Fitbit-MapMyWalk-MyFitnessPal sync

[KanchDutta]

Hi,

I am a new user of Fitbit. I have a question on calories estimated. 

Before I come to the issue, let me tell you what I am doing:

- Before Fitbit, I was using MyFitnessPal for logging food and MapMyWalk to track my walk/run. These apps are connected.

- I see caloric deficit based on food calories I am eating, calories I need for my goal, and calories lost during run/walk from MapMyWalk.

- After Fitbit, I have started syncing Fitbit in MyFitnessPal App. MyFitnessPal is still connected to MapMyWalk.

- I am still logging food in MyFitnessPal, and it gets successfully transferred to Fitbit during syncing.

- I wear Fitbit "almost" all day. During a run/walk I still use MapMyWalk for tracking along with Fitbit.

- My vital statistics is exactly same on MyFitnessPal, MapMyWalk, Fitbit, and Google fit (not synced with any app).

Now I am giving a real life example which will explain the problem:

- Yesterday I completed a walk:

On MapMy Walk: 10.35 km, 12:39 min/km, 14,227 steps, 645 calories (due to exercise only)

- Google Fit also showed 620 calories (due to exercise only): an additional check.

- Just before syncing MyFitnessPal-MapMyWalk-Fitbit, my Fitbit was showing 2500+ calories (exercise + resting), little more steps (due all day movement no tracked on MapMyWalk) and little more distance again due to all day movement tracked on Fitbit.

- Now I synced: MyFitnessPal-MapMyWalk-Fitbit

  The calories in Fitbit went down to 2150 calories.

- This is not one time thing, it has been happening everyday after I sync MyFitnessPal-MapMyWalk-Fitbit. The Fitbit calorie drop by at least 200 calories every time.

- So in MyFitnessPal I see a 250-300+ calorie deficit, on Fitbit I see no 0-150 calorie deficit.

I am not sure what is going on? I am sure that I am not doing something right here.

Thanks for your time.

KD

[Heybales]

So some facts to keep in mind.

Fitbit is a replace-only system, no matter what other entries are already in place.

So if it logged an Activity Record for a workout you started, that has it's stats for that chunk of time, steps, distance, HR, and calorie burn. That can stay.

If you manually add a Workout Record, or one syncs in from outside (like MFP would sent whatever it gets), that replaces the stats it carries - calorie burn only from MFP.

So calorie burn is replaced. If Fitbit was more accurate, just got replaced, bad. If other source was more accurate, good. If the same, just pushing the odds requiring more syncs to occur with data.

You can view the original Activity Record though, it'll still show what the original calories were, even though they were replaced in the daily stats.

When Fitbit changes a workout calorie burn, it changes the daily burn, and that is what syncs back to MFP when it's 100 higher than last sync.

MFP is getting a workout from MMW as a manually added workout - which is then synced to Fitbit to replace whatever it has.

MMW used to not be that accurate, very inflated. Appears it's actually coming in well below Fitbit now - hence the drop in Fitbit daily burn after a sync. That does seem major though. I'd be curious what distance Fitbit thought that was, even though it would have used HR-based calorie burn calc.

You can create an Activity Record in Fitbit for that walk yesterday, just use the same Start/Duration timing. You'll see all the stats Fitbit has for that chunk of time except calories (which your workout sync replaced). This is if you did not start a workout on the Fitbit already - if you did do that then you have the specific stats already including original calories - which would be mighty useful.

That Activity Record changes nothing, only a snapshot of what's there already.

Of course that Fitbit daily burn is what causes MFP to do it's math for your eating goal, and eventually the deficit that is done.

By the end of the day though, MFP is correcting itself to the Fitbit figure - so total burned minus say 500 should be the same eating goal.

You'll have to decide if the MMW is more accurate calorie burn to be worth syncing to MFP. It is likely a nicer place to review workouts compared to MFP. Fitbit is pretty nice too though, if you can tweak it to be as accurate.

Just to see if that MMW calorie burn, or Fitbit if you can find it, is more accurate, use this with Gross option, which is what is being used by all these sites.

https://exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs

Sorry for so much work, but figuring out which way is best to keep with what you want to use - gotta confirm what is happening and see what works best.