Using fitbit and my fitness pal together

[harrisgreen]

Hi I am new to fitbit and would love to know if people who also use my fitness pal, and they do something other than general steps, such as hiking, do they record these in myfitness pal or just use the steps accumulated from fitbit to track their calorie intake.  For example I went for a huge hike the other day, walked over 3.25km up and down some rather steep hills, but just used my accumulated steps, but I feel like I earnt more than just those steps - especially in the calorie department.  Any advice would be greatly accepted. 

[smoochiepink]

i use my fitness pal to log my food and i am just about to start 30 day shred, i will log this as circuit training on mfp, i am still trying to get to grips with the fitbit dashboard and how to log things on it 🙂

[HelenaFitbit]

Hey there! I am a MFP User 

Here are my tips on using MFP and Fitbit:

1. Weigh in everything with a Food Scale, this will give you the best and most accurate results. 
2. If you are manually logging food, log it only through MFP
3. If you ever do a manual exercise log, do it only through Fitbit

This will prevent any double posting and prevent the loss of active minutes 

[Colinm39]

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@helenarriaza wrote:

Hey there! I am a MFP User 

Here are my tips on using MFP and Fitbit:

1. Weigh in everything with a Food Scale, this will give you the best and most accurate results. 
2. If you are manually logging food, log it only through MFP
3. If you ever do a manual exercise log, do it only through Fitbit

This will prevent any double posting and prevent the loss of active minutes 

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To add to the previous posts if you log activities through MFP it may cause the loss of Very Active Minutes and/or lessen your Active Minutes because MFP doesn't know the intensity/speed of your activity and it can only average the calories over the time period, hence the potential loss of Very Active Minutes.

The same thing will happen via Fitbit so you should always let Fitbit tracker record your walking and running activities. If it is circuit training, weights or similar the same thing happens as with MFP. The calories are averaged over time. Hopefully you have selected a really intensive activity and you will see the benefit.

Many of the Fitbitters who have been here for some years adopt the rule

1. MFP for food

2. Fitbit for activities.

If you have issues with the calorie adjustments with MFP and Fitbit don't hesitate to post here because your answers are in the Forum.

[smoochiepink]

so how would i track 30 day shred on here then?

[CAGIRL]

Are you still doing the 30 Day Shred? I just ordered the Jillian Michaels Beginner Shred. Do you use a heart rate monitor? I think that you may be able to manually add the activity to MFP.

[CAGIRL]

I'm glad that you posted this,  @Colinm39 . I've been doing the opposite. Now that Fitbit has more options that include spin class, I would like to input my information there. Will MFP give me more credit for the stpes I've taken? Also, if I input food in one MFP and activities in Fitbit, do I use the calories in Fitbit as a gage of what I can eat and what I have already eaten?

[Colinm39]

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@CAGIRL wrote:

I'm glad that you posted this,  @Colinm39 . I've been doing the opposite. Now that Fitbit has more options that include spin class, I would like to input my information there. Will MFP give me more credit for the stpes I've taken? Also, if I input food in one MFP and activities in Fitbit, do I use the calories in Fitbit as a gage of what I can eat and what I have already eaten?

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@CAGIRLSteps are Steps..... If you log via MFP, Fitbit sees that as a manual activity and you won't get credits for Badges, Lifetime Achievements or Challenges

Most heavy users of MFP log their food through MFP and the activities through Fitbit.

I can't help you with the calories because I don't use MFP but others will comment.

[zelannie]

I am confused.

I use MFP for food tracking.

I use Fitbit for steps tracking.

and i use an Underarmour heart rate monitor every time i run.

What is stumping me is that i see there is a big discrepancy in the calories burned in MFP than my monitor so i have been manually inserting the differential into MFP manual activities to close the gap. Then Fitbit syncs and reads those stats.

I now read that i should be inserting my manual extra exercise on Fitbit correct?  

it is frustrating to see that there is such a big difference between what the HRM says i've burned after an hour of intense workout to what MFP says I burned. at times it's almost double! (MFP will say approx 600 for a 1 hour run and HRM will say 1197 for ex)  Curious to see what Fitbit says.

