Fitbit and MyFitnesspal

[JTSB88]

I am confused about what exercise data (if any) I should manually input into my MFP dashboard and what data (if any) I should just let the Fitbit calorie adjustment take care of.

Take yesterday for example, when I got through a lot of exercise.  I did a ‘Couch to 5k’ run in the morning and a 5-mile walk in the afternoon, both tracked using MapMyRun, and MapMyRun told me that I had burned 529 calories on the run and 1,142 calories on the walk.  I also did a resistance band workout in the morning which I tracked using the ‘weights’ setting on my Versa, and apparently burned 756 calories doing that.  529 + 1,142 + 765 = 2,436 calories total.

I did not manually log any of this exercise and decided to let the Fitbit calorie adjustment sync do its thing instead.  At the end of the day the calorie adjustment stated that I had done 18,178 steps and burned 3,275 calories, which I guess it has calculated using my HR data and my age and stats.  I have set my HR zones high too in an attempt to lessen any overestimations by the Fitbit, as I’d rather get a figure that’s too low rather than one that’s too high.  This Fitbit calorie adjustment of 3,275 is 840 calories more than the total of the 3 bouts of exercise that I did when I tracked them manually.

So, which figure is likely to be more accurate?

I had a similar thing today.  It has been a lazier day today with only 1,908 steps but I did do a resistance band exercise this morning which the tracker on my Versa told me burned 742 calories.  However as of 10pm the Fitbit calorie adjustment sync is saying I’ve burned only 335 calories in exercise.  Again, which is accurate?  Should I just delete the calorie adjustment data and just manually log my resistance band workout for 742 calories?

Confused.com!

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[SilviaFitbit]

@JTSB88 A warm welcome to the Community. Thanks for taking the time to share that you're using Fitbit and MyFitnessPal. 

Since you have Fitbit and MyFitnessPal accounts linked, manually logged activities aren't required. See below the information that's going to sync between the two: 

From Fitbit to MyFitnessPal:

• Steps
• Calories
• Scale measurements 

From MyFitnessPal to Fitbit:

• Logged food
• Activities

MyFitnessPal pulls your calorie burn directly from Fitbit's total daily calorie. We then project forward to the end of the day based on your calorie burn so far. If this full-day number is different than MyFitnessPal’s estimate for your daily calorie burn, an adjustment will be made to your caloric intake goal. This adjustment can either be positive or negative. If the adjustment is positive, this indicates that your calorie burn for the day as reported by Fitbit is greater than MyFitnessPal’s estimate. If the adjustment is negative this indicates that the partner's reported calorie burn is lower than MyFitnessPal’s estimate.

I'll be around if you have any additional questions.