Need fitbit tips!

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JK1542020
JK1542020 Posts: 73 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So im very excited that my fitibit will be landing tomorrow morning! Its a fitbit versa 2. My main questions are:

1) i hope to fonally have clarity on my activoty level so i can get my mfp settings correct. How many steps a day count as active/lightly active? A rough guide would be great so i know what to aim for.

2)I do 10- 15 minutes walking workout most days. Am i right in thinking my fit bit will lig this so i wont have to add this is seperatley on mfp...i just let the fitbit adjust my intake accordingly?

Many thanks to all who can help, i want to be able to set it up straight away :)
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Replies

  • JK1542020
    JK1542020 Posts: 73 Member
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    I'm really sorry about my typing skills 😳 I'm over excited!
  • angelsja
    angelsja Posts: 860 Member
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    If you have a fitbit connected it's best to set yourself to sedentary IF you manage to connect it properly I don't know much about the versa but people have trouble connecting fitbit sometimes after it's connected you don't have to do anything it will auto transfer "earned calories" over they may just appear as adjustment not as you burned x calories walking hope that helps and enjoy your new fitbit
  • PedmomJill
    PedmomJill Posts: 505 Member
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    I have the first Versa and it’s been great. No trouble with it connecting to MFP. I have mine set to sedentary even though I workout every day because I have a desk job. I have my daily goal set to 8,000 (again, due to desk job). Yes it will count your steps and import it to MFP.
  • PedmomJill
    PedmomJill Posts: 505 Member
    edited May 2020
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    Below is what it shows at the top of my screen.
  • PedmomJill
    PedmomJill Posts: 505 Member
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    wb9ksfxuxbrr.jpeg
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,968 Member
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    Here's the MFP FitBit Group, they have some FAQs at the top, and a bajillion members and threads.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • JK1542020
    JK1542020 Posts: 73 Member
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    PedmomJill wrote: »
    wb9ksfxuxbrr.jpeg

    Thanks, so are you logging your excersise in mfp or is that 1103 coming from your fitbit?
  • PedmomJill
    PedmomJill Posts: 505 Member
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    @freelymama it comes in automatically 😁
  • angelsja
    angelsja Posts: 860 Member
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    PedmomJill wrote: »
    wb9ksfxuxbrr.jpeg

    Wah 😭 I only get 650 adjustment calories for 13 and a half thousand steps 😂
  • PedmomJill
    PedmomJill Posts: 505 Member
    edited May 2020
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    angelsja wrote: »
    PedmomJill wrote: »
    wb9ksfxuxbrr.jpeg

    Wah 😭 I only get 650 adjustment calories for 13 and a half thousand steps 😂

    It’s probably based on stats. I’m a 54 y/o female, 5’4”, 142ish pounds. I also wonder if heart rate during steps matter. A lot of mine today is from cutting the grass, which was 401 calories and 6,526 steps.

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,649 Member
    edited May 2020
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    Everything is using statistical estimates. For most they will be bang on. For some a little bit off. For a very few a lot off. Which is why we always have to look at our own predicted vs actual results based on our own logging and our own 4-6 week weight trend and adjust as needed to keep things moving in the correct direction and in a reasonable way.

    Fitbit does take HR into account. Sometimes this is useful: I am walking up a hill. Each of my steps is not the same effort as walking on level ground. The heart rate does reflect (at an unknown level based on fitness some of) the extra work done.

    Sometimes it is not useful and it skews results: I just had a meal and it is 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) in the shade while I am walking up that sun-drenched hill while a zombie army is trying to eat me. The extra adrenaline and heart beats are not reflecting actual energy spent on work, i.e. the calories I'm spending!

    The new Charge 4 is supposed to be using heart rate zones that take into account our "heart rate reserve" (220-age-resting heart rate), as opposed to just setting the maximum heart rate using the 220-age formula like every other Fitbit does at this time.

