Keep getting negative adjustments when I shouldn't -- help!

[CLBarnes]

I have a Charge HR and use Fitbit to track steps and exercise, and use MFP to track water and food. I definitely do not enter exercise manually into MFP.

My calorie goal is set for 1200 on MFP (based on BMR and a setting of Sedentary). Yesterday I had about 18k steps and normally that would result in some amount of calories being added back so I could consume them if I wanted. But for some reason MFP has 2,494 as my calories burned (and since FitBit calculated 2,487 I did not get any extra calories). 

What am I doing wrong? Why is this MFP number so high? I thought it was based on what MFP thinks I burn in a day, which is basically BMR since I'm Sedentary.

Should I ignore these numbers and just stick to the 1200 calories? On most days (10-12k steps) that is not a problem, but on days when I'm busier than usual (like yesterday, shoveling snow and getting lots of steps as a result) I am hungrier and don't want to deprive myself completely. Plus, it bothers me that the set-up isn't working as it should.

So basically what I'm asking is, can we trust these numbers and if so, why? Five days ago I was getting calories added back every day from my FitBit activity. The last four days there have been negative adjustments. I haven't made any changes.

I have asked this question in the MFP community, but I thought I should also ask it here. Help!

[HelenaFitbit]

Welcome to the forums @CLBarnes! I'm also a MyFitnessPal user and I'll be glad to help on this. 

I have seen this situation happen whenever both accounts don't have the same caloric budget to work with; so I recommend to disable Fitbit's Food Plan and add your MFP caloric budget as a main calorie goal.

I'll show you how to do it from my profile information. 

First, you'll need to go to your Food log page and click on the arrows on Food Plan until you see the option "Edit Plan".

After you've done this, click on "Set a new Goal" 

Add your starting weight and your desired weight and click next.

Instead of choosing the food plan options provided by Fitbit, click on "Set my own Calorie Target".

Now on MyFitnessPal, click on Goals and (unless you have an specific nutrition goal) click on "View Guided Setup"

Now on your Diet profile, add all the information required.

Now, you will get a Net calorie target for the day. Please bear in mind that mine is low because of my settings, but yours will be different. 

Now, go back to your Fitbit Screen and add the Net Calorie target you were given for the day and click on Done. 

Now you're set! The food you log in from MFP will automatically edit your Fitbit caloric values for the day and it will reflect on your MFP calorie budget for the day. 

A couple things to consider about this: 

1. The accuracy of your Fitbit Log will depend on the accuracy of your MFP food logs.
2. All exercises and non-step based activities must be logged through Fitbit, otherwise MFP will count them as double. 

 Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions