Quick Question, Simple Answers Please
karirenae
Posts: 106 Member
Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma? 
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Replies
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I synced my Fitbit to MFP, let it make adjustments, and go with MFP's calorie goal.3
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janejellyroll wrote: »I synced my Fitbit to MFP, let it make adjustments, and go with MFP's calorie goal.janejellyroll wrote: »I synced my Fitbit to MFP, let it make adjustments, and go with MFP's calorie goal.
So I should honestly assume I can really eat 500ish more and still meet my goal of 2lbs weekly? Generally speaking.0 -
Usually, i have been going by the fitbit calories left.. and at the end of the day it leaves me eating like 900ish calories,which is obviously too low. Ive see. A stall in weight loss, actually, a gain in the last few days and now I assume its because fitbit is wrong..🤨2
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janejellyroll wrote: »I synced my Fitbit to MFP, let it make adjustments, and go with MFP's calorie goal.janejellyroll wrote: »I synced my Fitbit to MFP, let it make adjustments, and go with MFP's calorie goal.
So I should honestly assume I can really eat 500ish more and still meet my goal of 2lbs weekly? Generally speaking.
If you're logging accurately and the estimates for how many calories you're burning are accurate, then yes. Some people find the Fitbit adjustments to be very reliable (this is the case with me), others find that it over- or underestimates the calories they need.0 -
Usually, i have been going by the fitbit calories left.. and at the end of the day it leaves me eating like 900ish calories,which is obviously too low. Ive see. A stall in weight loss, actually, a gain in the last few days and now I assume its because fitbit is wrong..🤨
A few days isn't long enough of a period to determine your Fitbit is wrong. But if you're concerned about it, you could also eat back just a portion of the calorie adjustment (some people start with 50% and then adjust based on how fast they're losing weight).0 -
Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma?
First off, make sure you set the same activity level (and other stats) for both. I find while they are a little off, they are never anywhere near 500 calories off. Did you log any exercise on MFP manually?0 -
Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma?
First off, make sure you set the same activity level (and other stats) for both. I find while they are a little off, they are never anywhere near 500 calories off. Did you log any exercise on MFP manually?
They are both set to sedentary. I work at a computer all day so I dont move much. I do not log anything manually. I let fitbit do it all. Idk if there is some adjustment i should make or what.. ugh. Its so frustrating.0 -
Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma?
One of the most common mistakes I see people making is trying to overanalyze and reconcile the numbers they see between FitBit and MFP. Set the two systems up with consistent stats and goals. Sync them together. Enable negative calorie adjustments. Log all your food in MFP as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. If you do non step based exercise, you can log that in either MFP or FitBit - it will be accounted for in the sync. Don't look at calories remaining in FitBit at all - go with the adjustments in MFP and if you are concerned about the accuracy of the adjustment, start with eating only a portion of those back.
Your second question about if you can still lose 2 lbs/week is different - is 2 lbs/week an appropriate goal for you based on the amount of weight you have to lose? That is usually appropriate for people with 75 or more pounds to lose - do you fit that category? If not, it's likely not reasonable and may not be achievable.
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janejellyroll wrote: »I synced my Fitbit to MFP, let it make adjustments, and go with MFP's calorie goal.
I do this as well. This allows for my goal to be accurate based on my actual activity levels.
My Fitbit goal (I’m assuming you mean the goal that shows on the Fitbit dashboard?) never increases or decreases based on activity or moon cycles or anything else. Fitbit set that goal on day 1 of my Fitbit account (5 years ago) and it has never changed. If I ate that much when I wasn’t active, I wouldn’t lose. If I ate only that much when I’m very active, I would keel over and pass out.
Using my mfp goal adjusts my intake accordingly. I lose as expected (and don’t pass out on high activity days) following my MFP goals.
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WinoGelato wrote: »Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma?
One of the most common mistakes I see people making is trying to overanalyze and reconcile the numbers they see between FitBit and MFP. Set the two systems up with consistent stats and goals. Sync them together. Enable negative calorie adjustments. Log all your food in MFP as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. If you do non step based exercise, you can log that in either MFP or FitBit - it will be accounted for in the sync. Don't look at calories remaining in FitBit at all - go with the adjustments in MFP and if you are concerned about the accuracy of the adjustment, start with eating only a portion of those back.
Your second question about if you can still lose 2 lbs/week is different - is 2 lbs/week an appropriate goal for you based on the amount of weight you have to lose? That is usually appropriate for people with 75 or more pounds to lose - do you fit that category? If not, it's likely not reasonable and may not be achievable.
Thanks for insight.. what is the negative calorie adjustment? What is helpful about that? I was once told you dont enable that if you are sedentary...0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma?
