Using Fitbit website vs myfitnesspal?

RobC04
RobC04 Posts: 8
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello,

I recently bought a BodyMedia Fit device but I think I'm going to return it and buy the fitbit. Since neither device tracks cycling optimally and it seems like the fitbit website lets you adjust your activities more easily, the fitbit may be the better choice. With the BodyMedia Fit you have to remember to take the device off before the activity since you can't replace the data it captures.

Anyway, back to my question. If I get the Fitbit, what advantages are there to using myfitnesspal to track my food and activity vs. using the fitbit website? Is there something myfitnesspal does better than the fitbit site? Is there anything the fitbit site does better than myfitnesspal? I am pretty happy with the bodymedia site so I want to make sure if I switch the fitbit and / or myfitnesspal sites are a good alternative.

Thanks for the help!

Replies

  • DataBased
    DataBased Posts: 513 Member
    I'm sorry I can't offer any assistance - I've never used the other sites so I have no basis for comparison. I will say that the reason I've stuck here is because most of the people here are helpful, patient, and kind. I've got a fantastic group of friends here and we really support one another quite a lot - that means a lot to me personally.

    I've considered a fitbit but I purchased an HRM and a food scale to start out because I need to be sure of what I put in and what I burn off before I worry about anything else. Times being what they are, it's all I could afford right off the bat.

    I hope you find the very best environment to help you along your way!

    :flowerforyou:
  • PunkyRachel
    PunkyRachel Posts: 1,959 Member
    I just log all my food on here, cause I'm used to it and it just transfers over to fitbit site anyways. I don't log exercise anymore, unless its something when I wasn't wearing my fitbit. I love that fitbit automatically logs your calories burned. I only use fitbit website to see my stats and charts, love the charts!

    I bought my fitbit online used for $68 bucks, then it didn't work. Fitbits costumer service people, when they couldn't help me get it working sent me a brand new one, free even paid shipping. So I returned the used fitbit and got a full refund.
  • bikinibeliever
    bikinibeliever Posts: 832 Member
    I don't understand why you would want to take the bodymedia off, could you explain a little more? I use the bodymedia and have a friend that uses the fitbit, we have compared and she wants a bodymedia. Just curious.

    ETA: I log all my food here and just go to bodymedia and just enter the total calories for the day.

    You can enter off body activity with bodymedia also. Not sure if you know that.
  • sfoster3171982
    sfoster3171982 Posts: 76 Member
    I love how it syncs up with mfp and I don't have to double enter everything.
  • meeka472
    meeka472 Posts: 283 Member
    I log my food and water here on MFP because the food database here can't be beat and it all transfers to fitbit. I will sometimes log my exercise here or sometimes on the fitbit site...but never in both places. I log the exercise because it impacts my activity score for the day on the fitbit site.

    Myfitnesspal is good for the food database and logging calories. Fitbit I find is more accurate for daily calorie goals. I find that when the fitbit site tells me I can have a certain number of calories it is usually spot on...myfitnesspal is a little too liberal with the exercise calories and the "fitbit calorie adjustment".

    If you log your food here and use the fitbit site to monitor how many calories you should be eating per day, you'll be good to go.
  • AZDizzy
    AZDizzy Posts: 434 Member
    The food database here on MFP is way way better than fitbit's. I use the timer on the fitbit to get exact start/end times for my exercise and enter it on MFP.

    The only thing I really enter on fitbit is my weight.
  • RobC04
    RobC04 Posts: 8
    I don't understand why you would want to take the bodymedia off, could you explain a little more? I use the bodymedia and have a friend that uses the fitbit, we have compared and she wants a bodymedia. Just curious.

    ETA: I log all my food here and just go to bodymedia and just enter the total calories for the day.

    You can enter off body activity with bodymedia also. Not sure if you know that.

    The bodymedia fit (and the fitbit) are better at recording activity from walking / running activities. I spoke with a Bodymedia customer support rep and they recommended that for a cycling activity that you remove the fit and log the cycling activity manually since the fit will underestimate your activity level. Removing the fit is necessary because the website only lets you specify the activity manually for periods where you are not wearing the fit.

