories. My understanding is that enabling negative adjustments won't change anything for me because I'm already at 1200 calories and MFP is not going to give me less than that. I had negative adjustments enabled at one point and nothing changed. Like I said in the OP, I haven't changed any of my diary settings or any other settings at all, so why it would be different than last time I wore the fitbit with these exact same diary settings?StaciMarie1974 wrote: »The Fitbit adjustment is the difference between what MFP thought you burn in a day (based on activity level choice) and what Fitbit shows you burn (based on actual movement).
You indicate you started wearing it today after a break. Did you have it on all day? OR did you put it on at some point after the day started? If the latter, then even though it shows X number of steps for you, it does not reflect all of the calories you have burned for movement. Wear it from midnight onward to be more accurate. So ignore a partial day...
Yes, I wore it all day. I don't have a charge so it's not recording other movements...only steps. I understand how it works with it giving adjustments based on what fitbit says I burned. My question is, why was I given extra calories previously but not this time, if absolutely nothing is different? The only thing I can think of is either there is a problem with MFP and it's showing up as "0" when it should show up as something else or they've somehow updated the system and the "0" is correct (meaning I'm not actually burning many calories even with 10,000 steps) while the previous 100 calories was too generous.
I don't even eat the extra calories from steps most of the time anyway, so I'm not so concerned about that part. My concern is all the time I'm putting in pacing around my living room (often an hour or more per day) to get the 10,000 steps. If that's not really burning any extra calories, why bother?0 -
swimmchick87 wrote: »A previous 100 Calorie Fitbit adjustment is not a log of Calories added to your MFP Activity Level.
That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that previously, on days I wore my fitbit and got 10,000 steps, the 10,000 steps would show up under exercise and I would "earn" about an extra 100 calories. My understanding is that enabling negative adjustments won't change anything for me because I'm already at 1200 calories and MFP is not going to give me less than that. I had negative adjustments enabled at one point and nothing changed. Like I said in the OP, I haven't changed any of my diary settings or any other settings at all, so why it would be different than last time I wore the fitbit with these exact same diary settings?StaciMarie1974 wrote: »The Fitbit adjustment is the difference between what MFP thought you burn in a day (based on activity level choice) and what Fitbit shows you burn (based on actual movement).
You indicate you started wearing it today after a break. Did you have it on all day? OR did you put it on at some point after the day started? If the latter, then even though it shows X number of steps for you, it does not reflect all of the calories you have burned for movement. Wear it from midnight onward to be more accurate. So ignore a partial day...
Yes, I wore it all day. I don't have a charge so it's not recording other movements...only steps. I understand how it works with it giving adjustments based on what fitbit says I burned. My question is, why was I given extra calories previously but not this time, if absolutely nothing is different? The only thing I can think of is either there is a problem with MFP and it's showing up as "0" when it should show up as something else or they've somehow updated the system and the "0" is correct (meaning I'm not actually burning many calories even with 10,000 steps) while the previous 100 calories was too generous.
I don't even eat the extra calories from steps most of the time anyway, so I'm not so concerned about that part. My concern is all the time I'm putting in pacing around my living room (often an hour or more per day) to get the 10,000 steps. If that's not really burning any extra calories, why bother?
All Fitbit models contain an accelerometor that measures how quick movement was when earning steps. The speed and duration of steps figure into the estimated total Calories burned reported by Fitbit to MFP. Although different days could have similar number of steps, the Fitbit adjustment could vary by quite a few Calories, even hundreds.
Note for these two days, I had more steps on the second day than the first, but the adjustment was more than 100 Calories less for the day with more steps. These two days are not an anomaly; this is representative of how I have been getting different adjustments for similar step count over the past two years. I have had no trouble losing or maintaining my weight these past two years by eating back 100% of my earned Fitbit Calorie adjustments.
Jul 08 7084 steps / 618 Cals
Jul 10 7130 steps / 504 Cals
You could try contacting MFP Customer Support or Fitbit Help and ask them.
