FitBit Charge 2 and MyFitnessPal

[TMarie76]

Hello All!

I have had my Fitbit since February 23rd, 2017.  I have also been using the MyFitnessPal app for that same amount of time.  Within that time, I have lost a total of 5 pounds, so about 1 pound/week.  I understand that a safe and healthy weight loss averages anywhere between 1-2 pounds per week, so I DO consider this to be progress and am quite excited by it.  Thus far, I have not noticed any gains, just small and steady losses (in weight).  However, I am wondering if I am using the two - Fitbit and MFP - to my ultimate advantage.

Based on my goals input into MFP, I am allotted 1200 calories/day.  I exercise 5-6 days/week.  My workouts usually consist of 30-60 minutes of cardio and 20-30 minutes of strength/weight training.  On some days I work out from home, which means I skip the cardio machines.  To get the most out of those days, I follow video instruction (which combines cardio with strength (free weights) training).

Naturally, the more active I am, the more calories I am "credited" in MFP via my Fitbit. 

My initial thoughts were that anything not associated with walking - stationary bike, elliptical, weight training, rowing, etc. should be manually entered into my MFP app by me.  Now, I am not so sure.

My question is this - since my Fitbit monitors my heart rate, should I manually enter my exercises into MFP?  I do not want to give myself more credit than I deserve, which may result in consuming too many calories.

I have been doing some reading, in an attempt to answer this question myself.  I have deduced that perhaps I need to turn off the "auto detect" options for "walk," "run," "outdoor bike," "elliptical," "sport," and "aerobic workout."

Any solid advice? 

[Baltoscott · Accepted solution]

Hi @TMarie76 you said:

"Naturally, the more active I am, the more calories I am "credited" in MFP via my Fitbit."

This is basically what it comes down to.  Fitbit is automatically calculating the calories you burn during exercise, and those calories are then transferred to MFP and used for MFP calculations (and vice versa -- the calories for MFP food entries will show up in your fitbit app).  You can "fine-tune" the fitbit exercise credits with manual entries on the fitbit side of the equation.  You just need to make sure about the time periods on fitbit when you enter a manual activity because the calories attributed to the activity for that time period will overwrite any calories you tracker calculated.  I would leave on the auto detect options for activities on fitbit that I actually do, and turn off the rest to avoid the occasional false readings. The plus about the auto detect feature is that you automatically get fairly good start and stop times for an activity and don't have to think about that anymore.   

I am unsure if MFP similarly overwrites calorie values imported from fitbit.  You can test it out by doing some entries after fitbit syncs, but I don't see any real value in entering exercises on MFP when you are syncing with fitbit.  Personally, I do any exercise entries on the fitbit side, and all my food entries on the MFP side.  

[ka1028]

I am still a little confused when looking at both my Fitbit Charge2 and MFP.  I log my food into MFP and let the Charge2 register all my activity.  If I do any strength training, etc. I would log those exercises but I've always logged them into MFP - how come you log into Fitbit instead?  What's the difference which one I log exercise into?

I've used both FitBit bands and MFP for years but with the new technology that continues to come out, I'd like to make sure that I'm using the Fitbit to all it's capable of.

My second question is on calorie count.  The calories remaining for my day are significantly different between MFP and Fitbit.  The two apps sync so I would think they have all the same info/settings?  The fact that they're different concerns me because I don't want to consume too many calories - I am focused on reaching my goals for weight loss so I'd like to know which (MFP or Fitbit) is the best reference for calories? Is there a way to check both to make sure my goals are the same, etc.?? Any guidance is appreciated.