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Why is MyFitnessPal and Fitbit recording my exercise calories burned differently

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  • Jknip9484
    Jknip9484 Posts: 20 Member
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    I’m following MFP calorie calculation because if your specific with specific movements, weights used, reps, sets, duration, I feel there’s a better chance of more accuracy. Fitbit doesn’t offer that.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,347 Member
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    Why is MyFitnessPal and Fitbit recording my exercise calories burned differently

    Could you be more specific? Is your Fitbit tracker synced to MFP and showing different numbers in MFP than in the Fitbit app? Or are you comparing Fitbit calorie burn with a manual exercise entry in MFP?
  • michael_hatten
    michael_hatten Posts: 34 Member
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    I almost never use Fitbit calories. Fitbit calculates calorie burn from heart rate but it takes a while for you heart to catch up with your effort. I use the calories reported by my machine (rower, recumbent bike, treadmill) or the metabolic formulas published by the American College of Sports Medicine.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,851 Member
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    If you're saying that your Fitbit exercise calorie adjustment in MFP is different from the exercise calorie total in Fitbit, that's normal and appropriate. MFP has already assumed an amount of movement/activity into your calorie goal to cover daily life routine. (For most people, the lowest activity level in MFP, sedentary/not very active, is probably about 3000-5000 steps or equivalent other movement.)

    The fitness tracker calorie adjustment is then any extra calories of movement in addition to that MFP activity level assumed movementthat the tracker (such as Fitbit) sees you as doing. MFP will even subtract calories sometimes if you move less than expected in the MFP activity level, but only if you have negative adjustments turned on in MFP.