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My app is adding my exercise calories to my food today, all kinds of messed up0
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HermanLily wrote: »My app is adding my exercise calories to my food today, all kinds of messed up
when you add exercise your food calories will go up its how mfp works(your calorie deficit is built into whatever amount of calories MFP gives you so any exercise makes the deficit bigger,so it will add those back in.. it should also log it in exercise1 -
If you are on the phone app for MFP you can check to see how it arrives at the adjustment #.
First sync Fitbit to have up to date info.
Then open MFP app. Sync if it not showing the latest Fitbit #.
Go into your Diary and tap the adjustment #. Right now mine says -82.
On the next screen tap the adjustment again.
You'll land on a screen that shows something like:
How we calculate your calorie adjustment:
Fitbit Calories burned 1687
Full day projection based on 772 calories burned as of 11:34am
Myfitnesspal Calories burned 1769
Includes 0 calories from exercise
Right now, based on what I've done - MFP projection is 1769 and it thinks that according to Fitbit, I'll only hit 1687.
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So if your adjustment does not make sense based on your history, check this detail. I don't know how to access that page thru the website.
You can also go back to prior days, when you were getting a Fitbit adjustment, and see the detail from those days. It could be something as simple as you are a little lighter now and thus burning less calories for moving a smaller body.1 -
CharlieBeansmom Tracey I understand that, but yesterday I walked nearly 10,000 steps and burned somewhere around 400 calories exercising. Yesterday my app subtracted my exercise calories from my food, instead of adding them. Very strange for sure.0
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It also could be you are getting one good sync form Fitbit account to MFP account - at some point during the day, but then it stops updating.
Fitbit sends new calorie count when 100 higher than prior sync.
If prior sync time is like 2 hrs or more and you've been sitting, or less time and a workout in there - it should have synced again.
You'll see that from instructions given in above post.
Mine has that issues - one good sync a day.
MFP tech support said the feed from Fitbit had the wrong time zone compared to my MFP account - which isn't correct visually, and that's all I can confirm.
So I don't buy that excuse, and I don't figure either side will figure it out. And no app use in my case to potentially confuse things.
Now, only 100 extra isn't much - if you've lost weight, you've lost TDEE.
Did you lose or correct Fitbit weight by 10lbs?0 -
What do you know, my diary just corrected itself right before my eyes
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HermanLily wrote: »CharlieBeansmom Tracey I understand that, but yesterday I walked nearly 10,000 steps and burned somewhere around 400 calories exercising. Yesterday my app subtracted my exercise calories from my food, instead of adding them. Very strange for sure.
yeah it will do that if you have negative calories enabled as well. you have to be so active before it will add calories to your calorie goal. but yeah sometimes it will show something thats incorrect and then later on it will straighten itself out. happens to me all the time. another reason why I hate fitbits0 -
Fitbit doesn't make the adjustments - it merely sends a step total and calorie burn total to MFP.
MFP does all the math with the calories figure. Or doesn't as you've seen.1 -
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It's subtracting exercise calories instead of adding them again....pita
It is not holding on to the steps0 -
HermanLily wrote: »It's subtracting exercise calories instead of adding them again....pita
It is not holding on to the steps
try uninstalling the app from MFP and reinstall it again and see if that helps. if not look at the forums as either MFP or fitbit is having the issues and there may be others experiencing the same thing.I am not having an issue which is rare0 -
My FB has not synced yo mfp for a couple of months. Annoying for this happen after 3 years of syncing. I think it's mfp prob not FB.0
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My FB has not synced yo mfp for a couple of months. Annoying for this happen after 3 years of syncing. I think it's mfp prob not FB.
You'd think the not syncing thing would be happening to everyone. I've had my fitbit synced here for nearly 3 years, and it has stopped syncing 3 times in all of that time, and each time was only for a matter of hours. Not a whole day, week or months.0
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