Sync Calories

[Brenisha]

Can calories burned via exercise be synced to MFP? I worked out using the watch for the first time and realized none of the data was transferred. However when trying to put in the burned calories in MFP, it is syncing to Fitbit and appearing as twice the calories were burned.

Also is there a way to turn off BMR calories? It is throwing me off completely and I quite frankly don't understand how I am burning that amount of calories even on rest days. Can someone make some sense of this? I just want to be able to track the amount of calories I burn via exercise.

[Julia_G · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Brenisha, instructions for linking your Fitbit account to MyFitnessPal are here.

As for BMR calories, no, it is not possible to turn that off.  When you track a particular exercise (using the multi sport mode) it will tell you the calories burned from that particular exercise, but this will also include BMR calories.

As I expect you are aware, BMR calories are calories burned by your body just staying alive (keeping your bodily functions going).  ALL calculations of calories burned from exercise also include this in the calculation.  It just doesn't make sense trying to calculate how many calories a dead body working out would consume...  So, for example, when you see on your gym equipment an estimate of calories burned, it always also includes BMR calories.

However, if you are curious how many EXTRA calories you have burned then it is easy enough to see what your BMR calories are using a quick google -- there are lots of calculators online, or, if you are a new Fitbit user, just scroll back on your app to a day BEFORE you first started using Fitbit.  The calorie number it shows there will be your Fitbit calculated BMR burn.

Once you know your BMR calories, any day you can do a rough calculation to see how many extra calories you have  burned from activity.  Most people who are averagely active find that the overwhelming majority of calories burned are BMR calories and that activity only adds a small fraction to the total..  That is why you are seeing calories even on rest days.

Be aware that if you gain or lose weight your BMR calculation will change (as long as you update your profile information, or use a scale that automatically logs your weight).

I hope this helps make sense of this.  Please do post again if anything is unclear.

[Brenisha]

Thank you for sharing this information!

So in order to compute my active calories, would I simply just subtract my BMR from the total burned calories FB gives me?

[Julia_G]

@Brenisha, yes, that is correct.