One of the most common mistakes I see people making is trying to overanalyze and reconcile the numbers they see between FitBit and MFP. Set the two systems up with consistent stats and goals. Sync them together. Enable negative calorie adjustments. Log all your food in MFP as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. If you do non step based exercise, you can log that in either MFP or FitBit - it will be accounted for in the sync. Don't look at calories remaining in FitBit at all - go with the adjustments in MFP and if you are concerned about the accuracy of the adjustment, start with eating only a portion of those back.
Your second question about if you can still lose 2 lbs/week is different - is 2 lbs/week an appropriate goal for you based on the amount of weight you have to lose? That is usually appropriate for people with 75 or more pounds to lose - do you fit that category? If not, it's likely not reasonable and may not be achievable.
Thanks for insight.. what is the negative calorie adjustment? What is helpful about that? I was once told you dont enable that if you are sedentary...
Negative calorie adjustments means that if you burn less than expected, your adjustment will be a negative amount and it will reduce your calorie goal to be in line with your actual level of activity (or lack thereof in this case). It doesn’t matter if you’re sedentary or not. You can (and should enable negative adjustments.
When they won’t matter is if your calorie goal is 1200. Mfp will never give you a goal less than 1200. So even if you have negative adjustments enabled, Mfp won’t subtract calories from 1200. As it shouldn’t because that’s already the minimum.
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Duck_Puddle wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma?
One of the most common mistakes I see people making is trying to overanalyze and reconcile the numbers they see between FitBit and MFP. Set the two systems up with consistent stats and goals. Sync them together. Enable negative calorie adjustments. Log all your food in MFP as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. If you do non step based exercise, you can log that in either MFP or FitBit - it will be accounted for in the sync. Don't look at calories remaining in FitBit at all - go with the adjustments in MFP and if you are concerned about the accuracy of the adjustment, start with eating only a portion of those back.
Your second question about if you can still lose 2 lbs/week is different - is 2 lbs/week an appropriate goal for you based on the amount of weight you have to lose? That is usually appropriate for people with 75 or more pounds to lose - do you fit that category? If not, it's likely not reasonable and may not be achievable.
Thanks for insight.. what is the negative calorie adjustment? What is helpful about that? I was once told you dont enable that if you are sedentary...
Negative calorie adjustments means that if you burn less than expected, your adjustment will be a negative amount and it will reduce your calorie goal to be in line with your actual level of activity (or lack thereof in this case). It doesn’t matter if you’re sedentary or not. You can (and should enable negative adjustments.
When they won’t matter is if your calorie goal is 1200. Mfp will never give you a goal less than 1200. So even if you have negative adjustments enabled, Mfp won’t subtract calories from 1200. As it shouldn’t because that’s already the minimum.
Okay well mine is currently set at 1200 so I guess I won't worry about that then. So I guess I basically just need to let Fitbit sync and say I have way too many calories back in my opinion and just use MyFitnessPal for whatever I am allowed back0 -
Duck_Puddle wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma?
One of the most common mistakes I see people making is trying to overanalyze and reconcile the numbers they see between FitBit and MFP. Set the two systems up with consistent stats and goals. Sync them together. Enable negative calorie adjustments. Log all your food in MFP as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. If you do non step based exercise, you can log that in either MFP or FitBit - it will be accounted for in the sync. Don't look at calories remaining in FitBit at all - go with the adjustments in MFP and if you are concerned about the accuracy of the adjustment, start with eating only a portion of those back.
Your second question about if you can still lose 2 lbs/week is different - is 2 lbs/week an appropriate goal for you based on the amount of weight you have to lose? That is usually appropriate for people with 75 or more pounds to lose - do you fit that category? If not, it's likely not reasonable and may not be achievable.
Thanks for insight.. what is the negative calorie adjustment? What is helpful about that? I was once told you dont enable that if you are sedentary...
Negative calorie adjustments means that if you burn less than expected, your adjustment will be a negative amount and it will reduce your calorie goal to be in line with your actual level of activity (or lack thereof in this case). It doesn’t matter if you’re sedentary or not. You can (and should enable negative adjustments.
When they won’t matter is if your calorie goal is 1200. Mfp will never give you a goal less than 1200. So even if you have negative adjustments enabled, Mfp won’t subtract calories from 1200. As it shouldn’t because that’s already the minimum.
Okay well mine is currently set at 1200 so I guess I won't worry about that then. So I guess I basically just need to let Fitbit sync and say I have way too many calories back in my opinion and just use MyFitnessPal for whatever I am allowed back
Why do you believe it is giving you too many calories back? People who think this often underestimate their activity level (you already said you are sedentary and barely move but is that really the case?) or have unrealistic expectations about how quickly they can lose and how low of a calorie goal they need to achieve this.
