Fitbit inspire HR

chulipa
chulipa Posts: 650 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Just got my first fitness tracker today but dont really now how my food and excersise works do I log on MFP or fitbit? and how does logging food work? Where do I find my heart rate

Replies

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    edited June 2019
    This is MFP. You can log food here. You can use MFP in conjunction with many devices including a Fitbit like your new one.

    Your new device is a Fitbit. Their web site is at fitbit.com. They present their device as a self contained independent solution. You can do everything just using their site and solution. Still, they do integrate with other solutions.

    I've followed the first path; but, that was a deliberate decision guided by what I perceived at the time to be MFP's superior food logging and by the more geared towards weight management forums on MFP.

    Depending on your goals this may or may not be the best path for you.

    What are your goals? Why did you buy a Fitbit? Why do you want to use MFP?
  • chulipa
    chulipa Posts: 650 Member
    Been using MFP for a long time but about 4 months ago got serious about weightloss and excersise and just joined the YMCA and started doing water aerobics. I've wanted a fitbit for a while now so bought one today. I did set it up through fitbit and linked it to MFP but just confused how to add exercise do I put in the calories burnt or just log exercise?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    edited June 2019
    chulipa wrote: »
    Been using MFP for a long time but about 4 months ago got serious about weightloss and excersise and just joined the YMCA and started doing water aerobics. I've wanted a fitbit for a while now so bought one today. I did set it up through fitbit and linked it to MFP but just confused how to add exercise do I put in the calories burnt or just log exercise?

    If you have successfully linked the two in the respective apps and web sites you do NOTHING more!

    MFP and Fitbit integration (assuming they're not having one of their "moments") will take care of adjusting your caloric burns.

    With negative calories enabled you might see less calories at times (while your Fitbit is predicting that your TDEE by the end of the day will be less than what MFP assumes it will be). Or, as is usually the case with people who are setup on MFP as sedentary but aren't, you will see a positive adjustment throughout the day. Please note that your "final" adjustment is at midnight and that if you're inactive late at night you will "lose" some calories.

    You can safely ignore your first day's adjustment as there are multiple inaccuracies in that first day having to do with when your tracker starts tracking etc.

    After that I would suggest you should probably eat most if not all of your adjustments (assuming your MFP food logging is based on scale weights and accurate entries), and adjust goals based on 4 to 6 weeks of actual weight trend results.

    Personally I've connected trenweight.com to fitbit.com and enter my weight on fitbit.com (or my fitbit app on my phone) which then passes the info to both trendweight and MFP.

    You mentioned new exercise. Do keep in mind that newly increased activity sometimes results in non fat weight fluctuations!
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    I log all my food with MFP as it is a much more superior database and easier to use. I log my exercise with my Fitbit as this is much closer to being accurate for calorie burn than MFP. Syncing the two together adjusts my calorie allotment with MPF to give me an idea of what to eat to meet my goals.
    Keep in mind that it can take a few weeks for your Fitbit to understand your body properly so those early days will be inaccurate with calorie burn. Over time, if logging accurately, you can use your own data to work out how accurate your Fitbit is for calorie burn. Some find it pretty close, while others will be either over or under. For me personally, my predicted burn is around 150 calories less than I am actually burning. I assume this is because my Fitbit doesn't realise I am standing most of the day rather than sitting unless I am taking steps.
  • chulipa
    chulipa Posts: 650 Member
    Thank you I think I understand better now
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,594 Member
    I also have the inspire HR and live it. I log my food on MFP and my exercise is logged mostly automatically on Fitbit. I like looking at the sleep data and the heart rate data. I connect to my phone’s GPS for running and port my runs over to runkeeper to track my performance. I do not input any of my exercise on MFP but just let the Fitbit and MFP talk to each other about my calories. I find it to be very accurate for me. It took a few weeks for the resting heart rate to stop bouncing around.
  • chulipa
    chulipa Posts: 650 Member
    emmamcgarity wrote: »
    I also have the inspire HR and live it. I log my food on MFP and my exercise is logged mostly automatically on Fitbit. I like looking at the sleep data and the heart rate data. I connect to my phone’s GPS for running and port my runs over to runkeeper to track my performance. I do not input any of my exercise on MFP but just let the Fitbit and MFP talk to each other about my calories. I find it to be very accurate for me. It took a few weeks for the resting heart rate to stop bouncing around.

    Starting to understand this as I go but yesterday I walked 11770 steps and fitbit gave me 1646 calories burned I was pushing a shopping cart at several stores does that make more calories burned?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    chulipa wrote: »
    emmamcgarity wrote: »
    I also have the inspire HR and live it. I log my food on MFP and my exercise is logged mostly automatically on Fitbit. I like looking at the sleep data and the heart rate data. I connect to my phone’s GPS for running and port my runs over to runkeeper to track my performance. I do not input any of my exercise on MFP but just let the Fitbit and MFP talk to each other about my calories. I find it to be very accurate for me. It took a few weeks for the resting heart rate to stop bouncing around.

