Integration between Fitbit Surge and MyFitnessPal

[ZafarSami]

Hi Fitbitters!

I am now the proud owner of a Surge. Just set it up yesterday and integrated to other apps that I use. I have a few questions and this is the 2nd one...

Today I logged three activities with GPS (bike ride to a friends place, walk with friend and bike ride back). Once I synced the tracker to the FitBit app and dashboard, and also updated / synced the MyFitnessPal for food, I was faced with the following situation...

• Both FitBit and MyFitnessPal agree that I have eaten 1844 calories.
• MyFitnesspal reports that I have a budget of 321 calories left to consume for my goal after adding 374 calories from exercise to my base budget of 1790
• FitBit reports I have burnt a LOT more calories (two bike rides and one walk add up to about a thousand). It tells me I have burnt 3450 calories and can eat 1597 more to keep to my goal.
• Both apps have the goal to lose 0.5 KG per week and age, height and weight in both are the same.
• So there is a delta of about 625 calories between the two apps in calories burnt. 
• I am tracking food in MyFitnessPal (no manual entries for calorie burn), while relying on the FitBit for calorie burn data. 
• I must mentioned, that I also intregrated MyFitnessPal to Apple Health, Runtastic (I didn't use it today), Road Bike (which I used today to be able to compare GPS distance between it and FitBit).
• Also, my step count from the Surge tracker was very high, I assume it was due to the biking (bumpy road etc.).
• I assume that the BMR or daily calorie budget would be more or less similar between both FitBit and MyFitnessPal...
• Another piece of info: I have set my activity level as Sedentary in MyFitnessPal.

It seems that MyFitnessPal only took the walk exercise calorie data, while ignoring the cycling data and the 8000 plus steps logged by FitBit Surge.

I have restarted the tracker and the app and also the web dashboard, but the calories count remains as I described.

While I will not eat 1500 calories more as advised, I am concerned how to use the two apps together and what "thumb rule" to keep on track for my goal of losing weight. I do not want to overeat, and neither do I want a too high calorie deficit which may slow down my metabolism and make weight loss almost impossible.

I would appreciate any and all explanations on how these two apps work.

Thanks in advance

[MakMak]

Hi @ZafarSami! Welcome to the forums!

Unfortunately for those of us that use both apps, the interface between the two is still stuck in the dinosaur era before Fitbit had the great heart rate tracking capability it has now. As a result, Fitbit only transfers steps to mfp and mfp only transfers food calories and activity calories to Fitbit (as far as calories go, there are some other things that flow back and forth).

The way I use it is to rely on mfp for food entry, since I think their system for that is much better and their database is larger. Everything else I do is in Fitbit.

Fitbit and mfp do both use the Mifflin St Jeor BMR calculation, so they are starting from the same baseline. Also, not knowing anything about you, your calorie burn does seem pretty high to me. I would do some research into what your BMR is and what you would expect to burn from the various activies you're doing, just to make sure that the burn you're getting estimated by Fitbit is in the right ballpark. Otherwise, you might find yourself eating to that target and not losing any weight. Generally, as long as you're eating at the right times (like after workouts) and at least eating as much as your BMR, you'll be okay on the lower end of calories.

Best of luck with your journey!

[ZafarSami]

Thanks for your reply @MakMak. My BMR as calculated in FitBit and MyFitnessPal seems to be very similar, judging that my recommended calorie intake with the goal deficit is within 100 calories in both apps.

I do think that FitBit is overcounting steps and calories burnt. As for my physical condition, I am in shape if you consider round as a shape heheheh. Current weight is 100 kg (220 pounds), height is 180 cm (5'11). I was quite tired after the activity yesterday, and do consider that the amount of activity was large compared to my sedentary usual. 

The reason I bought the FitBit Surge was to have a better overview on my caloric deficit each day so I can keep on track for my goal weight. The count seems off... E.g. it is 11 am here and my calorie burn is already 935 calories, with 182 steps counted. I wear the device while sleeping too. I have only been awake for an hour, with hardly any walking about. If 11 hours is 935 calories, then the full day with no exercise would be in the 2000 range, which for my height and weight is close enough. However, if I exercise, the Surge tends to up the calorie burn significantly, which is a trap. The whole reason for spending the money was to be more exact, and not "winging it"...

I must admit this is disappointing...