What are your stats: height, weight, goal weight? How many steps/day does FitBit say you average? What is your average calorie burn according to FitBit? How long have you been using FitBit? How long have you been using MFP? What results are you seeing?1 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Duck_Puddle wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma?
One of the most common mistakes I see people making is trying to overanalyze and reconcile the numbers they see between FitBit and MFP. Set the two systems up with consistent stats and goals. Sync them together. Enable negative calorie adjustments. Log all your food in MFP as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. If you do non step based exercise, you can log that in either MFP or FitBit - it will be accounted for in the sync. Don't look at calories remaining in FitBit at all - go with the adjustments in MFP and if you are concerned about the accuracy of the adjustment, start with eating only a portion of those back.
Your second question about if you can still lose 2 lbs/week is different - is 2 lbs/week an appropriate goal for you based on the amount of weight you have to lose? That is usually appropriate for people with 75 or more pounds to lose - do you fit that category? If not, it's likely not reasonable and may not be achievable.
Thanks for insight.. what is the negative calorie adjustment? What is helpful about that? I was once told you dont enable that if you are sedentary...
Negative calorie adjustments means that if you burn less than expected, your adjustment will be a negative amount and it will reduce your calorie goal to be in line with your actual level of activity (or lack thereof in this case). It doesn’t matter if you’re sedentary or not. You can (and should enable negative adjustments.
When they won’t matter is if your calorie goal is 1200. Mfp will never give you a goal less than 1200. So even if you have negative adjustments enabled, Mfp won’t subtract calories from 1200. As it shouldn’t because that’s already the minimum.
Okay well mine is currently set at 1200 so I guess I won't worry about that then. So I guess I basically just need to let Fitbit sync and say I have way too many calories back in my opinion and just use MyFitnessPal for whatever I am allowed back
Why do you believe it is giving you too many calories back? People who think this often underestimate their activity level (you already said you are sedentary and barely move but is that really the case?) or have unrealistic expectations about how quickly they can lose and how low of a calorie goal they need to achieve this.
What are your stats: height, weight, goal weight? How many steps/day does FitBit say you average? What is your average calorie burn according to FitBit? How long have you been using FitBit? How long have you been using MFP? What results are you seeing?
Well, right now, it shows I have earned 350 calories for 3800 steps. I feel thats really high, UNLESS I just dont quite understand how fitbit works. I have had MFP and FitBit synced for approximately a year now, but Ive just recently started to get serious about it. I am a 5'4 female, 186 lbs. Fitbit says I average a calorie burn of approximately 2500 calories daily. I average about 6k to 7k steps daily.. some more..0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Duck_Puddle wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma?
One of the most common mistakes I see people making is trying to overanalyze and reconcile the numbers they see between FitBit and MFP. Set the two systems up with consistent stats and goals. Sync them together. Enable negative calorie adjustments. Log all your food in MFP as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. If you do non step based exercise, you can log that in either MFP or FitBit - it will be accounted for in the sync. Don't look at calories remaining in FitBit at all - go with the adjustments in MFP and if you are concerned about the accuracy of the adjustment, start with eating only a portion of those back.
Your second question about if you can still lose 2 lbs/week is different - is 2 lbs/week an appropriate goal for you based on the amount of weight you have to lose? That is usually appropriate for people with 75 or more pounds to lose - do you fit that category? If not, it's likely not reasonable and may not be achievable.
Thanks for insight.. what is the negative calorie adjustment? What is helpful about that? I was once told you dont enable that if you are sedentary...
Negative calorie adjustments means that if you burn less than expected, your adjustment will be a negative amount and it will reduce your calorie goal to be in line with your actual level of activity (or lack thereof in this case). It doesn’t matter if you’re sedentary or not. You can (and should enable negative adjustments.
When they won’t matter is if your calorie goal is 1200. Mfp will never give you a goal less than 1200. So even if you have negative adjustments enabled, Mfp won’t subtract calories from 1200. As it shouldn’t because that’s already the minimum.
Okay well mine is currently set at 1200 so I guess I won't worry about that then. So I guess I basically just need to let Fitbit sync and say I have way too many calories back in my opinion and just use MyFitnessPal for whatever I am allowed back
Why do you believe it is giving you too many calories back? People who think this often underestimate their activity level (you already said you are sedentary and barely move but is that really the case?) or have unrealistic expectations about how quickly they can lose and how low of a calorie goal they need to achieve this.
What are your stats: height, weight, goal weight? How many steps/day does FitBit say you average? What is your average calorie burn according to FitBit? How long have you been using FitBit? How long have you been using MFP? What results are you seeing?
