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MyFitnessPal Community

Fitbit & Negative Adjustments

beastmode_kitty

Does anyone here allow for negative adjustments for their fitbit? I can't decide whether I should allow it to or not. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Replies

Duck_Puddle

Syncing your Fitbit with mfp allows your Fitbit to automatically update your mfp diary with all the calories you have burned for the day that are more than what mfp expects you to burn based on your activity setting (sedentary, lightly active, etc.).

Assuming you move/workout enough to burn more than mfp expects you to burn, you will see a positive adjustment (Fitbit will add calories that you should eat).

If you move/workout less than expected, and you have negative adjustments turned on, and you don’t burn as many calories as mfp expects, you will get a negative adjustment-Fitbit will subtract the difference.

So-is mfp expects you to burn 2000 calories a day, and you burn 2500 (according to your Fitbit), you’ll get 500 exercise calories loaded into your mfp diary (increasing your calorie goal for the day by 500). If you have negative adjustments turned on and you only burn 1800, Fitbit will subtract 200 from your exercise calories (decreasing your calorie goal for the day by 200). If you don’t have negative adjustments turned on and you only burn 1800, Fitbit will not make any calorie adjustment to your mfp diary.

Allowing negative adjustments is more accurate-and especially important if you’ve set your mfp activity level on the higher side.

However, mfp will never adjust your calorie goal below 1200 (for women) or 1500 (for men). So if that is your goal-it doesn’t really matter if you have negative adjustments turned on or not because they won’t happen.

jo_nz

I do - my typical day sees me getting positive adjustments, but sometimes I have more sedentary days so I like to see the adjustments.

This week I am sitting at my computer a LOT trying to write an essay, so it helps me to see the negative adjustments (or prompts me to get up and moving to bring the calories back up!).

thanos5

i agree with the above. i just started enabling them about a month ago, and now the numbers from fitbit and mfp match much more closely.

it's never over 100 cals for me, but for a numbers geek like me it matters.

MsMaeFlowers

I used to, until MFP and Fitbit stopped syncing months ago. My TDEE is much lower than MFP guesses it at, so it was helpful to enable the negative adjustments.

kimny72

Yep, I do! That's how I know to eat a little less if I've been sitting on my behind all day and not living up to my pre-set activity level. It also sometimes motivates me to get up off my butt

t1nkerbelle

I have negative adjustments set and I usually have lots of calories to burn according to MFP such that I usually have 3-400 left to eat at the end of the day. However I recently noticed if I then look back at my diary for the previous day MFP has reduced my Fitbit calorie allowance and has put me in the red meaning I have overeaten. No wonder I can’t lose weight. Have either of you had this happen?

autumnblade75

t1nkerbelle wrote: »

I have negative adjustments set and I usually have lots of calories to burn according to MFP such that I usually have 3-400 left to eat at the end of the day. However I recently noticed if I then look back at my diary for the previous day MFP has reduced my Fitbit calorie allowance and has put me in the red meaning I have overeaten. No wonder I can’t lose weight. Have either of you had this happen?

Do you, by any chance, eat your last meal fairly early in the day? I had this issue, and decided it was most likely because I sleep so much earlier than most everyone else. I decided to change my time zone, here on MFP - but leave it alone on Fitbit. I adjusted my "personal midnight" to 7pm, and now I don't have more than 50 calories of shift between when I log my dinner and getting back up in the morning. So much more satisfying. The other option would be to leave 3-400 calories uneaten to account for your lower activity level later in the evening. Yeah, I wasn't going to do that, either.

heybales

t1nkerbelle wrote: »

I have negative adjustments set and I usually have lots of calories to burn according to MFP such that I usually have 3-400 left to eat at the end of the day. However I recently noticed if I then look back at my diary for the previous day MFP has reduced my Fitbit calorie allowance and has put me in the red meaning I have overeaten. No wonder I can’t lose weight. Have either of you had this happen?

If you have a high activity level set on MFP, and/or hit the couch/bed early and hit your eating goal early - this can happen.
Sedentary setting reduces the amount of the effect.

Fortunately if you always have about the same time when that happens - the amount of correction the next day will always be about the same amount - so you can leave that much in the green.

MFP estimates rest of the day from last tracker sync to midnight at the burn rate of your selected Activity Level.

And with non-moving time being a slow rate of burn, and tracker only syncing new figures when 100 higher than last sync, you could easily have an extra hour before your table/couch/bed time hits.

So as Autumnblade mentions - 5-6 hrs of correction can add up next morning.

I'm just shocked there aren't more issues of of syncing with mismatched time zones between the sites.
But if it works, it works.

autumnblade75

heybales wrote: »

I'm just shocked there aren't more issues of of syncing with mismatched time zones between the sites.
But if it works, it works.

I'm still surprised that the timestamps on my posts aren't weird. But it really does seem to work. I do start my day with negative adjustments - but I'd rather have to work harder for a positive adjustment than leave a surplus at the end of the day.

heybales

autumnblade75 wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

I'm just shocked there aren't more issues of of syncing with mismatched time zones between the sites.
But if it works, it works.

I'm still surprised that the timestamps on my posts aren't weird. But it really does seem to work. I do start my day with negative adjustments - but I'd rather have to work harder for a positive adjustment than leave a surplus at the end of the day.

And really, everyone starts the day with negative anyway - your's just a tad higher. That would be good encouragement to not sit too long at work perhaps, or if not feeling motivated for that morning workout - to do it anyway, ect.