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How do you use Fitbit with MFP/MapMyFitness integration?

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So since I got my Fitbit Alta HR last month I had been tracking my exercises in Map My Fitness and having it import that data to Fitbit and using MyFitnessPal's "negative calorie adjustment" to basically work out the differences.

This week I had been testing a few things and noticed that MMF still underestimated my calories burned from my workouts, probably because I'm not willing to pay for their heart rate monitoring.. so I desynced MMF from FitBit, left MFP synced as before, and just started the workout tracking on both Fitbit and MMF seperately. I am happy with the results so far. Now my heart rate is accurately tracked during the workout instead of forced into some inaccurate average (an issue I had been noticing before). But I was wondering if this is the best way to do it and if there is any suggestions that might supply me with more accurate results?

 

 

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject For Clarity.

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Hi @MetalMastodon, thanks for stopping by and visiting the Fitbit Community! I was reading your post and interesting topic you have brought to my attention.

 

Certainly it's a tricky question when there is in play more than two integrations and I believed your practice is correct. Is just matter to be more careful, since you mentioned that you are tracking your exercise in both accounts, Fitbit and MapMyFitness. It could be a problem since the activity is the same, but in your case you have revoked the access of MMF, so there is no risk of having duplicate entries.

 

As long there are no similar logs in any of your accounts and these share the data among themselves, all should be working fine. Many users prefer to use MyFitnessPal, for food logging and Fitbit for exercises as it gives a better scope of their data.

 

The important here, is to understand which data share each integration, so you can have accurate numbers across your accounts. For more information, please review this post: Third Party Apps - Informational Post.

 

I would like to see others user's recommendations for this topic. See you later!

Roberto | Community Moderator

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” What's Cooking?

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one thing I don't understand is this : Fitbit seems to attempt to average the heart rate during a workout that has been imported from Map My Fitness. I compared several workouts and they all had different values that seemed to depend on the intensity of the workout. At first I thought it was taking my Fitbit heart rate during the time slot of the imported workout from MMF and averaging it. But then I noticed, without MMF... the average heart rate is between 5% and 15% higher, depending on intensity. So somehow Fitbit's average heart rate gets screwed up with MMF workouts, even though it appears to be making an attempt at using its own heart rate statistics. I don't really get it. Maybe it's using MMF's estimations based on speed? But either way, if that's the way it is then it would be nice if there was an option to switch which app the Fitbit app is using for its heart rate readings, and other things like that, so we have more control over what can or can not get overwritten by third party apps. There doesn't seem to be much reason, from a technical standpoint, as to why we can't have more control of that stuff. It doesn't have to be a blanket formula.

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Hello @MetalMastodon, thanks for continue visiting the Community and I'm sorry for the late response.

 

About the Heart indeed it's an odd behavior, since heart rate is not shared with MMF programs. Only a handful of integration are able to retrieve heart rate data from your Fitbit account. So if there is heart rate it might be an average in MMF. In other words heart rate is measure independently and should not have any interaction with your stats regarding the integration of MMF.

 

After reading reading your post and I found very interesting your feedback regarding to have more control in how the integrations synced your information.

 

In this case it's important to mention that Fitbit doesn't own or maintain third party integrations. It's up to the owner of the third party app to implement or update features for their app. Unless there's some sort of limitation on Fitbit's side (e.g. no Fitbit SDK), then it's safe to assume that the owner of the app is the one to contact if you're interested in seeing improvements in this portion of the integrations.

 

See you later and for more questions, feel free to visit the Fitbit Community.

Roberto | Community Moderator

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” What's Cooking?

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That is why I think the Fitbit app and device should allow a bit more customizability. We should be able to mix and match integrations. What I mean is.... I'm sure it isn't required that Fitbit uses the other app's full "attempted" integration at all times. So would it not be possible to say.... add an option that allows the app to overwrite the HR portion of a MMF workout, while leaving the distance and steps in tact? Basically I know you can not change the integration that another app uses, but why not allow us to choose how another app's integrations work with your app? Because I think Fitbit can control that end of it.

I've also noticed that MMF has more accurate "pace" readings. That is purplexing to me as well, as they both use the device's GPS to determine pace, I'd assume. But Fitbit shows my pace diving to 30:00 per mile every couple of minutes, for no apparent reason. Meanwhile MMF shows my pace staying consistent. Both using the same GPS to determine these statistics.

I start and stop my workouts manually on both apps. I use both apps because I like the competitions MMF has to offer, meanwhile I find Fitbit's to be lackluster and not nearly diverse enough or large enough in numbers. At the same time, I prefer Fitbit's HR, steps, and calories burned... and they integrate much more accurately into MFP IMO. Of course this wouldn't be a problem if Fitbit did some drastic improvements to its dietary functionality, but right now it is lackluster on that end too.

So it seems at the moment we are left with this somewhat convoluted need to mix between the multiple apps. And that is why I think it is important that Fitbit adds more abilities to choose which parts of another app's integrations to use... as opposed to a "blanket" method. 

Excellent devices and app either way. Just, I think, there has been some oversights that, if addressed, would help the Fitbit consumer tremendously. Just imagine how much trouble less tech-savvy or less app-aware people probably have trying to figure out the best "meta." 

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Hi @MetalMastodon, thank you for your constructive feedback. As I mentioned earlier, every time I read your posts I find very interesting your points and comments regarding aspect of the Fitbit app that can be improved in a future if it is possible.

 

At the moment you can only choose which data to allow in the integration to have access to your Fitbit Account. This is at the initial authorization screen, where you allow which information will be share.

 

However, it won't work in the way you are looking for. So I would like to invite you to visit the Feature suggestion board and share your feedback. We're constantly striving to improve Fitbit products and services, and we very much appreciate all of the input we receive from our users.

 

See you around and If I got more details on future updates, I will be happy to share with you.

Roberto | Community Moderator

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” What's Cooking?

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