Fitbit calories - whats gone wrong?

joolsmd
joolsmd Posts: 375 Member
edited February 2020 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello there. New to Fitbit, not new to MFP.

When I set up my Fitbit originally (about 3 months ago) it asked what sites I wanted to add and I added MFP. Today was the first time that I have logged into MFP since then and the exercise calories were 900 for a 35 min walk. Now, I do walk quite briskly but not that briskly! Thats a lot of calories for a walk! Is there something I can do to make it more correct? I've been using my Fitbit every day so thought it was used to me by now but thats a ridiculously inflated number of calories. Any advice?

Replies

  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    edited February 2020
    joolsmd wrote: »
    Hello there. New to Fitbit, not new to MFP.

    When I set up my Fitbit originally (about 3 months ago) it asked what sites I wanted to add and I added MFP. Today was the first time that I have logged into MFP since then and the exercise calories were 900 for a 35 min walk. Now, I do walk quite briskly but not that briskly! Thats a lot of calories for a walk! Is there something I can do to make it more correct? I've been using my Fitbit every day so thought it was used to me by now but thats a ridiculously inflated number of calories. Any advice?

    Is that calories for a "Walking Activity" or your overall calorie adjustment? If you have yourself set as Sedentary (equivalent to daily step count of approx 3000 steps) in MFP but are not in fact Sedentary, then you will get larger calorie adjustments.

    Additionally if you're syncing earlier in the day after an active morning, the calorie adjustment is based on predicting that same level of activity over the rest of the day and if you sync later when less active in the afternoon the adjustment will reduce.

  • joolsmd
    joolsmd Posts: 375 Member
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

    Is that calories for a "Walking Activity" or your overall calorie adjustment?
    I think overall calorie adjustment. I went into my diary after I walked to work and it showed the 900 cal deficit. :|
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    How many steps do you take in an average day and what activity level are you set to?
  • joolsmd
    joolsmd Posts: 375 Member
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    How many steps do you take in an average day and what activity level are you set to?

    I walk 4 miles a day which comes up at 11-12k steps a day. I am set as sedentary as I am desk based most of the day.

    I have a feeling its something I have done (or havent done) when setting up the Fitbit so would be good to find out.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    edited February 2020
    That is why you're getting such a high adjustment then, 11-12k steps is Active, not Sedentary.

    Sedentary - BMR x 1.25
    Lightly Active - BMR x 1.4
    Active - BMR x 1.6
    Very Active - BMR x 1.75

    The adjustment is bringing you up to the correct activity level
  • joolsmd
    joolsmd Posts: 375 Member
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    That is why you're getting such a high adjustment then, 11-12k steps is Active, not Sedentary.

    Really? Is there anyway to override that? I have deleted them today as it obviously does not reflect the actual calories burnt in 35 mins flat road walking.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,129 Member
    edited February 2020
    joolsmd wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    That is why you're getting such a high adjustment then, 11-12k steps is Active, not Sedentary.

    Really? Is there anyway to override that? I have deleted them today as it obviously does not reflect the actual calories burnt in 35 mins flat road walking.

    Why would you want to override it? You'd be undereating if you're set to the wrong activity level.

    It doesn't reflect the walk, it reflects your total predicted calorie burn for the day.

    You could turn off your fitbit adjustments, but then you will be pushing yourself into a larger deficit than is necessary.
  • joolsmd
    joolsmd Posts: 375 Member
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    joolsmd wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    That is why you're getting such a high adjustment then, 11-12k steps is Active, not Sedentary.

    Really? Is there anyway to override that? I have deleted them today as it obviously does not reflect the actual calories burnt in 35 mins flat road walking.

    Why would you want to override it? You'd be undereating if you're set to the wrong activity level.

    It doesn't reflect the walk, it reflects your total predicted calorie burn for the day.

    You could turn off your fitbit adjustments, but then you will be pushing yourself into a larger deficit than is necessary.

    I wouldn't under eat as I ignore calorie burn when logging food. However, 35 mins walk (at 3 mph) walk on a flat road doesn't burn 900 cals even on the best of days, so its skewing my diary. I am fine inputting manually, but was wondering if there is an adjustment I can make that provides the true calories from my walks.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited February 2020
    joolsmd wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    joolsmd wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    That is why you're getting such a high adjustment then, 11-12k steps is Active, not Sedentary.

    Really? Is there anyway to override that? I have deleted them today as it obviously does not reflect the actual calories burnt in 35 mins flat road walking.

    Why would you want to override it? You'd be undereating if you're set to the wrong activity level.

    It doesn't reflect the walk, it reflects your total predicted calorie burn for the day.

    You could turn off your fitbit adjustments, but then you will be pushing yourself into a larger deficit than is necessary.

