MyFitnessPal and Fitbit - I can't track what I'd like, what to turn off?

[ddn1981]

Hello,

Thanks for taking the time to read this and help. I've read some of the other articles in this forum about making sure the fitbit and myfitnesspal have the same caloric daily goal (so to disable the food plan but manual input the same caloric burn in fitbit as is displayed in myfitnesspal)

But I'm still a little confused and I'm not satisfied with the results - so I'm wondering if anyone can help me solve my dilemma here. I'm not really sure where to start, so I'll lay it all out and explain what I'd like - hoping that there's a solution.

I'm using the following:

- MyFitnessPal ("MFP") to track my food. I don't want to change this because I've been tracking over 200 days so far, and MFP seems to have the largest and most comprehensive food database on the market thus far in my experience.

- MyFitnessPal is set to 1700 calories a day. I'm trying to respect this because I'm trying to create a negative caloric intake to slowly lose weight by reducing the calories I take in, and increasing my activity to create a net negative caloric gain over the course of the week. 

- I'm using a Fitbit Surge to record what it's designed to do (so HR, Calories, activities, etc...)

Here's my problem:

- I'm using MFP to monitor my food intake and count my calories I take in.

- I want to use my Fitbit watch to monitor my activities I do and then only send the activity or extra caloric burn information to MFP.

- Right now, Fitbit uses some daily basal metabolic rate of about 3500-4000 for me because it calculates "all the calories I burn in 24 hours, including when I sleep" based off of my height, weight, age etc. I get that, but the problem is that it then doesn't separate the data in a manner that's useful to send to MFP.

What is happening:

- I log my food into MFP and respect (or don't) my caloric intake of food in the day;

- I wear my fitbit Surge

- Since the apps are linked, at the end of the day MFP says (for example):

Goal: 1700 calories (set to lose weight)

Food 1800 calories (food I've logged - so the net calories right now is 1700-1800 = -100)

Exercise: 1200 (this is what really bugs me..Fitbit Caloric adjustment "Extra calories 1200...)

Remaining: 1100 calories

So the problem for me here, is that I've done no exercise, I've just eaten slightly over my caloric limit, and then fitbit says "well you've lived you're day, and burned so many calories so now you have an excess of 1200" which it shoots back into MFP. MFP then in turn says -100 + 1200 = 1100 calories ("Awesome job, you can eat more !")

This representation is misleading and not useful to me to help me manage my weight and fitness.

What SHOULD happen and what I want to be able to do is:

1. Log my food into MFP

2. Use my Fitbit Surge to log my activities (so for example, run for 45 minutes and burn 600 calories)

3. Then Fitbit sends the 600 calories of activity to MFP

4. MFP now properly represents the information (1700 calories allowed today + 600 burned from running)

I have a feeling that the only way to do this, is to unassociate my accounts completely. So to not share the data and then when I do an activity with my Fitbit Surge, then I would log into MFP and manually enter the data. Problem with that, now - is that my fitbit account no longer records the nutritional data from MFP from the food being logged and then fitbit cant see the under/over budget with food.

Just seems that I cant get things working together nicely and in a sensical manner.

Is there a way to only send the "activities" tracked from Fitbit to MFP, or is there a way to disable the "Fitbit Calorie adjustment" so that it doesnt show in MFP (and I'll manually enter activities)?

It's like it a broken 2 way communication problem. If I can only have MFP send the data to Fitbit then I'd be happen. But at this point in time, it's like both apps have to send data back and forth which is causing my headache.

Any suggestions, solutions from anyone?

Thanks for any help. I've been a little annoyed/frustrated with this for 2 months now and decided it was time to post and see what can be done.

[tessen]

Honest question, have you tried unlinking and relinking your accounts, to see if that helps? I've used MFP for quite some time, and I have never had it do that. It behaves for me exactly the way you say you want it to.  Fitbit would send just extra calories burned through exercise, etc., and MFP would do its thing. I would also check on MFP's activity section to see if it's logging an activity for some reason. (Even if you weren't active, maybe some wires got crossed?)

[ddn1981]

I'm going to have to try to unlink everything and relink it. I'll give that a shot and then update in the days to come.

But I don't think that will fix my problem. I think things are working as designed. I have a good example

Yesterday for example (I'll use the numbers I see)

In MyFitnessPal it says: Calories: 1670 (goal) - 1608 (food) + 755 (exercise) = 817 Remaining.

When I look at the Fitbit calorie adjustment of 755 it says the following (still in MFP):  

"How we calculated your Calorie Adjustment:

Fitbit Calories Burned: 3427 (full day projection based on 3427 calories burned as of 11:59PM)

MyFitnessPal Calories Burned: 2672

Fitbit Calorie Adjustment: 755 (because 3427-2672 = 755)

I get all that. But here's the problem.. In my fitbit history, if I look at my workout I did, I only did 516 calories of exercise on a treadmill for 43 minutes. 

So I'd like MyfitnessPall to say Calories: 1670 (goal) - 1608 (food) + 516 (exerciseI actually did and not 755 which is calulated from some weird full day projection) = 578 Remaining

Now I figured the problem is because Fitbit is monitoring some value that you burn per day (which unfortunatley does not work for me - and if I eat the suggested portion size based of off this 3500-4000 calorie burn Fitbit says I do - I'll never loose weight!)

So I'm not sure what to do, I really think things are working as designed (unless someone can say for sure my stuff is messed up).

I'd like to only be able to export the activity data I do in fitbit (so if I go for a run, weight lift, etc) and have that data be portrayed in MFP - but I don't see any other way around it than to enter it manually and disconnect MFP and Fitbit entirely. Which then sucks because it doesnt log my food, nutrients, and weight from my Aria scale etc.

Soo.....

Ideas?