    Starting to understand this as I go but yesterday I walked 11770 steps and fitbit gave me 1646 calories burned I was pushing a shopping cart at several stores does that make more calories burned?

    Before one can answer that, one has to know what the difference was between Fitbit TDEE and MFP TDEE.

    While pushing a wheelchair uphill will generate more calories than just walking, pushing a shopping cart with your arm resting on top of it is unlikely to actually consume more calories. Furthermore your arm swing may be impeded which would make your fitbit rely more on heart rate thinking this an exercise activity as opposed to walking.

    A determinant of calories with Fitbit is heart rate. While this often works well for more intense activities such as running or aerobics and helps differentiate the amount of calories spent when walking uphill in soggy grass while carrying a 50lb pack vs walking on level concrete sipping a latte, it also does have the potential to create estimation errors when the user engages in a low intensity/relatively low effort/high duration activity especially IF one's heart rate tends to be fairly elevated when moving around.

    I would not view each individual activity as a license to consume more or less food; but would look at the overall picture over 4+ weeks

    Let me ask a different question.

    Have you been losing weight as expected this past while? Have you changed your activity since getting your Fitbit?

    If you HAVE been losing as expected or faster and you have become more active then I would eat much more if that is the feedback your Fitbit is giving you.

    If I had NOT been losing as fast as expected and had NOT become more active but was being prompted to radically increase my food consumption I would be more cautious as to the % of adjustment I would initially trust.

    Trust but verify!
  • chulipa
    chulipa Posts: 650 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    chulipa wrote: »
    emmamcgarity wrote: »
    I also have the inspire HR and live it. I log my food on MFP and my exercise is logged mostly automatically on Fitbit. I like looking at the sleep data and the heart rate data. I connect to my phone’s GPS for running and port my runs over to runkeeper to track my performance. I do not input any of my exercise on MFP but just let the Fitbit and MFP talk to each other about my calories. I find it to be very accurate for me. It took a few weeks for the resting heart rate to stop bouncing around.

    Starting to understand this as I go but yesterday I walked 11770 steps and fitbit gave me 1646 calories burned I was pushing a shopping cart at several stores does that make more calories burned?

    Before one can answer that, one has to know what the difference was between Fitbit TDEE and MFP TDEE.

    While pushing a wheelchair uphill will generate more calories than just walking, pushing a shopping cart with your arm resting on top of it is unlikely to actually consume more calories. Furthermore your arm swing may be impeded which would make your fitbit rely more on heart rate thinking this an exercise activity as opposed to walking.

    A determinant of calories with Fitbit is heart rate. While this often works well for more intense activities such as running or aerobics and helps differentiate the amount of calories spent when walking uphill in soggy grass while carrying a 50lb pack vs walking on level concrete sipping a latte, it also does have the potential to create estimation errors when the user engages in a low intensity/relatively low effort/high duration activity especially IF one's heart rate tends to be fairly elevated when moving around.

    I would not view each individual activity as a license to consume more or less food; but would look at the overall picture over 4+ weeks

    Let me ask a different question.

    Have you been losing weight as expected this past while? Have you changed your activity since getting your Fitbit?

    If you HAVE been losing as expected or faster and you have become more active then I would eat much more if that is the feedback your Fitbit is giving you.

    If I had NOT been losing as fast as expected and had NOT become more active but was being prompted to radically increase my food consumption I would be more cautious as to the % of adjustment I would initially trust.

    Trust but verify!

    I got my fitbit only 3 days ago so im learning how everything works
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    edited June 2019
    chulipa wrote: »
    I got my fitbit only 3 days ago so im learning how everything works

    Yes, I know. And it is fascinating. Just remember that it creates estimates. Starting from the same formulas as MFP. The only difference is that it is applying continuous measurements and trying to synthesize a more complete activity picture relying on the accelerometer and heart rate monitor as opposed to relying on you pre-selecting one of four pre-defined activity levels.

    It doesn't make it infallible; just a slightly more un-biased and hopefully reliable estimator. Which will allow you to make better decisions.

    There is excellent information to be found here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-amp-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy/p1
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,594 Member
    What Fitbit does for me is motivate me to move more. Not knowing your stats it’s hard to know what yours is calculating. I’ll try to walk you through my dashboard as well as I can.

    eak6mdjqy8kl.png

    The center big number is my steps for the day. I had a fairly busy day then went for a walk at the park after work. Later on I went for a 50 minute run. All of these steps are included in this number.

    There are three circular numbers underneath. The one on the left is my overall mileage for the day. The one in the center is my calorie burn overall (this includes exercise and non-active calories burned. Since I am short and 10 lbs from a healthy BMI, I have to work hard to reach this goal on the days I choose to. The one on the right is active minutes. These are continuous minutes of movement. It seems to kick in around 10 continuous minutes of activity.

    I have had the “autotrack” kick in while gardening. Apparently my repetitive activity with the hoe and cultivator rake was picked up as “sport” after 20 minutes. It was definitely quite a workout getting that flower bed cleaned up. I didn’t get many extra steps during this time but it did estimate a calorie adjustment for the activity.







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