Record exercise in diary?

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fit19gramma
fit19gramma Posts: 23 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
My fitness tracker is synched to MFP. Should I record my exercise (45 min on treadmill) or not? My activity level is sedentary. I have a Fitbit Inspire HR.

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  • CipherZero
    CipherZero Posts: 1,418 Member
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    If your tracker is putting the data into MFP, there's no reason to perform the manual entry. I've found I have to sync any external app before MFP picks it up.
  • fit19gramma
    fit19gramma Posts: 23 Member
    edited August 2019
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    I just did 45 min on treadmill on level 5. My Fitbit says I burned 238 calories. After syncing with MFP all I get is 99 calories for the steps. 🤷‍♀️
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    MikeRobi81 wrote: »
    fit19gramma wrote: »
    I just did 45 min on treadmill on level 5. My Fitbit says I burned 238 calories. After syncing with MFP all I get is 99 calories for the steps. 🤷‍♀️

    I recommend disabling that feature all together. Those numbers aren't accurate and if your goal is to lose weight and you eat those calories you burned, you might eat more then you actually burned.

    Or the other two options are that it's reasonably accurate or under estimates.

    Completely ignoring exercise as general advice is simply awful advice.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    fit19gramma wrote: »
    I just did 45 min on treadmill on level 5. My Fitbit says I burned 238 calories. After syncing with MFP all I get is 99 calories for the steps. 🤷‍♀️

    Your device is syncing an adjustment for your activity and exercise so far that day not just specifically that particular exercise.
  • fit19gramma
    fit19gramma Posts: 23 Member
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    Thanks for your replies. Today I walked 60 min at level five. After grocery shopping, and normal activities at home I synched MFP. I show plus 530 calories in my diary. That seems pretty accurate to me. I am over 9300 steps so far. Comments?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,759 Member
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    The standard advice would be to sync the device** (with negative adjustments enabled), then follow the resulting calorie goal for 4-6 weeks. After that amount of time, the fluctuations in results (which are a normal part of the process) will average out, and you can see your average weekly weight loss. If that's too slow (but could be faster without being unhealthy), eat a little less. If it's too fast, eat a little more.

    ** Synching the Apple watch reportedly has some issues, so other readers with Apple watches need to investigate the ways to handle that.

    Your Fitbit is giving you a statistical estimate of your calorie burn based on your activity level. It could be a little high, a little low, or pretty close. Experimenting is how you find out which it is. There's a very, very small probability that it will be very low or very high - not worth worrying much about because unlikely - but it could happen.
  • fit19gramma
    fit19gramma Posts: 23 Member
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    Thanks @AnnPT77. I did not know the fluctuations average out. It’s been about 7 weeks for me and It seems to be a little more accurate now. I’ve been averaging 1/2 lb loss a week which is what I’ve been expecting.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,759 Member
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    fit19gramma wrote: »
    Thanks @AnnPT77. I did not know the fluctuations average out. It’s been about 7 weeks for me and It seems to be a little more accurate now. I’ve been averaging 1/2 lb loss a week which is what I’ve been expecting.

    Some people lose more steadily than others, so when starting out it's good not to jump to conclusions until you know your personal patterns. Even then, some people's patterns change part way through!

    Once you have good logging and a sound idea of your loss rate, you can use your own intake data to know you're still on track, and not stress much about scale fluctuations, as long as daily life and exercise activity stay reasonably consistent.

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