Fitbit cals burned vs mfp

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marym6066
marym6066 Posts: 21 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My Fitbit is synced to mfp. The last month or so mfp has been close with calories burned to that of my Fitbit tracking my daily workout. The last two days mfp has only given me a fraction of what my Fitbit says I burned. Is this mfp saying that with my current weight I need to amp it up a bit? I don’t care an awful lot as I don’t eat back calories but I want to make sure I’m not slacking on the burn. It’s hard for me to fit in time being a stay at home mom but I ride my stationary bike at least 30 min a day. Do I need to do more?

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  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
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    Sometimes Fitbits can overestimate calorie burns, so I'd err on the side of MFP's lower prediction. All you can really do is stick to one method for a while and see how your progress goes, and make adjustments as needed.
  • marym6066
    marym6066 Posts: 21 Member
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    I guess I thought with the heart rate monitor aspect of the Fitbit that it would be more accurate. The Fitbit says I burned 270 while mfp only took 66 of that
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    marym6066 wrote: »
    My Fitbit is synced to mfp. The last month or so mfp has been close with calories burned to that of my Fitbit tracking my daily workout. The last two days mfp has only given me a fraction of what my Fitbit says I burned. Is this mfp saying that with my current weight I need to amp it up a bit? I don’t care an awful lot as I don’t eat back calories but I want to make sure I’m not slacking on the burn. It’s hard for me to fit in time being a stay at home mom but I ride my stationary bike at least 30 min a day. Do I need to do more?

    No...it's likely a syncing glitch.
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
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    Not sure, but you can try disconnecting them and then reconnecting to see if that fixes it.
  • mranlett
    mranlett Posts: 56 Member
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    It also really depends on your workout. If you're doing cardio like jogging on a treadmill, Fitbit will be pretty accurate. If you're weight lifting or other types of workouts, the Fitbit heart rate calculation is not a very good estimate of total energy expended. However... if you're not eating back your exercise calories (which is a bad idea under any circumstance) then just use MFP to track what you did and to make sure you do as well or better in the future. The exact numbers don't really matter...
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    marym6066 wrote: »
    I guess I thought with the heart rate monitor aspect of the Fitbit that it would be more accurate. The Fitbit says I burned 270 while mfp only took 66 of that

    What is your activity level set to? MFP is only going to give you credit for calories in excess of what would be included in your activity level.
  • marym6066
    marym6066 Posts: 21 Member
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    I think it's at moderate or something. I have not changed it though. I understand what you are saying as I've changed it from sedentary to moderate and have seen the difference but this is just within the last 2 days. I've been at the same activity level for some time now
  • RAinWA
    RAinWA Posts: 1,980 Member
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    That really does sound like a sync error. Last week I suddenly got a huge increase in calories from Fitbit to MFP and I knew I hadn't done enough to earn that many calories. Turns out Fitbit had sent my activity info over to MFP twice or MFP counted it twice or something. I just deleted the duplicate entry in my exercise log.

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,739 Member
    edited February 2018
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    Go to Fitbit and look up your total caloric expenditure for the past few days.

    Has it slacked? Is it higher?


    As to what mfp is showing... who knows! (Did you log exercise on MFP? Are you looking at the same time each day? Is integration currently working? Have you synchronized your watch? Have the data passed through to MFP yet?)
  • CatchMom11
    CatchMom11 Posts: 462 Member
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    Go to your Fitbit app and manually sync it by pulling down on the page. You should see it start to sync.

    Your Fitbit will ALWAYS be more accurate than MFP because it's literally calculating off of your own actual HR.
  • marym6066
    marym6066 Posts: 21 Member
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    CatchMom13 wrote: »
    Go to your Fitbit app and manually sync it by pulling down on the page. You should see it start to sync.

    Your Fitbit will ALWAYS be more accurate than MFP because it's literally calculating off of your own actual HR.

    Yes that’s what I do every day.
  • DebLaBounty
    DebLaBounty Posts: 1,172 Member
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    What stood out for me was you’re not eating back any of the calories you earn by exercising. MFP is set up for you to do so. I did that & lost weight.
  • deimosphoebos
    deimosphoebos Posts: 117 Member
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    I also have a new Fitbit. I know I log my food well, but will be evaluating my Fitbit calorie burn over 4 weeks, after that I will look at my actual weight lost (1 lb = 3500 cal deficit) and then adjust. I will know what percentage of the Fitbit burn is an actual burn.

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