Third Party Integration Help

[wickedathletes]

So I am little confused on the third party integration and how to properly handle my day so things are recorded correctly. I have a Charge 2.

I use MyFitnessPal for food and exercise tracking overall.

I use Strava for running/biking tracking.

I use the fitbit to help monitor everything.

My main question is, if I am biking with Strava do I still want to put the fitbit into "Bike" mode? How do I make sure Fitbit sees my Strava activity but does not count the steps involved?

Also, why doesnt fitbit calculate a step count for your activity? For instance I biked 10 miles and my steps went up about 500. It either shouldnt go up at all or should be considered X amount per mileage based on speed/yadda yadda.

[AndrewFitbit · Accepted solution]

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wickedathletes wrote:

I use MyFitnessPal for food and exercise tracking overall.

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@wickedathletes I probably would only use MFP for food tracking, you can use Strava/Fitbit for activity. You don't want to end up with duplicate activities.

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wickedathletes wrote:

I use Strava for running/biking tracking.

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@wickedathletes This is fine because it will sync to Fitbit, but just know that your Charge 2 might pick up steps when not in "Bike" mode.

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@wickedathletes wrote:

 My main question is, if I am biking with Strava do I still want to put the fitbit into "Bike" mode? How do I make sure Fitbit sees my Strava activity but does not count the steps involved?

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@wickedathletes No because then you're tracking the activity twice. Strava activities are considered manually logged activities on Fitbit's side so it should override any Fitbit steps for the duration of the activity, however, it doesn't always match up perfectly, which is why you might end up with a slight increase in steps. There's always the option to use Charge 2's Connected GPS with Bike mode and have the activity sync to Strava. That would eliminate extra steps.

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wickedathletes wrote: 

Also, why doesnt fitbit calculate a step count for your activity? For instance I biked 10 miles and my steps went up about 500. It either shouldnt go up at all or should be considered X amount per mileage based on speed/yadda yadda.

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@wickedathletes I somewhat answered that above, but basically activities that don't involve stepping (like biking) shouldn't have steps. So when you're not using Bike mode, it's possible for extra steps to be picked up while biking.

This is all assuming you have these apps linked together. I usually recommend linking apps like this:

MFP & Fitbit

Strava & Fitbit

Don't link them like this:

Strava & MFP

Strava & Fitbit

MFP & Fitbit

Linking every app to each other creates a confusing app chain that's more likely to cause duplicate activities.

Hope this helps. 🙂

[wickedathletes]

thank you for the thorough answer.

One remaining question, and I re-setup my links as such:

1. all 3 apps communicate with Apple Health (but only communicate what it should, AKA MFP doesnt take exercise from Apple Health etc. etc.

2. MFP read Fitbit and writes to fitbit (i do exercising via fitbit, food via MFP)

3. Fitbit and Strava talk now (before I had Strava talking to MFP)

So on that note, if I want more detailed runs/bikes should I track via fitbit and then login to see my strava details or will it be missing stuff and is it wiser to track via strava and have it sync over to fitbit? I honestly use Strava for more details like pace, etc. etc.

[AndrewFitbit]

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@wickedathletes wrote:

1. all 3 apps communicate with Apple Health (but only communicate what it should, AKA MFP doesnt take exercise from Apple Health etc. etc.

2. MFP read Fitbit and writes to fitbit (i do exercising via fitbit, food via MFP)

3. Fitbit and Strava talk now (before I had Strava talking to MFP)

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@wickedathletes Sounds good to me.

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@wickedathletes wrote:

So on that note, if I want more detailed runs/bikes should I track via fitbit and then login to see my strava details or will it be missing stuff and is it wiser to track via strava and have it sync over to fitbit? I honestly use Strava for more details like pace, etc. etc.

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Yes, no, and no. If you use Fitbit's Connected GPS, the activity will sync over to Strava, then Strava will take that file from Fitbit and do their own calculations to it so you shouldn't be missing anything. I'd suggest trying it out for a few rides and see if you like it.

I believe heart rate from Charge 2 will also sync over to Strava (which you can then view in Strava), although I haven't tested this myself to be able to confirm.