While people would use this gap to eat more on the days they've burned more, i have not. i keep my calories consumed at a steady 1100-1200 to give my weekly calorie deficit a boost. i am working out 6 days a week with a calorie burn of a minimum 1000 a day and eating 1200 a day.  Oddly, ive not seen a huge drop in numbers over past month. Verrrry slow.  Am i calculating something wrong?!  

any advice on how to resolve this?

[CAGIRL]

I was told the opposite. That we should be inserting activities into MFP and then if will transfer over to Fitbit, so that's what I tried todag after cycle and that seemed to work better.

[CAGIRL]

@Colinm39 Thank you for the prompt response. I didn't know that about the Badges, Lifetime Achievements or Challenges, great to know. I appreciate the information.

[Heybales]

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@zelannie wrote:

I am confused.

I use MFP for food tracking.

I use Fitbit for steps tracking.

and i use an Underarmour heart rate monitor every time i run.

What is stumping me is that i see there is a big discrepancy in the calories burned in MFP than my monitor so i have been manually inserting the differential into MFP manual activities to close the gap. Then Fitbit syncs and reads those stats.

I now read that i should be inserting my manual extra exercise on Fitbit correct?  

it is frustrating to see that there is such a big difference between what the HRM says i've burned after an hour of intense workout to what MFP says I burned. at times it's almost double! (MFP will say approx 600 for a 1 hour run and HRM will say 1197 for ex)  Curious to see what Fitbit says.

While people would use this gap to eat more on the days they've burned more, i have not. i keep my calories consumed at a steady 1100-1200 to give my weekly calorie deficit a boost. i am working out 6 days a week with a calorie burn of a minimum 1000 a day and eating 1200 a day.  Oddly, ive not seen a huge drop in numbers over past month. Verrrry slow.  Am i calculating something wrong?!  

any advice on how to resolve this?

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Correct tool to use for correct item.

Just don't try to follow 2 paths to the same destination as someone else mentioned - trying to follow eating goals on both sites.

Just use MFP.

You need to confirm your Underarmour HRM is decent for estimating calorie burn - I doubt it.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/774337-how-to-test-hrm-for-how-accurate-calorie-burn-is

As to MFP being low calorie burn - did it have any designation for intensity, speed or pace?

You don't mention the workout, perhaps wrong type to use HRM with, and inflated HR is leading to inflated calorie burn.

HRM formula for relationship between HR and calorie burn is ONLY a good estimate for steady-state aerobic exercise, same HR for 2-4 min.

So lifting or intervals as anaerobic and very non-steady-state would be inflated calorie burns.

MFP and mainly Fitbit would be more accurate for database entry of Weights or circuit training if that was the workout.

If it was like Spin class, then indeed, your effort and "Spin" has a great chance of not matching up.

Also - there may be some confusion too.

MFP is NOT stating anywhere until you manually log a workout what they think you burned in a workout.

If you are talking about the calorie adjustment that happens to be under Exercise tab, you are misunderstanding it.

That Fitbit calorie adjustment is NOT just exercise calories - it's merely the difference between what Fitbit says you burned, with our without exercise, with or without manual correction - and what MFP thought you'd burn with no exercise.

You can have a huge workout and then be a slug rest of the day and have no adjustment.

You could have no workout and be very active and have a huge adjustment.

And yes - you are calculating something very wrong.

You think bigger is better for a deficit. As you and millions more prove out yearly - it is not.

If you think bigger deficit is better - than why not just stop eating and get it over with?

A healthy body will lose fat with reasonable deficit. An unhealthy stressed out body will lose muscle mass too with an unreasonable deficit. It will adapt.

You are attempting to do the latter.

Why in the world would you have a great tool to help you have a best estimate of what you burn daily so you then could take a reasonable amount off and lose the fat, and then ignore what it tells you?

Have you even played out the potential end game here to finish getting you to goal weight?