Well, right now, it shows I have earned 350 calories for 3800 steps. I feel thats really high, UNLESS I just dont quite understand how fitbit works. I have had MFP and FitBit synced for approximately a year now, but Ive just recently started to get serious about it. I am a 5'4 female, 186 lbs. Fitbit says I average a calorie burn of approximately 2500 calories daily. I average about 6k to 7k steps daily.. some more..
I’m 5’4”, ~160 lbs, sedentary aside from exercise (I work a desk job in my house) and have lost about 75 lbs following my Fitbit adjustments in Mfp.
Try it out. If after 4-6 weeks, you’re not losing as expected, then make adjustments accordingly.
I’m going to suggest that 2 lbs/week is not “as expected” though. My calorie goal to maintain (without exercise) is 1665. I am set to lose 1lb/week (I have about 30 to go). That would give me an Mfp goal of 1165-which it won’t do (and I wouldn’t want to do). So even at the minimum of 1200, I’m losing less than 1 lb/week. I suspect you are in a similar situation (meaning 1200 is less than your desired 2lbs/week). That means that without question, 2 lbs/week is too aggressive.
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WinoGelato wrote: »Duck_Puddle wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Do you prefer MFP or FitBit in regards to how many calories you can safely eat throughout the day? Both mine vary greatly so I am curious to know people who have had success which do you use? Example: my Fitbit says I am over 34 calories when MFP says ( in green) i can safely eat approximately 500ish. See my dilemma?
One of the most common mistakes I see people making is trying to overanalyze and reconcile the numbers they see between FitBit and MFP. Set the two systems up with consistent stats and goals. Sync them together. Enable negative calorie adjustments. Log all your food in MFP as accurately as possible, ideally using a food scale. If you do non step based exercise, you can log that in either MFP or FitBit - it will be accounted for in the sync. Don't look at calories remaining in FitBit at all - go with the adjustments in MFP and if you are concerned about the accuracy of the adjustment, start with eating only a portion of those back.
Your second question about if you can still lose 2 lbs/week is different - is 2 lbs/week an appropriate goal for you based on the amount of weight you have to lose? That is usually appropriate for people with 75 or more pounds to lose - do you fit that category? If not, it's likely not reasonable and may not be achievable.
Thanks for insight.. what is the negative calorie adjustment? What is helpful about that? I was once told you dont enable that if you are sedentary...
Negative calorie adjustments means that if you burn less than expected, your adjustment will be a negative amount and it will reduce your calorie goal to be in line with your actual level of activity (or lack thereof in this case). It doesn’t matter if you’re sedentary or not. You can (and should enable negative adjustments.
When they won’t matter is if your calorie goal is 1200. Mfp will never give you a goal less than 1200. So even if you have negative adjustments enabled, Mfp won’t subtract calories from 1200. As it shouldn’t because that’s already the minimum.
Okay well mine is currently set at 1200 so I guess I won't worry about that then. So I guess I basically just need to let Fitbit sync and say I have way too many calories back in my opinion and just use MyFitnessPal for whatever I am allowed back
Why do you believe it is giving you too many calories back? People who think this often underestimate their activity level (you already said you are sedentary and barely move but is that really the case?) or have unrealistic expectations about how quickly they can lose and how low of a calorie goal they need to achieve this.
What are your stats: height, weight, goal weight? How many steps/day does FitBit say you average? What is your average calorie burn according to FitBit? How long have you been using FitBit? How long have you been using MFP? What results are you seeing?
Well, right now, it shows I have earned 350 calories for 3800 steps. I feel thats really high, UNLESS I just dont quite understand how fitbit works. I have had MFP and FitBit synced for approximately a year now, but Ive just recently started to get serious about it. I am a 5'4 female, 186 lbs. Fitbit says I average a calorie burn of approximately 2500 calories daily. I average about 6k to 7k steps daily.. some more..
Yup - unrealistic expectations and too aggressive of a goal. 1 lb/week is an appropriate rate of loss for you.
FitBit and MFP work by reconciling what MFP thinks you’d burn, with your stats and activity level, and what FitBit says you actually burn based on your full day of activity - your BMR plus your daily activity plus any exercise. It also adjusts throughout the day, so the 350 cal adjustment you see now may be higher or lower by the end of the day.
Also 6-7k or more steps per day is actually closer to lightly active than Sedentary which is why the number is higher than you think it should be.
But what really matters are your actual results, you can over analyze the FitBit calorie burn adjustments all you want but you have far more control over the accuracy of your calorie intake with making sure you log accurately using a food scale. Are you doing that?2
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