    Since as a general population level statistic (though definitely not in all cases) lower resting heart rate denotes increased fitness, this will improve the detection of the cardio zone thresholds for many people.

    I suspect that doing so will lower exercise calories for many of us. Whether this will propagate into more correct derived overall caloric expenditures, that I don't know for sure.

    To the original question, I would leave everything set to sedentary until the positive adjustments AT MIDNIGHT were substantial enough that they would warrant bumping up the activity level to make more easy to plan for balanced meals instead of scrambling to fill calories near the end of the day

    While positive adjustments from sedentary may start at as low as 3,500 steps, I would expect that the adjustments would be manageable for a while.

    I have personally found that setting myself on MFP at one level less active than I really am works best for my day; but I expect that this will be very individual.
  • JK1542020
    JK1542020 Posts: 73 Member
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    Haha....aaah im confused 🤣
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,649 Member
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    JK1542020 wrote: »
    Haha....aaah im confused 🤣
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    To the original question, I would leave everything set to sedentary until the positive adjustments AT MIDNIGHT were substantial enough that they would warrant bumping up the activity level to make more easy to plan for balanced meals instead of scrambling to fill calories near the end of the day

    While positive adjustments from sedentary may start at as low as 3,500 steps, I would expect that the adjustments would be manageable for a while.

    I have personally found that setting myself on MFP at one level less active than I really am works best for my day; but I expect that this will be very individual.

    I don't expect you will have to worry too much about changing your MFP activity level until you consistently hit an ~7500 step level. At that point larger adjustments may prompt you to change your base level.

    Get the Fitbit, (ignore the first couple of days), then connect it to MFP, eat per suggestions, and review in 4-6 weeks to see how well your logging and MFP and Fitbit are getting along together!
  • Jelly_Belly_Jim
    Jelly_Belly_Jim Posts: 24 Member
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    Whether you pick sedentary or lightly active, the Fitbit will balance the calories out for you. If you pick lightly active but weren’t really active, it will subtract calories. If you picked sedentary and were busier, it will add calories in. Just let the Fitbit do the work....and you are correct that you DO NOT add in any exercise, regardless of what you do.
  • hipari
    hipari Posts: 1,367 Member
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    After several years of having my Fitbit linked with MFP, here’s my notes:
    1. You are now logging your calorie burns through Fitbit. DO NOT add exercise manually to MFP, that would be double logging. If you want to keep an exercise/fitness diary for the purpose of seeing progress on something like running, keep it somewhere else or log it with zero calories. It’s already in your Fitbit activity.
    2. Understand that the Fitbit calorie adjustment given to you in MFP is somewhat based on your current burn level for the day. This means that if you work out in the morning and sit on your butt for a netflix binge, you will see a huge calorie adjustment right after your workout because your average activity level for that day is so high right after the workout. It will continue to adjust throughout the day, in the case of working out first then resting for the rest of the day the adjustment will likely get smaller. Take some time to learn how much the Fitbit actually estimates you burn on different days (workday, weekend, workout days etc).

    I personally prefer checking my deficit in the Fitbit app instead of MFP, because it shows me total in vs total out, instead of the calorie adjustment stuff that sometimes leads to confusion. It’s a personal preference. dgfym8uh5sb3.jpeg
    pundnt5nh2ps.jpeg
  • swimmchick87
    swimmchick87 Posts: 458 Member
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    I have my settings set to "lightly active" and I've found this correlates to roughly 7500 steps per day. There is some variation depending on how I get the steps, but roughly. I have negative adjustments enabled and mfp will take calories away if I don't reach that 7500 number. That motivates me greatly to not just have a totally "lazy day," especially now when I'm at home all of the time and getting hardly any steps just going about my day. For me, about 10-12 minutes of intentional walking equals 1,000 steps. Back when I was working (not from home) I'd get tons at work just throughout my day and only have to do so much extra walking on the weekends, but now I have to do it every day. I march in front of my TV throughout various times of the day to get my steps in. I get a small positive adjustment for going above 7500. Typically it's around 100-150 extra calories if I reach 10,000. I'm sure part of it is individual so you'll just need to watch the numbers for awhile and see what it does for you.

    I will say I have an old alta that doesn't have a HR monitor. I've heard a lot about that piece being inaccurate- I seem to remember there even being a lawsuit- have they improved it? I would be more wary about trusting calories burned from that. I've always heard measuring your heart rate to get calories burned is only accurate for steady state cardio. You'll just have to track carefully for awhile and see if you can trust the numbers by seeing if you lose as expected while following them.

    General tips:
    -The fitbit only does you good if you wear it every single day. I know a shocking number of people who will only wear it on days they know they'll be walking a lot/ will purposefully take it off if they know they'll be sitting a lot (in meetings, on lazy weekend days, whatever). The whole point of the fitbit is recognizing those days that you wouldn't normally walk a lot and making sure you still get the steps in anyway.

    -Perhaps the newer models have somehow accounted for this; but just in case- mine doesn't count steps if my arms aren't swinging/I'm carrying or pushing something. I'm not obsessive about it, but if there are big stretches where you're doing this you may want to think about it. For example, mine won't count steps at the store because I'm pushing a cart. I try to remember to put it in my pocket or hook it on to my purse strap if I don't have a pocket, so it will still count.
  • JK1542020
    JK1542020 Posts: 73 Member
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    hipari wrote: »
    After several years of having my Fitbit linked with MFP, here’s my notes:
    1. You are now logging your calorie burns through Fitbit. DO NOT add exercise manually to MFP, that would be double logging. If you want to keep an exercise/fitness diary for the purpose of seeing progress on something like running, keep it somewhere else or log it with zero calories. It’s already in your Fitbit activity.
    2. Understand that the Fitbit calorie adjustment given to you in MFP is somewhat based on your current burn level for the day. This means that if you work out in the morning and sit on your butt for a netflix binge, you will see a huge calorie adjustment right after your workout because your average activity level for that day is so high right after the workout. It will continue to adjust throughout the day, in the case of working out first then resting for the rest of the day the adjustment will likely get smaller. Take some time to learn how much the Fitbit actually estimates you burn on different days (workday, weekend, workout days etc).

    I personally prefer checking my deficit in the Fitbit app instead of MFP, because it shows me total in vs total out, instead of the calorie adjustment stuff that sometimes leads to confusion. It’s a personal preference. dgfym8uh5sb3.jpeg
    pundnt5nh2ps.jpeg

    ARGH! I just went and enabled negative adjustments and now mfp is saying ive done 0 steps today even though ive done over 8000.....how do i fix this? It happened right after i enabled neg adjustments.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    JK1542020 wrote: »
    hipari wrote: »
    After several years of having my Fitbit linked with MFP, here’s my notes:
    1. You are now logging your calorie burns through Fitbit. DO NOT add exercise manually to MFP, that would be double logging. If you want to keep an exercise/fitness diary for the purpose of seeing progress on something like running, keep it somewhere else or log it with zero calories. It’s already in your Fitbit activity.
    2. Understand that the Fitbit calorie adjustment given to you in MFP is somewhat based on your current burn level for the day. This means that if you work out in the morning and sit on your butt for a netflix binge, you will see a huge calorie adjustment right after your workout because your average activity level for that day is so high right after the workout. It will continue to adjust throughout the day, in the case of working out first then resting for the rest of the day the adjustment will likely get smaller. Take some time to learn how much the Fitbit actually estimates you burn on different days (workday, weekend, workout days etc).

