Calories wrong because I don't wear it all day?

[advins01]

So MFP and every other calculator I've looked at has my TDEE at around 3500. But fitbit has it at 2800. So an 800 cal workout turns into a 100 cal adjustment in MFP.

My best guess is that 2800 is actually my BMR and fitbit wants to get the rest of my TDEE by measuring my heart rate all day long. The problem is I don't wear my fitbit all day, only when I exercise.

Does that sound like the problem or could it be something else? Can I just sync workout data to MFP? How do I fix this?

Thanks

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to welcome you @advins01. The calorie burn you are seeing is the result of your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) as you mentioned. This number is the rate at which you burn calories as a result of maintaining vital body functions. These functions include breathing and heartbeat and brain activity, among others and it usually accounts for at least half of the calories you burn in a day. 

When you created your Fitbit profile, you entered your gender, age, height and weight. Your profile and tracker use that data to configure your daily BMR.

I hope this helps, let me know if you need anything else. 

[Rich_Laue]

If you only wear your Fitbit during workouts, then Fitbit will think that you have been sitting on the couch for the rest of the day.. Of course Fitbit will report a low daily calorie burn. 

[advins01]

Okay, that's pretty much what I thought the problem was. Is there a "I don't wear this all day" setting somewhere? Or can I change the way it shares information with MFP? That's all I really use it for. Can it just send total calories from exercise, rather than an adjustment based on BMR?

[Andr0meda]

That would have been an excellent feature.