Since when you weigh less you burn less, how little are you planning to eat if already eating at only 1200 daily?

How much more exercise are you willing to do to keep burning 1000 daily?

What happens when body burns out and you get sick and injured, are you now going to eat only 200 calories to keep that theoritical gap you think you have right now?

What about maintenance (which you are eating at right now actually if you think about it), how low can you go?

And your workouts are nothing but spinning wheels right now frankly, eating that little doing that much.

You have no idea how good they could be, and how good your body could transform - if you were actually fueling them.

Ready to make a change and actually show some effect from all your hard work?

Or do you still think attempting faster is better despite your results?

[Heybales]

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@CAGIRL wrote:
I was told the opposite. That we should be inserting activities into MFP and then if will transfer over to Fitbit, so that's what I tried todag after cycle and that seemed to work better.

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MFP says that in their instructions ("all workouts" - how asinine) so they can have more subscriber logged time for presenting stats to advertisers to sell higher rates.

More eye time is good - they don't want you leaving their site if they can help it.

[keebs529]

@zelannie Hey, I don't have a chest strap heartrate monitor but I am using the fitbit surge which has a heartrate monitor built in (so far it's been very accurate for me). I do insanity workouts on rainy days and MFP used to give me 500 cals or so per workout, but my Surge is giving me below 300 cals. It sucks to lose those cals, but I think the Fitbit calculation is more accurate when paired with HRM. It can physically "feel" the intensity of your exercise and movements, when combined with your HRM it seems like it calculates the calories burned pretty well. I would definitely recommend you test out your theory with Fitbit and your HR manually entered. Unless you want to cheat-then stick with MFP for workouts 😛

[bdaniels04]

@harrisgreen

I use a couple of different apps. I use Fitbit for normal steps, etc. but I use MyFitnessPal to record my food intake and my strength training in addition to MapMyFitness to log my cardio workouts, especially when running. MapMyFitness doesn't sync directly with Fitbit, but it does sync with MyFitnessPal and I usually find that Fitbit sayd I've burned a few more calories than MapMyFitness. Both adjust for the other so it's a great situation for me. It really comes down to what you're wanting to focus on and what are the best apps for you. For me, those three are the triad of sweet:).

[bdaniels04]

MapMyFitness would also sync with your Under Armor HRM also

[lifeisgoodtbk]

newbie to fitbit! All the calorie numbers not matching between the two is confusing. My question is if i am entering all food in MFP do I need to turn off the food plan option in Fitbit and manually enter my calorie budget there. However if i do that . . . it turns off the "calories in vs out" 😞

[DominicJ]

I use MFP and Fitbit Charge HR

I log my food in my fitness pal

Fitbit automatically logs my excercise, I use the "excercise mode" but thats it.

[Heybales]

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@lifeisgoodtbk wrote:

newbie to fitbit! All the calorie numbers not matching between the two is confusing. My question is if i am entering all food in MFP do I need to turn off the food plan option in Fitbit and manually enter my calorie budget there. However if i do that . . . it turns off the "calories in vs out" 😞

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Don't attempt to follow 2 roads to the same destination.

It can be confusing, usually aggravating, and the GPS's lady's voice startes getting annoyed with all the adjusting. 😉

MFP for everything food related, goals, ect.

Fitbit for everything exercise related, daily burn goals, manually logging workouts that should be, ect.

Remove the tiles that don't matter now so you don't waste time on them.

The food plan and eating goals in Fitbit don't matter a squat to MFP - Fitbit merely delivers a total daily burned figure to MFP to do further math with depending on where you are in the day.

You can attempt to set them the same (just select the same deficit is all) and accept the fact that the eating goals won't match up until the end of the day - in which case was the Fitbit goals really useful then?

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-a...

[mmsilvia]

I use MPF as well.  I log all my food and water through MFP.  All steps and exercise I log with fitbit.  Took me awhile to find the right set up that works for me.  I am not looking to lose at the moment and just looking to maintain so I am not concerned with how much calories I am burning...more about keeping myself accountable and in check.  Do what works for you and you will succeed!