My Fitness Pal calorie adjustment

[SunsetRunner]

Can anyone explain to me how FB calculates the calorie adjustment?

[SilviaFitbit · Accepted solution]

@SunsetRunner I'll be happy to explain this to you 

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.

[adrian_florea]

Good. How do I activate the negative calories adjustment? (myfitnesspal sends me to enable that feature on the web, but u cannot find the menu for that).

[SilviaFitbit · Accepted solution]

@adrian_florea Hey there! Since the adjustments are made on MyFitnessPal you should activate the negative adjusment in Fitbit by doing the following: 

Log in to the full MyFitnessPal site at www.MyFitnessPal.com and click the main "Settings" tab, then "Diary Settings." Check the box for "Enable Negative Adjustments" then click "Save Changes.” If you are typically unable to sync your device until late in the day, you may wish to leave negative adjustments "off."

P.S. Welcome to the Community 

[deeishealthy]

I have a similar question, as I'm having a hard time accepting the calorie adjustment.  

I have bursitis, so I'm using the Fitbit Charge HR.  My thought being that I'm not really using it for a step counter.  Most of my activity is upper body, as lower body causes pain.  I bought the HR specifically so that it tracks my heart rate all day long.  

My question is this... does the calorie adjustment in MFP come from the heartrate or from the steps?  

Wearing it on my wrist, I have noticed that the FitBit records steps I didn't take.  For example, I have excema.  I was rubbing my hands together vigorously when suddenly it vibrated because I have reached my steps "goal".  I wasn't even out of bed yet for the day.  I did have a very active day once OUT of bed, and I saw on MFP that I had earned something ridiculous like over 1200 more calories (I'm only allowed 1200 as I lead a very sedentary life).  That had me questioning... was it because of the number of steps it thinks I took, or is that based on my heartrate for the day?

[cynthiafeuer]

It is showing "0" adjustment though...before I synced my FitBit, My Fitness Pal was always showing some sort of "adjustment" even if, for example it was and adjustment of "6" calories for steps taken....I have taken 2000 "steps" and gone 4 "stairs" and still shows "0" calorie adjustment...???

[SilviaFitbit]

@cynthiafeuer Hey there! You can learn more about the Calorie Adjustment here.  There's going to be an adjustment just if it's necessary. 

Hope this helps. 

[mmarleneg]

Hi,

I connected my Fitness Pal to the FitBIT HR and I'm logging the food on both apps.  As a result, the FITBIT calorie count double up.

Does anyone know how to resolve this issue?

Thank you

[SilviaFitbit]

Welcome to the Community @mmarleneg! When you're using Fitbit with a third-party app, you need to log things just in one so your data doesn't duplicate. Since, MyFitnessPal will sync food, activity and weight. You need to log food from MyFitnessPal and this will sync to Fitbit and you'll see a calorie adjustment so both apps can reflect the same data. 

You can learn more about this integration by checking this third-party app post. 

Hope this helps! 

[mmarleneg]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.  I will stop logging the food in Fitbit and use My fitness pal instead to avoid duplicates.

Thank you

[irepwellness]

This issue is also very confusing for me. Why can't myfitnesspal accept the calories burned off in fitbit without making any adjustments? Why do you need an adjustment? Perhaps you can clearly exlpain this otherwise if I can understand how fitbit's technology works without an understanding of the data fitbit provides my watch is going right back to AT&T.

I have a static calorie per day goal set in myfitnesspal in the amount of 1400. This doesn't not change from day to day. I also thought that I would override fitbit variable daily calorie goal with this 1400 calories per day which can be done when setting up your meal plan. It appears that I have to reset this everyday. Is this right?

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks! That really helps!

[HuckleberryFit]

I had more steps and more calories burned than the previous day yet when the data converts to my fitness I got 300 less credit for calories?? I'm a rocket scientist and still don't understand this negative calorie algorithm. I've read over the explanations over and over again ? 

[SilviaFitbit]

It's great to have you here @HuckleberryFit! There's going to be an adjustment made in MyFitnessPal to make sure the data that you're getting in both accounts are the same. A positive adjustment will be made if calories burned from Fitbit are greater than MFP, a negative will be made if the calories burned from MFP are greater than Fitbit.

(An example of a negative adjustment)  

Let me know if this clarifies your question! 

[Christywk]

Sylvia, 

I am completely confused.  I have my Fitbit connected to MFP and ONLY log food and water into MFP.
My steps are recorded in MFP and I have over 10k steps as of right now----  https://imgur.com/OxiGyHs

I walked 4 miles this morning and surely, I burned more than 78 calories...which is what MFP seems to be giving my walk credit for.  What am I missing here?