    The fitbit lets you enter an activity even during a period where you were wearing the fitbit. The calorie burn from the manually entered activity replaces the calorie burn data recorded from the fitbit. This seems a bit more user friendly since you don;t have to remember to remove the fitbit beforehand. You can also use the fitbit stopwatch to help you remember when and how long you did the activity for.
  • RobC04
    RobC04 Posts: 8
    Thanks for the replies so far! So it sounds like the big reason to use myfitnesspal is for a more complete food database. I did experiment a little on the fitbit site and entering food is a bit clunky. I'll have to try it on myfitnesspal to compare. I'm ok if I have to enter my own nutritional information as long as it is friendly to do so. I don't have a smart phone so I can't log the food by scanning the barcode. The Bodymedia food database is lacking, but I have found it pretty easy to add my own foods and recipes. Much easier than the fitbit site.
  • RobC04
    RobC04 Posts: 8
    Hmmm. One thing I like better on the bodymedia site is that I can enter the food I eat by weight instead of a serving. I weigh most things I eat instead of measureing by volume. For example, I ate some Kashi Toasted Berry Crumble which weighed 60 grams. On the Bodymedia site I can enter it as 60 grams and it automatically scales the calories and nutritional info based on the 51 gram serving. It looks like on myfitnesspal I would have to enter it as 1.2 servings (which I have to calculate manually) since there isn't an option to enter it in grams. Am I missing something?

    Thanks
  • Masq
    Masq Posts: 191 Member
    I had both the Fitbit and the Bodymedia(Bodybugg)

    Here is a blog I did comparing the two: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Masq

    The short of it is.... I sent the Bodybugg back and kept the Fitbit. :smile:
  • dragonladywendy
    dragonladywendy Posts: 71
    I've only recently bought the fitbit. I use MFP to log all my food and drink, and use the fitbit to calculate my exact calories burnt (rememebering to start and stop the stopwatch for exercies) and once it's uploaded to the fitbit site, it re-adjusts my MFP calorie allowance.

    I hit a plateau that has stuck around for eons, so I'm hoping I'll start seeing a difference again soon, as MFP calorie burns are too generous in comparison to fitbits calculations.

    Good luck with your choices :)
  • vjrose
    vjrose Posts: 809 Member
    I have a fitbit, log my food here (it syncs with Fitbit) and anything that isn't measured well by fitbit. Then use the fitbit to track sleep, steps etc. It passes excess calories back to MFP anyway so no worries.

    I looked at food logging over there and like the database with all it's issues better here.

    One note, car and motorcycle driving can sometimes give you stairs since it is based on an accelerometer system, so log driving if needed over there so it will eliminate false stairs.
  • RobC04
    RobC04 Posts: 8
    I had both the Fitbit and the Bodymedia(Bodybugg)

    Here is a blog I did comparing the two: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Masq

    The short of it is.... I sent the Bodybugg back and kept the Fitbit. :smile:

    Thanks for the link, but I can't view it :-)

    I get a message stating the blog is private.
  • Masq
    Masq Posts: 191 Member
    Sorry, it was set for 'friends only' - it should be open now. :smile:
  • frenchrose1
    frenchrose1 Posts: 11 Member
    Thanks for the info. I recently bought my fitbit and am getting to understand it little by little.
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
    Hmmm. One thing I like better on the bodymedia site is that I can enter the food I eat by weight instead of a serving. I weigh most things I eat instead of measureing by volume. For example, I ate some Kashi Toasted Berry Crumble which weighed 60 grams. On the Bodymedia site I can enter it as 60 grams and it automatically scales the calories and nutritional info based on the 51 gram serving. It looks like on myfitnesspal I would have to enter it as 1.2 servings (which I have to calculate manually) since there isn't an option to enter it in grams. Am I missing something?

    Thanks

    I'm a long time Fitbitter new to MFP. The food logging area here is light years better overall, in terms of content and recipe tools. The Fitbit graphs are much better. I love the Fitbit for the TDEE data. For me, it makes managing my calorie deficits simple and intuitive.

    I think that some foods in MFP do have grams as a unit. You might want to 'shop around'. Or you can do the conversion manually. But if you eat that same size bowl regularly, you can probably do the manual conversion once and then save it as a 'meal' or something.

