Fitbit and exercise calories; any way to stop MFP from taking the info from fitbit?

orkla
orkla Posts: 34 Member
edited April 2018 in Fitness and Exercise
This is more about the aesthetics then any real problem. But fitbit keeps throwing these really high exercise numbers at me, that I in no way believe in.

Like today, it's given me over 600 exercise calories, and the only thing I've done is walk to the bus, walked around at a marked, and then walked back to the bus. That doesn't add up to 600 burned calories in my mind.

I really like MFP, and I like my fitbit. But is there anyway to stop MFP from counting the steps from the fitbit to be counted as exercise?

Edit: I've done some changes to the heart rate setting. Hopefully that solves the problem.

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Become a premium member, which allows you to not add exercise calories, or disconnect your Fitbit. Why do you think your adjustment is too high?
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
    Any chance you are set to sedentary and you're actually active or lightly active?
  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
    Just disconnect it from the app.
  • orkla
    orkla Posts: 34 Member
    @malibu927 20 minutes of walking do not count as exercise in my book. The fitbit numbers for the day seems reasonable, it's just what gets registered as exercise that's too high.
  • orkla
    orkla Posts: 34 Member
    @sarahthes I've had it on a lot of different settings, and it doesn't seem to change. Right now I have it on high activity, and it still pulls the numbers from fitbit.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    orkla wrote: »
    @malibu927 20 minutes of walking do not count as exercise in my book. The fitbit numbers for the day seems reasonable, it's just what gets registered as exercise that's too high.

    How many steps do you usually get a day? Have you made sure your stats on both Fitbit and MFP are correct?
  • orkla
    orkla Posts: 34 Member
    @Momepro I really like everything else about the connection. And it really isn't a problem, just an annoyance I hoped there would be a solution for.
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
    That's really odd. What is your average daily step count and how long have you had the Fitbit? I know for me I often get a bit of a negative adjustment late in the day and the # of Fitbit calories decreases significantly because once the kids are in bed I am basically done for the day. Do you find your adjustment changes towards the end of the day?
  • orkla
    orkla Posts: 34 Member
    @malibu927 I've double checked the steps on the fitbit, and they match as well as can be expected. The only problem, really is the exercise portion which I think fitbit pulls from puls.
  • orkla
    orkla Posts: 34 Member
    @sarahthes My average is 16 000. But today I've got a little over 3500 on the watch, and it still gave 600 exercise calories.
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
    @orkla I think Fitbit may make some assumptions about the rest of your day based on your history when it sends over the calorie adjustment data (or it may be MFP interpreting Fitbit's data, not sure which end does the math).

    If it really bugs you the only solution may be disconnecting Fitbit from your account unfortunately.
  • orkla
    orkla Posts: 34 Member
    edited April 2018
    @sarahthes It bugs me when the remaining number is so high and I have to remind myself that it's not accurate. That said, it's a minor annoyance.
  • Marilyn0924
    Marilyn0924 Posts: 797 Member
    It is possible that your age/weight/height setup on fitbit could be incorrect, or that your activity level set incorrectly as sedentary on MFP (or both?)
  • orkla
    orkla Posts: 34 Member
    edited April 2018
    @Marilyn0924 I've been changing the activity level up and down, and the problem is always there. Will double check the fitbit set-up.

    Edit: I've done some changes to the heart rate setting. Crossing my fingers that it solves the problem.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    orkla wrote: »
    @sarahthes My average is 16 000. But today I've got a little over 3500 on the watch, and it still gave 600 exercise calories.

    16k steps is pretty high, so a higher caloric adjustment isn't to be underestimated
  • orkla
    orkla Posts: 34 Member
    @deannalfisher Is it really? I don't feel like I'm walking that much. It's just what I get from walking at work and walking home right now.
  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
    orkla wrote: »
    @Momepro I really like everything else about the connection. And it really isn't a problem, just an annoyance I hoped there would be a solution for.

    What does the fitbit add to mfp besides excercise? If it syncs steps and excercise with your phone, and you have the phone app syched with MFP instead, it might give you a better estimate?
    I was having issues for a while with SHealth overestimating calories because it got into a feedback loop, where it was reading MFP as a seperate set of exercises, and doubling everything.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Sounds like you may not understand how FitBit and MFP are working together.

    FitBit is an activity tracker - it measures all your activity and estimates a total calorie burn whether that’s from running a marathon, walking to the bus stop and back, or puttering around the house - steps add up and burn calories and 16k steps average is considered very active.

    When you set up MFP you entered stats and chose an activity level and a rate of loss. Based on what MFP estimated your NEAT maintenance calories to be (ie not including exercise), and the rate of loss you chose, then MFP calculated a calorie target for you. If you chose Sedentary and a fairly aggressive rate of loss, then you would get a fairly low calorie target.

    When the two work together, it’s a true up of how many calories MFP thought you would burn based on the stats you entered, and what FitBit says you actually burned. If you are seeing adjustments of 600 or so, that suggests you’ve not chosen the right activity level for your actual activity and MFP is adjusting for that based on inputs from FitBit.

    What are your stats, what rate of loss did you choose, what activity level, what calorie target did MFP provide and what does FitBit say your average burn is?

    A lot of people mistrust the adjustments when they don’t undwrstand how the systems work but many of us have found FitBit to be accurate and the systems work well together to help manage our weight goals.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    orkla wrote: »
    @deannalfisher Is it really? I don't feel like I'm walking that much. It's just what I get from walking at work and walking home right now.

    16k is well into the very active level of activity on MFP
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
    orkla wrote: »
    This is more about the aesthetics then any real problem. But fitbit keeps throwing these really high exercise numbers at me, that I in no way believe in.

    Like today, it's given me over 600 exercise calories, and the only thing I've done is walk to the bus, walked around at a marked, and then walked back to the bus. That doesn't add up to 600 burned calories in my mind.

    I really like MFP, and I like my fitbit. But is there anyway to stop MFP from counting the steps from the fitbit to be counted as exercise?

    Edit: I've done some changes to the heart rate setting. Hopefully that solves the problem.

    I disconnected my fitbit for that reason. If I have any info I need to add to MFP I do it manually.
  • mbrooksnimmo
    mbrooksnimmo Posts: 1 Member
    I’ve actually experience at similar thing. The last two days getting higher calorie numbers for 6k compared to 11k last week.
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
    sarahthes wrote: »
    @orkla I think Fitbit may make some assumptions about the rest of your day based on your history when it sends over the calorie adjustment data (or it may be MFP interpreting Fitbit's data, not sure which end does the math).

    If it really bugs you the only solution may be disconnecting Fitbit from your account unfortunately.

    Yes, if you read the little information symbol by your calorie adjustment it explains this. So what you see isn't what you exercised. It's trying to work in what your estimated activity is for the day.

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