Help to understand the food tracking on Fitbit

[Lianne5841]

Hi Fitbitters 🙂 This is my first post! I am new to Fitbit and so apologies if this is a thick question(!), but can someone please explain the food tracking on the Fitbit and I don't quite understand how it works. Previously, I have used MyFitnessPal to track and that works by giving you a specific no. of calories to eat throughout the day, but FB seems to be more based on Cals in Vs Cals out and I am just struggling to get my head around it and wanted to see if someone can simplify it for me? Thanks in advance! 🙂

[goterps75]

I am wondering if there is a way to enter food info for a prior day, if you do not get around to it on the day eaten.  Also if anyone has used MyFitnessPal and the Fitbit app for food tracking, I would be interested in a comparison.  I started with he Fitbit app just because it’s there, but most people I know who track their food use MyFitnessPal.  Thanks.

[Sheigh · Accepted solution]

From what I can tell, myfitnesspal just gives you a goal and takes only into account the calories burned that you log. I know it asks the questions to see what kind of lifestyle you lead and then it estimates how many calories you will burn daily.

Fit bit asks the same questions, but it tracks your activity and calories burned so it doesn't have to estimate how many you burn. It can give you a more definitive number of calories you have burned that day.

So say Myfitnesspal gives you a goal of 1200 calories. It will not adjust to allow you to eat more on a more active day. Fit bit will adjust based on your activity level. So if you have a lazy day, fit bit will account for that and allow you less calories, and if you have a busy day, fit bit will account for that and allow you more calories.

Hope that helps.

[stp2010]

So how do I know if FitBit is giving me a fairly accurate account of calories I should be eating? I'm a little confused as to how this works. I think I remember answering some questions related to this, but that was a long time ago. I think it would be worth it to go through those again to get a better reading on what's going on.

[Sheigh]

Its takes your age, height and weight into account as to how many calories you should burn a day if you  were lazy all day. Then takes into account how much movement your fitbit logs for you, as well as any workouts you log  for that day.  Also you should have told fitbit how much of a deficit you were aiming for  each day. So say you burn 2500 calories for the day and you want a thousand calorie deficit, you should aim for 1500 calories in. So yeah, maybe fill that info out again if you feel it will help you or refresh your mind.

[stp2010]

Do you know where those are located? I’m having trouble finding them

[Lianne5841]

Thanks Sheigh, that’s helped it to click for me...finally get it. I think I’m going to still log on MFP just because the app is easier to use and the database slightly better, but take note of my Fitbit track...for me it’s a -750 cal deficit. Fingers crossed! 🙂

[N8teGee]

If you link your fitbit to MFP it will indeed adjust your calories based on how active you are. When both are set up correctly, they essentially do the same thing albeit presented a little differently. 

[BABAof3]

Did they ever answer your question about how to track food from a day prior from today?????

[goterps75]

Not that I recall. I gave up on trying to track food.

Sent from my iPhone

[Lianne5841]

Same...I just downloaded MyFitnessPal and the app sync...it’s a much more sophisticated app, so works better 😊

[WendyB]

@BABAof3 @goterps75 

To track a previous day use the calendar

I have gone backwards a few times. But I go forward on a weekly basis. I figure out my dinner menus and log them for the entire week.

[Lisa-in-NM]

I have been unsuccessful syncing my fitbit to MFP - I have followed every instructions in this thread - logged out logged in disconnected reconnected - synced - NADA! very frustrating!

[Sheigh]

Did you go into mfp and choose Fitbit as your step tracker? That seemed to
be what got it all to work for me.

[Lisa-in-NM]

Yep - total NO GO
--
Lisa Hall

"It is what it is."