Calories burned on My Fitness Pal after syncing

[fleur23xx]

Does anybody use My Fitness Pal and have it synced to their fitbit?  If so, how accurate do you think the calories burned are?  I like going on long walks and when I log it manually on MFP, it gives me a reasonable estimate, but when I let fitbit automatically log it, I feel like the calories burned is pretty high and not accurate?  For example, last night I went for a walk and got about 5k steps.  Initially, it logged at about 50 calories burned, then I woke up this morning and I saw it logged 342 calories burned.  This isn't including the calories I burned on my longer walk earlier that day so in total I supposedly burned a ton of calories just from walking 16k steps.  Not that it's a bad thing, but I don't want to overeat thinking I burned all these calories when I didn't.  What do you guys think?  Am I just burning more than I think?  

[AndrewFitbit]

@fleur23xx That's usually the issue with logging activities through MyFitnessPal when connected to Fitbit; calories burned often get inflated more often than not. I'll try to explain:

1. Fitbit already tracks your activity (such as walking, running, etc.) so there's really no need to log it anywhere else.

2. When you log an activity in MyFitnessPal and you have it linked to Fitbit, the activity gets sent from MyFitnessPal to your Fitbit activity log. The only way this method works is if you weren't wearing your Fitbit during that time, or if you log the activity for the exact time frame that Fitbit was tracking. Otherwise, you can potentially have more calories burned than you should.

3. You should also double-check your Fitbit activity log and make sure you don't have activities that overlap eachother (check the dates and times).

---

@fleur23xx wrote:

For example, last night I went for a walk and got about 5k steps.  Initially, it logged at about 50 calories burned, then I woke up this morning and I saw it logged 342 calories burned.  

---

50 calories seems rather low for 5k steps, is that from MFP or Fitbit? If that's from Fitbit, then I'd say check your personal settings, but either way I'd also make sure your activity log is correct.

Hope that helps. 🙂

[fleur23xx]

Hi Andrew, thanks for your response.  I know fitbit automatically logs but I like to add on MFP because when I don't, I feel like it grossly overestimates or underestimates the workout I do.  For instance, when I do circuit training for 30 minutes, it gives me like 35 calories burned for 30 minutes just because it doesn't involve steps, which I know is way too low.  I have tried not logging anything and it ends up being really high in calories burned as well.  I'm considering disconnecting it to MFP since it doesn't seem accurate at all.  The reason I get low calories burned is because I am very petite at 5'0 so us short people burn a lot less than taller people.  So we have to eat less and be more active.  Fun 🙂