Fitbit and exercise calories

LynnJ9 · June 2020

Sorry fitbit experts, I am sure you have answered this before, but first, please let me know if what I am thinking is true.
Fitbit measures your steps, and based on your steps, MFP adds exercise calories. If you say you are sedentary, it will add calories sooner than if you are active.
If you record an exercise, MFP will record those calories as exercise calories, but it will deduct that many calories from the step calories, because it will assume that you are adding steps while doing the exercise.
If this is true, then here us my second wuestion; how do you adjust the exercise calories for activities that do not affect the steps? Today I rode 9 miles on a stationary bike. It did not record as any steps on the fitbit. I then walked 12000 steps. Now normally 12000 steps will give me about 400 calories. Today my 12000 steps recorded only about 140 calories and then recorded my stationary bike calories.
I know it isn't a big deal, I know how much exercise I did, but I just wondered if there is a way to add exercise calories that will just go on top of the step calories.

heybales · June 2020

LynnJ9 wrote: »

Sorry fitbit experts, I am sure you have answered this before, but first, please let me know if what I am thinking is true.
Fitbit measures your steps, and based on your steps, MFP adds exercise calories. If you say you are sedentary, it will add calories sooner than if you are active.
If you record an exercise, MFP will record those calories as exercise calories, but it will deduct that many calories from the step calories, because it will assume that you are adding steps while doing the exercise.
If this is true, then here us my second wuestion; how do you adjust the exercise calories for activities that do not affect the steps? Today I rode 9 miles on a stationary bike. It did not record as any steps on the fitbit. I then walked 12000 steps. Now normally 12000 steps will give me about 400 calories. Today my 12000 steps recorded only about 140 calories and then recorded my stationary bike calories.
I know it isn't a big deal, I know how much exercise I did, but I just wondered if there is a way to add exercise calories that will just go on top of the step calories.

No to some of those ideas - wrong concepts on what is happening. Correct on some.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy/p1

Unless you are not actually linking accounts and syncing.

But only selected in MFP app the Fitbit as your step source and that's it.
That's a whole difference inaccurate beast.

Outside of sync issues lately - do your meal totals show up in Fitbit?

LynnJ9 · June 2020

heybales wrote: »

No to some of those ideas - wrong concepts on what is happening. Correct on some.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy/p1

Unless you are not actually linking accounts and syncing.

But only selected in MFP app the Fitbit as your step source and that's it.
That's a whole difference inaccurate beast.

Outside of sync issues lately - do your meal totals show up in Fitbit?

I will read over that link.
Yes my meal totals show up in my fitbit app.
Thank you

nanastaci2020 · June 2020

MFP estimates your total daily calorie burn based on your stats (height, weight, age, gender) and your stated activity level.
Fitbit estimates your total daily calorie burn based on your stats and your actual movement.

When synced, MFP takes the Fitbit # and compares to what it projected and shows an adjustment for the difference.

Assume your BMR is 1800 daily which is 75 per hour. You choose sedentary and MFP expects you to burn a total of 2160 daily which is 90 per hour.

Fitbit uses your same BMR for when you're not moving but awards more calories when you are moving.

Say you wake up at 6am. Your Fitbit shows you've burned 75 x 6 = 450. MFP takes that, says there are 18 hours left in the day and decides you'll end at 450 + 18*90 = 2070, so if you have negative adjustments you'll see -90. Otherwise Fitbit adjustment will show 0.

Later in the day, you've done regular day stuff (activity) and also gotten in an hour run. At 6pm, Fitbit shows you have so far burned 1700 calories for the day. MFP takes that #, says 1800 + 6 * 90 (6 hours left in the day) = 2340 so you see a +180.

Each time you sync, MFP does those calculations.

When you log activity for calories, then THOSE logged stats are used instead of Fitbit for that bit of time. So if you log a bikeride of 400 calories from 6pm to 7pm, then MFP & Fitbit use that data instead of Fitbit's own for the 6m-7pm hour. It can look a little funky if you log it in MFP. Personally I would log it in Fitbit and let Fitbit send the cals over to MFP.

callsitlikeiseeit · June 2020

ive used fitbit and mfp for years now. it can be tricky, if you dont understand how they work separately, and together (which was well explained above).

for ME, i log my food in mfp. i never visit the fitbit app. my fitbit is synched with mfp. for calories, i go by the fitbit. (keep in mind there is still a margin of overestimation, imo). i do LOG my exercise in mfp but edit it and set it to 1 calorie for the burn. that way, it doesnt try to double count it, but i still have it logged in mfp.

everyone is different, but doing that has been the most effective for me.

heybales · June 2020

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

ive used fitbit and mfp for years now. it can be tricky, if you dont understand how they work separately, and together (which was well explained above).

for ME, i log my food in mfp. i never visit the fitbit app. my fitbit is synched with mfp. for calories, i go by the fitbit. (keep in mind there is still a margin of overestimation, imo). i do LOG my exercise in mfp but edit it and set it to 1 calorie for the burn. that way, it doesnt try to double count it, but i still have it logged in mfp.

everyone is different, but doing that has been the most effective for me.

Do you also log it as 1 min?

Because if you logged it for normal time, and 1 calorie - you just replaced Fitbit's estimate of calorie burn for that entire chunk of time with 1 calorie.

That is a huge issue and very incorrect. If you did a 1 hr workout, not only would you lose the workout, but your BMR rate of burn for that hour with 1 calorie.

In effect - you are not going by Fitbit's estimate of calories then because you just replaced what it estimated you burned.

There is NO doubling on Fitbit unless you totally get the time wrong for a workout - otherwise Fitbit is a replace-only system.
Last thing added replaces whatever was there before. It can show the original Activity Record with stats it came up with for calorie burn, 3 manually entered workouts, 2 synced in workouts - and if the start time/duration all matches - only the calorie burn in the last record actually counts towards the daily totals.

The effect of 1 calorie for a chunk of time is now Fitbit daily burn (TDEE) has lost hundreds of calories perhaps, reports that new TDEE to MFP, and now MFP to prevent double counting subtracts any known workout calories.
Only 1 in this case true, but it also means you lost any credit for workouts you do in this manner.

You are creating a bigger deficit and losing the whole life lesson MFP is trying to teach about weight management - you do more you eat more, you do less you eat less.

Now - perhaps you do indeed use 1 min for time instead - I wanted to expand on the above facts because there are still many that do it totally wrong and give their method of doing it as if it's right and useful - and it's not.

ETA - you can avoid any logging workouts on MFP by just making a wall post of your workout that can be a lot more inspiring and beneficial to friends list than a simple 1 liner that doesn't really say much.

LynnJ9 · July 2020

Thank you all. That is a lot to work through, but I appreciate your insight

Fitbit and exercise calories

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