    I wouldn't under eat as I ignore calorie burn when logging food. However, 35 mins walk (at 3 mph) walk on a flat road doesn't burn 900 cals even on the best of days, so its skewing my diary. I am fine inputting manually, but was wondering if there is an adjustment I can make that provides the true calories from my walks.

    That is NOT your walk calories only. You are missing the point mentioned.

    Fitbit said you burned X for the day doing the walk and EVERYTHING else.
    MFP thought you'd burn Y with no exercise accounted for.

    X - Y = 900 adjustment.

    Some is the purposeful walk.
    Some is the activity above Sedentary.

    You are trusting MFP calorie goal?

    Then why are you trying to break it correcting itself?

    Fitbit has chosen the option to NOT send workouts to MFP.

    Again, that adjustment is not just exercise.
  • lmew91
    lmew91 Posts: 88 Member
    It might make more sense to you/ make your diary look more appropriate to your way of thinking if you set your activity level to "active" instead of sedentary. MFP won't "add" as many calories, but there will be more calories to begin with per day. It all amounts to the same thing, but if it's the amount of added calories that's bothering you, this will reduce that. They'll be in the beginning amount of calories instead.
  • joolsmd
    joolsmd Posts: 375 Member
    I'm still not getting it I am afraid. I logged into MFP this morning and had 902 calories logged after a 35 min walk. After walking for another 30 mins at lunchtime I then had 1600 calories of exercise logged. So its not Fitbit putting in my full days calories, its Fitbit adding calories burned to my MFP exercise diary every time I walk.

    I will try again with my activity level set as active, but again, thats just over-riding the original problem, that Fitbit has added on over 1500 calories for 60 mins walking. I would say that its already broken, not that I am trying to break it by working out whats gone wrong. :(
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    edited February 2020
    joolsmd wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    That is why you're getting such a high adjustment then, 11-12k steps is Active, not Sedentary.

    Really? Is there anyway to override that? I have deleted them today as it obviously does not reflect the actual calories burnt in 35 mins flat road walking.

    Can you clarify why you'd want to overide this? I'd be curious to see what type of adjustment you'd be seeing if you set your activity level to what it actually apparently is (active).
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    All movement requires energy to perform.

    Less than half of the calories in my adjustment most days is from purposeful exercise. The rest is NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis). It is just me moving through my day.
  • joolsmd
    joolsmd Posts: 375 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    All movement requires energy to perform.

    Less than half of the calories in my adjustment most days is from purposeful exercise. The rest is NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis). It is just me moving through my day.

    Now that helps a great deal. I was under the impression that the Fitbit was only logging calories from walking, not the whole breathing, digesting, and living deal. That makes much more sense now.

    Thanks
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    joolsmd wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    All movement requires energy to perform.

    Less than half of the calories in my adjustment most days is from purposeful exercise. The rest is NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis). It is just me moving through my day.

    Now that helps a great deal. I was under the impression that the Fitbit was only logging calories from walking, not the whole breathing, digesting, and living deal. That makes much more sense now.

    Thanks

    The Fitbit is logging everything.

    What you should be seeing in your adjustments is the difference between what MFP thinks you would be using given your stated activity level and what Fitbit has estimated you've actually burned.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    I too was a MFP member before I got my FitBit, set at sedentary initially, and surprised at how high the adjustments were. I also got the good advice to change my activity level since at the time I was averaging 10k steps/ day which is def not sedentary. When I changed to the more accurate lightly active setting, the baseline calories were higher but the adjustments were smaller and more reflective of my purposeful exercise. Enabling negative calorie adjustments helps ensure that if you do have a less active day than normal, that your total calorie target for the day is adjusted accordingly.

    And as others have rightly pointed out, the 900 cals isn’t how much you burned on that walk, it’s a reconciliation or true up of what MFP predicts you burn in a day based on your stats and the sedentary activity level, and what you actually burn from your highly active lifestyle.

    If you use the app you can see how the calculation is done by clicking exercise, FitBit adjustments, more info, as in my screen shot below from last week.
    i4k6wbdbcbty.png
  • joolsmd
    joolsmd Posts: 375 Member
    I've got it now. Apologies for being a bit slow; thanks for all the help.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    joolsmd wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    All movement requires energy to perform.

    Less than half of the calories in my adjustment most days is from purposeful exercise. The rest is NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis). It is just me moving through my day.

    Now that helps a great deal. I was under the impression that the Fitbit was only logging calories from walking, not the whole breathing, digesting, and living deal. That makes much more sense now.

    Thanks

    Your BMR is the energy it takes to live, maintain (repair as needed) your present physical form, and digest food.

    Your NEAT is all the movement that happens between sleeping or lying still and exercise. Brushing your teeth, walking to the mailbox, typing on a message board, waving at a neighbor, cooking dinner are all examples of NEAT. It can add up to a lot of calories.

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