    I personally prefer checking my deficit in the Fitbit app instead of MFP, because it shows me total in vs total out, instead of the calorie adjustment stuff that sometimes leads to confusion. It’s a personal preference. dgfym8uh5sb3.jpeg
    pundnt5nh2ps.jpeg

    ARGH! I just went and enabled negative adjustments and now mfp is saying ive done 0 steps today even though ive done over 8000.....how do i fix this? It happened right after i enabled neg adjustments.

    Negative adjustments should impact your calorie goal for the day (if you're doing less activity than MFP would have estimated). It shouldn't remove steps. This sounds like it might be a sync issue.
  • JK1542020
    JK1542020 Posts: 73 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    JK1542020 wrote: »
    hipari wrote: »
    After several years of having my Fitbit linked with MFP, here’s my notes:
    1. You are now logging your calorie burns through Fitbit. DO NOT add exercise manually to MFP, that would be double logging. If you want to keep an exercise/fitness diary for the purpose of seeing progress on something like running, keep it somewhere else or log it with zero calories. It’s already in your Fitbit activity.
    2. Understand that the Fitbit calorie adjustment given to you in MFP is somewhat based on your current burn level for the day. This means that if you work out in the morning and sit on your butt for a netflix binge, you will see a huge calorie adjustment right after your workout because your average activity level for that day is so high right after the workout. It will continue to adjust throughout the day, in the case of working out first then resting for the rest of the day the adjustment will likely get smaller. Take some time to learn how much the Fitbit actually estimates you burn on different days (workday, weekend, workout days etc).

    I personally prefer checking my deficit in the Fitbit app instead of MFP, because it shows me total in vs total out, instead of the calorie adjustment stuff that sometimes leads to confusion. It’s a personal preference. dgfym8uh5sb3.jpeg
    pundnt5nh2ps.jpeg

    ARGH! I just went and enabled negative adjustments and now mfp is saying ive done 0 steps today even though ive done over 8000.....how do i fix this? It happened right after i enabled neg adjustments.

    Negative adjustments should impact your calorie goal for the day (if you're doing less activity than MFP would have estimated). It shouldn't remove steps. This sounds like it might be a sync issue.

    I wont have any negative adjustments as im way over my energy estimate. Its just taken all my steps off but the extra calories sre still there. Ive tried disconnectong and reconnecting anf restarting it all...
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    JK1542020 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    JK1542020 wrote: »
    hipari wrote: »
    After several years of having my Fitbit linked with MFP, here’s my notes:
    1. You are now logging your calorie burns through Fitbit. DO NOT add exercise manually to MFP, that would be double logging. If you want to keep an exercise/fitness diary for the purpose of seeing progress on something like running, keep it somewhere else or log it with zero calories. It’s already in your Fitbit activity.
    2. Understand that the Fitbit calorie adjustment given to you in MFP is somewhat based on your current burn level for the day. This means that if you work out in the morning and sit on your butt for a netflix binge, you will see a huge calorie adjustment right after your workout because your average activity level for that day is so high right after the workout. It will continue to adjust throughout the day, in the case of working out first then resting for the rest of the day the adjustment will likely get smaller. Take some time to learn how much the Fitbit actually estimates you burn on different days (workday, weekend, workout days etc).

    I personally prefer checking my deficit in the Fitbit app instead of MFP, because it shows me total in vs total out, instead of the calorie adjustment stuff that sometimes leads to confusion. It’s a personal preference. dgfym8uh5sb3.jpeg
    pundnt5nh2ps.jpeg

    ARGH! I just went and enabled negative adjustments and now mfp is saying ive done 0 steps today even though ive done over 8000.....how do i fix this? It happened right after i enabled neg adjustments.

    Negative adjustments should impact your calorie goal for the day (if you're doing less activity than MFP would have estimated). It shouldn't remove steps. This sounds like it might be a sync issue.

    I wont have any negative adjustments as im way over my energy estimate. Its just taken all my steps off but the extra calories sre still there. Ive tried disconnectong and reconnecting anf restarting it all...

    It's giving you an adjustment for zero steps?

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