    Fitbit is easy to overwrite activity data. I sometimes cycle and use Endomondo on my smart phone, which also synchs to Fitbit. I don't know how good their calorie estimates are. Some say it's too generous.
  • RobC04
    RobC04 Posts: 8
    Sorry, it was set for 'friends only' - it should be open now. :smile:

    Thanks!
    Did you ever figure out why some of your numbers were being changed during the sync? Were you entering activity information on mfp that perhaps overwrote the fitbit numbers on their website?
  • Masq
    Masq Posts: 191 Member
    I did learn something about the fitbit today.... again, I'm about the numbers and the Accountant in me gets crazy when numbers don't match or I can't figure out how it's calculating!

    Someone else posted how it's figured. It makes more sense to me now.
    If you go to 'my home' and then to 'goals' - there is a number of calories you are expected to burn during normal daily activities. Currently mine says 2140. I set up a spreadsheet and logged all of the fitbit info for calories burned and then the adjustments that MFP had. They didn't equal the 2140.... but for the first week, everyday, was adjusted to 2157. The next week everyday but one was adjusted to 2157. When I entered a lower weight for myself on MFP, the adjustment went down to 2151 and then again to 2135. A hand full of days did not match.... but that's OK since the majority do.
    I assume that the total calories burned per day will go down as your weight goes down.....
    I am happy to finally understand how it is calculating the number and how I need to use that number. :happy:
  • austelle
    austelle Posts: 108 Member
    If you log your food here and use the fitbit site to monitor how many calories you should be eating per day, you'll be good to go.


    Agreed. MFP is the BEST and most comprehensive database for logging calories consumed. It automatically transfers to the fitbit site. IF I log activity on MFP, I enter it as "1 calorie burned" and go by my total burn for the day off of my fitbit. I have found it to be accurate in that I have been losing weight when I monitor my TDEE from fitbit and calories consumed from MFP. I think using the two sites together gives you the best of both worlds: accurate total daily calorie expenditure reports from fitbit and accurate calories consumed from MFP!
  • RobC04
    RobC04 Posts: 8
    Hello again,

    I think I may be in the minority here, but I'm finding fitbit's food logging to be friendlier. Maybe I'm not using myfitnesspal as efficiently as I could or something since I'm new, but here is my main complaint. I go to log a food, such as Post Great Grains Cranberry Almond Crunch. I get around 4 matches for it, all using cups for serving size. It doesn't look like myfitnesspal lets you add additional units for serving size so I tried to enter my own entry for this cereal using grams as the units. I filled out all of the information, but it wouldn't let me save it because another entry existed with the exact brand and description. So, my choices are to either fudge the name so it is different or just log my food using cups as the measurement.

    I like to weigh my food instead of measuring by volume so I am a little stuck. I don't want to fudge the name because that just seems to contribute to the multiple entry problems. On the fitbit website you can enter food information using one unit for service size and then enter an additional serving size unit. For example, I can add my cereal in grams, but then just say it is equivalent to 3/4 cups. Now users can use either unit without having to create an additional entry. Also you can customize an existing entry.

    I don't have a smartphone, so I can't log my food my scanning the barcode - cool feature, so I'm not sure myfitnesspal's food logging has any benefit for my use over fitbit's. I'm also a stickler for accuracy so when I see multiple entries for a food I need to figure out which (if any) is the accurate one.

    In any case, thanks for all the responses. I appreciate your assistance. Maybe fitbit has improved their logging since some of you tried it and it is friendlier now, even if the database doesn't contain as many items.

    Edit: If a service size is defined in cups, why can't we make our entry in fluid ounces? If you drink 10 ounces of something it would be much friendlier to add your entry in ounces than having to convert 10 ounces to cups. It seems like the site could do that automatically easy enough.
  • thehumanista
    thehumanista Posts: 6 Member
    I also prefer FitBit for logging food. I started using MFP, but I prefer just using one program. Also, you get a better breakdown in FitBit as it keeps everything separated and doesn't consolidate your food during the day. FitBit takes some time initially to set up your foods, but once you do, it is very easy to enter and track. I only use FitBit on the web and don't do much with the phone app.
  • SLE0803
    SLE0803 Posts: 145 Member
    I love the fitbit!

    I use both (obviously). I use MFP for food and fitbit for activities they sync up with eachother. The only thing is that the fitbit will tell MFP the amount of calories burned for the day for exercises and MFP tells the fit bit all the macros and cals for each meal (not the food itself though).

    MFP- food database is better

    fitbit- website is great for math geeks who love charts and numbers. They send out a weekly progress report to your email so you can see how you did and tells you whether you were up or down from last week in the various catagories.

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