Any way to manually adjust fitbit adjustment.

matrosov65
matrosov65 Posts: 25 Member
edited December 20 in Getting Started
Hello, new member here and a new owner of fitbit charge 3. I have fitbit and MFP linked and was playing with it for the past week. I am suspecting that fitbit is giving a little too much credit in terms of calories that get transferred to MFP and.

As an example yesterday I walked on treadmill for 2 miles at 3.5 mile pace. My heart rate stayed in the range of 133bpm on average which is in the burn fat/cardio zone for my age/height/weight. I'm 157 pounds so according to numerous online calculators I burned around 180 calories ballpark add to that 66 calories of BMR and I should be at around 240 mark. Fitbit calculates 385 calories. That would be close to a meal difference. So if I am trying to loose weight it becomes a problem.

My question is. Is there a way to manually adjust fitbit adjustment to a more conservative level within MFP without logging ghost meals to account for the difference.

Replies

  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Remember Fitbit isn’t just adding exercise calories. It’s adjustments for anything that you do that is above what your MFP Activity level is set to.

    The adjustment math is:

    Fitbit Total Calorie Burn (BMR + tracked activity) - MFP Calorie Burn (based on activity level setting) = +/- adjustment

    So for example:
    Yesterday I ended the day with a total calorie burn of 2515 based on the activity tracked for the day.

    MFP set to Active estimates I burn about 2140.

    So:

    2515 - 2140 = 375 extra calories

    If I lower my activity level on MFP the calorie estimate from MFP gets lower so my adjustment gets higher.
    For me Sedentary is about 1690 so my adjustment would be around 825.
    Lightly Active is around 1890 so my adjustment would be around 625.

    Basically if your activity level is set lower than what your Fitbit tracks your activity to be you will see a large adjustment.

  • matrosov65
    matrosov65 Posts: 25 Member
    Correct but if fitbit is a bit too generous with its exercise calories burn that adjustment becomes larger on the positive side in essence giving me calories available to eat on MFP that I don't have in reality. And based on fitbits tracking of my 40 minute walk I am thinking it is too generous. If I can adjust it down manually I can remain conservative and accomplish my goals. I just don't see me burning close to 400 calories walking two miles on a treadmil as fitbit claims.

  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited April 2019
    Give it a few days and see if it adjusts down a bit. It does take a few days to adjust to you and it’s not uncommon to see high calorie burn for a few days when you first get it.
    I missed the part where you said it was only a 2 mile walk. I did a 2 mile walk/run yesterday (1.5 was running no incline and the other 0.5 was walking with a 10% incline) and Fitbit estimated only 290 calories (my avg HR was 164bpm). Also check your weight/height/gender settings on Fitbit. There might be an error in there that is causing problems (like accidentally having the weight set to kg, but logging lbs...this would cause Fitbit to think you weigh 2.2x more than you actually do).
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Oh and you can manually log the walk in Fitbit. This will overwrite whatever it thought you burned with what you log. Just make sure you input the correct start time and duration.
  • matrosov65
    matrosov65 Posts: 25 Member
    Thanks a lot. I did not realize I can manually log the walks/runs. Thought it only applied to weights.
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