Fitbit and myfitnesspal?

I have a question hope someone can help. I don't understand why my exercises don't sync to myfitnesspal? It just shows my steps not the actual exercises. So I have to enter the manually then it does the adjust

Replies

  • AlphaHowls
    AlphaHowls Posts: 1,890 Member
    If you are going to use fitbit, you do not add anything. It will send over 'adjustments' to MFP. No need to add actual exercises.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    That's how sync works. You will never see individual activities. You shouldn't have to manually enter anything if you're seeing step adjustments.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    The workout is part of your daily calorie burn on Fitbit.

    Fitbit sends your daily calorie burn to MFP to do math with to correct itself and adjust your eating goal.
    Your workout is accounted for.

    Don't manually enter them on MFP despite MFP's recommendation - it's to keep your eyes here for their ads.

    If you need your friends list to see you worked out - just make a wall post about it with more interesting info than a generic 1 liner gives - inspire and motivate!!

    Just to confirm - your meal total calories are showing up in Fitbit account?
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
    thats how its supposed to do it.

    i do also log my workouts on mfp, because this is my 'centralized place' for data. i rarely look at the fitbit app. so I manually enter in my workout and change the amount burned to '1', so it doesn't double count the workout.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    thats how its supposed to do it.

    i do also log my workouts on mfp, because this is my 'centralized place' for data. i rarely look at the fitbit app. so I manually enter in my workout and change the amount burned to '1', so it doesn't double count the workout.

    You just caused that workout to sync over to Fitbit for that chunk of time with a calorie burn of 1 then, and replace whatever Fitbit had for that time.

    So now you have very worthless Fitbit data as far as daily calorie burn, workout data, ect.

    Just so others are aware that is a very bad way of doing it if you want any valid figures for comparing later in Fitbit.
    And since that daily calorie burn with now incorrect total is synced back to MFP - your calorie adjustment is now wonked out.

    There is NO double counting if you make the workout exactly what Fitbit said it was. Or a more accurate estimate actually would be better, like Strength Training on MFP. As long as you get the time-stamp right.

    Also curious how MFP is place for data when it's only 1 calorie for a workout - that's not much in the way of data.
  • Jennliftsandspins
    Jennliftsandspins Posts: 150 Member
    I log my exercise in MFP and it goes over to the Fitbit app. I delete it from the Fitbit app because it counts it twice (once from tracking the exercise with my Fitbit and once from logging it into MFP). MFP takes my steps from Fitbit. I have it set on MFP to negative counting (or whatever the term is I can’t recall exactly) so it doesn’t add too many calories on.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    I log my exercise in MFP and it goes over to the Fitbit app. I delete it from the Fitbit app because it counts it twice (once from tracking the exercise with my Fitbit and once from logging it into MFP). MFP takes my steps from Fitbit. I have it set on MFP to negative counting (or whatever the term is I can’t recall exactly) so it doesn’t add too many calories on.

    Just to be aware - Fitbit is a replace-only system.

    Whatever syncs over or is manually added replaces what ever is already there.
    Latest is what is in the current daily stats.

    So while you can see the Fitbit created Activity Record (that is a snapshot of the stats for that chunk of time - doesn't change), and the MFP synced Workout Record both, only the last is the current data.

    The neg cal adjustment is when your activity is less than MFP estimated it would be, you'll correctly eat less when doing less, same as eating more when doing more.
    And keep the same deficit.

    If you have no sync issues the 2 extra syncs you cause logging the workout on MFP are no big deal, are you using the Fitbit calorie burn, or the MFP database calorie burn?
    If you have syncing issues, 2 extra syncs aren't going to help.
  • Jennliftsandspins
    Jennliftsandspins Posts: 150 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    I log my exercise in MFP and it goes over to the Fitbit app. I delete it from the Fitbit app because it counts it twice (once from tracking the exercise with my Fitbit and once from logging it into MFP). MFP takes my steps from Fitbit. I have it set on MFP to negative counting (or whatever the term is I can’t recall exactly) so it doesn’t add too many calories on.

    Just to be aware - Fitbit is a replace-only system.

    Whatever syncs over or is manually added replaces what ever is already there.
    Latest is what is in the current daily stats.

    So while you can see the Fitbit created Activity Record (that is a snapshot of the stats for that chunk of time - doesn't change), and the MFP synced Workout Record both, only the last is the current data.

    The neg cal adjustment is when your activity is less than MFP estimated it would be, you'll correctly eat less when doing less, same as eating more when doing more.
    And keep the same deficit.

    If you have no sync issues the 2 extra syncs you cause logging the workout on MFP are no big deal, are you using the Fitbit calorie burn, or the MFP database calorie burn?
    If you have syncing issues, 2 extra syncs aren't going to help.

    My Fitbit app tracks and keeps both.
    For example when I track spinning with my Versa 2 it will show in the “exercise this week” section. Then when I add spinning into MFP the “exercise this week” section will show my Versa tracked spinning as well as spinning (from My fitness Pal). It adds the calories together as though I burned double that day. So I delete the one from MFP. It’s not that big a deal I am just particular about how neat and tidy my app looks😊. As for my daily calorie quota, I don’t tend to eat extra burned calories unless I’m hungry so again that doesn’t matter much either for me. I set it to negative because the 13,000+ steps a day I get are not all active zone steps so it feels like cheating to have all that added on. Just how I like to organize my apps.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Yes - it keeps both, it can keep any number of items actually - and as a replace-only system only the stats in the last are in the daily stats.

    If you get the time stamp correct, your daily burn will not go up no matter how many Activity or Workout records you add. Those are different things too.
    This was just checked.

    The Fitbit is much better than MFP in that way, MFP is add on system.
    But indeed, the cleaner look is nicer.
    By deleting the workout on Fitbit, you actually increase the sync required by 1 more, so 3 extra syncs.
    Just keep that in mind when you have sync issues.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    thats how its supposed to do it.

    i do also log my workouts on mfp, because this is my 'centralized place' for data. i rarely look at the fitbit app. so I manually enter in my workout and change the amount burned to '1', so it doesn't double count the workout.

    You just caused that workout to sync over to Fitbit for that chunk of time with a calorie burn of 1 then, and replace whatever Fitbit had for that time.

    So now you have very worthless Fitbit data as far as daily calorie burn, workout data, ect.

    Just so others are aware that is a very bad way of doing it if you want any valid figures for comparing later in Fitbit.
    And since that daily calorie burn with now incorrect total is synced back to MFP - your calorie adjustment is now wonked out.

    There is NO double counting if you make the workout exactly what Fitbit said it was. Or a more accurate estimate actually would be better, like Strength Training on MFP. As long as you get the time-stamp right.

    Also curious how MFP is place for data when it's only 1 calorie for a workout - that's not much in the way of data.

    since I don't use the fitbit data, doesn't matter much to me

    this is how I do it, and lost 130 pounds doing it this way.

    everyone finds the way that works for them.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    I know whatever works is great, I just wanted to make sure others seeing the recommendation know the data back and forth is useless then.

    Like you say you don't use the Fitbit data - but you have a daily calorie burn that syncs from Fitbit to MFP.
    MFP then makes adjustments based on that data to your eating goal.

    So unless you are ignoring the adjustment, which you may - then Fitbit data is being used whether you know it or not.

    If you are ignoring that adjustment, then you really may as not be syncing.
    In which case advice to people on syncing should probably just start out to not sync and why you ignore the Fitbit data.