Should I remove my flex during high intensity workouts?

[barbiep15]

I typically do a minimum of 45 minutes of intense workouts at least 6 times a week.  I have been wearing a heart monitor for years in order to log more accurate calroie burns into LoseIt! which is what I use to log my food and activity.  Now that I got the flex, I need to understand if I should be removing it during these intense work outs, or leaving it on.  When I first got it, I was taking it off and logging in the calories burned into the fitbit app.  I recently tried to leave them both on during the workout but I feel like I am getting credit for both, and therefore not getting an accurate number of available calories to eat as well as steps.  Just confused and would like to understand what others are doing, and what I'm supposed to be doing?

[WendyB]

I would leave it on. If you are logging your workouts from your HRM to Lose it and then bringing it over here it should be fine.

The Flex will just count the steps during that activity.

I use the One and use the start stop Feature on it and then Change the calorie burn to what ever my HRM said. Sounds like you do that with Lose it.

[barbiep15]

hmmmm, but even though you're saying it only counts steps, it's also adding to calories burned (which in turn adds to how many I have left to eat).  This would be in addition to what I am logging from my HRM for the workout.  See what I'm saying?  Since I rely on my calorie burn to know how many calories i have left to eat in a given day, I want to make sure it as accurate as can be and not over.  That said, if it was ONLY counting steps then I'd be fine with it, but since it is still considering my calorie burn, I am concerned.

[slysam · Accepted solution]

I've had a fitbit for over three years and had a heart rate monitor first. I've always worn the two together for intentional workouts including (especially) intense workouts. I've never had a problem from wearing them together--well briefly at one point where there was a bug but it was resolved. In my case, it really isn't the intensity that matters, it is whether it is an activity fitbit can track or not. My fitbit calorie burn and heart rate monitor actually agree or are close for running, jumping rope, an intense dvd I have that mixes shadow boxing and jumping rope, kickboxing, some aerobic drills and plyometrics. Basically if it is a variatioon of stepping or jumping fitbit does well. The impact and speed of movement are factors in fitbit's calorie burn and activity level. For intense resistance work and non-step work I always log my heart rate monitor calorie burn. When you log an activity, what you log replaces the fitbit estimate--it does not add to it. It can actually decrease your calorie burn if what you log is lower than what fitbit had estimated--I've seen this happen. You should be fine to wear your fitbit and log your activities--it is designed to avoid double counting. If you want to test it, log a lower calorie burn and see if it lowers your total. You just want to make sure you log the correct start time and duration according to your fitbit's clock and make sure the AM/PM are correct (if you edit a log, fitbit tends to automatically reset it as AM for some reason). Oh, when you do manually log, it is a non-destructive overwrite. So if you were to delete the logged activity it will restore what fitbit had already estimated--so feel free to play with it if it helps you understand what it is doing. So what is the point of wearing your fitbit if you know you are logging your HRM burn? The reason I do it, is I like for my steps to be included in my step count. For example, when I lift weights, I tend to walk around during my rests and want those steps to count, but since fitbit cannot track weight lifting well I log it to get the calorie burn/activity levels within the right range. With logged activity, the steps and calorie burn are disconnected from each other. But for fitbit tracked activity, a lot of people don't realize that saying it is just "steps" is simplifying it a bit since the speed of the steps each minute and impact or size of the movements are factors.

[slysam]

About Loseit.com, I use to log there but haven't for over a year so what I am saying may be outdated. When I used loseit with my fitbit linked, I did not log any exercise on loseit at all. If I needed to log a workout, I logged it to fitbit directly. If over the day, I burn more calories than loseit expected, it would pull those extra calories over and add them to my loseit.com allowance. So if Loseit expected me to burn 1800 calories (that was about what it expected) and I burned 2000 that day, it would add 200 calories to my allowance. If you are logging it to loseit and wearing the fitbit, it may double count on loseit.com. I don't know, at the time when I used loseit the staff advised fitbit users not to log exercise on loseit as they thought it would double count. I don't know whether they changed their system though, as My Fitness Pal does exclude MFP logged exercise calories from the fitbit adjustment they calculate--so it is possible to avoid double counting. I find it simpler to log to fitbit directly--whatever nutrition tracking app I use. I have more direct control and can see how it is effecting things. I only log activities where my fitbit burn and heart rate monitor burn disagree significantly. When I started, I always used the fitbit activity timer to get a record so I could see what fitibt had tracked and would compare it to my HRM. As I fine tuned my HRM settings (mine asks height, weight, age, gender, resting heart rate, maximum heart rate and VO2Max--VO2Max and max heart rate needed finetuning in my case), my fitbit and hrm burn estimates became more similar for step/hop/jump based aerobic exercise so I rarely need to log those or it really doesn't matter either way if I do. But there may be an issue on loseit.com's end, I don't know.

[barbiep15]

Thanks for sharing your due dilligence and learnings with LoseIt! vs. fitbit.  I merely wanted to continue using LoseIt! because logging food is so much easier, with the bar scanner and I have also created some custom items.  I also have custom workouts in there, but at the risk of making it too crazy to track, I will take your advice and just use fitbit for activity adds.

[Mary]

Maybe someone mentioned this already within those intimidating blocks of text above, but if you manually log your HRM recorded activity with the TIME you started and stopped, it overwrites the calorie burn recorded by your Fitbit for that time.  

[SunsetRunner]

I would not double the calorie burn because that is not what is happening ! your wrist flex could be to loose . do you have smaller wrist ? purchase the sp band this made a difference for me . Change to normal settings of movement also .

[terri1857]

i think you should leave it on and not log it on Lose it.. but Im not an expert..lol

[slysam]

----------------------------------- barbiep15 wrote: This would be in addition to what I am logging from my HRM for the workout. See what I'm saying? Since I rely on my calorie burn to know how many calories i have left to eat in a given day, I want to make sure it as accurate as can be and not over. That said, if it was ONLY counting steps then I'd be fine with it, but since it is still considering my calorie burn, I am concerned. --------------------------------- Sorry, my response is a little late. If you log your heart rate monitor calorie burn, then what you logged replaces fitbit's estimate. For better of worse (if the source is less accurate), a manually logged activity overwrites fitbit's burn. One side note, sometimes people who think deeply about this are also in the habit of logging their net calorie burn (deducting BMR for the time period). I use to do this. When you are logging to fitbit, what you log replaces a total calorie burn (including BMR) so you want to be sure an log a total. My HRM (a Polar) reports a total rather than a net but this varies by the HRM.