Calories between MyFitnessPal and Fitbit

[beenstephcurry]

So I know this question has been posted many times but I just don't seem to understand. I was wondering if you all could help me. I'll give you all my numbers to make it a bit less confusing.

Okay so I track my excersie movement on Fitbit and my food intake on MyFitnessPal. My goal for calories on Fitbit is roughly 3200cals a day. On MFP, it states that my caloric intake limit is roughly 1700cals per day (I usually aim to eat around 1500).

As of now, my exercise is strictly walking at a moderate pace and running. I'm doing the C25K program. After finishing up today, my Calorie meter on Fitbit says I am at 2436cals. I have my device (Surge) set to sync to MFP. On MFP, it shows that I've "earned" an extra 700cals from my exercise for the day. This raises my total calorie intake limit to 2400cals for the day (from the original 1700 I was allowed).

So I guess what I'm trying to understand is:

1) What exactly does the 2436cals number mean that fitbit provides me. I'm working hard but I don't think I've burned 2436cals today.

2) I've seen a bunch of post here and on the MFP forums about "double counting" calories and "inputting only certain exercises" and it's making my head hurt. Is it okay to let Fitbit automatically sync my exercise calories with MFP? I never manually enter my running/walking into MFP, I just let Fitbit add it through the sync feature. Is the number it provides accurate?

3) Does my new total value from MFP suggest that I can eat 2400 calories for the day and still lose weight? Seems unlikely.

4) What exercises should I manually enter into MFP.

Again sorry, I know there are a bunch of post about this topic but I struggle to understand it. Thanks for any help you can give.

Moderator edit: Clarified subject.

[HelenaFitbit]

Welcome to the forums @beenstephcurry! I'm also a MyFitnessPal user and I'll be glad to help on this. 

I have seen this situation happen whenever both accounts don't have the same caloric budget to work with; so I recommend to disable Fitbit's Food Plan and add your MFP caloric budget as a main calorie goal.

I'll show you how to do it from my profile information. 

First, you'll need to go to your Food log page and click on the arrows on Food Plan until you see the option "Edit Plan".

After you've done this, click on "Set a new Goal" 

Add your starting weight and your desired weight and click next.

Instead of choosing the food plan options provided by Fitbit, click on "Set my own Calorie Target".

Now on MyFitnessPal, click on Goals and (unless you have an specific nutrition goal) click on "View Guided Setup"

Now on your Diet profile, add all the information required.

Now, you will get a Net calorie target for the day. Please bear in mind that mine is low because of my settings, but yours will be different. 

Now, go back to your Fitbit Screen and add the Net Calorie target you were given for the day and click on Done. 

Now you're set! The food you log in from MFP will automatically edit your Fitbit caloric values for the day and it will reflect on your MFP calorie budget for the day. 

A couple things to consider about this: 

1. The accuracy of your Fitbit Log will depend on the accuracy of your MFP food logs.
2. All exercises and non-step based activities must be logged through Fitbit, otherwise MFP will count them as double. 
3. The calories displayed on your MFP screen are the calories you're meant to eat every day; they also include your pre-selected calorie deficit.

4. Your In vs Out gauge will be disabled. This is because your caloric information will be displayed on MFP's screen: 

   

 Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions