how the additional calories from Fitbit show as additional calories on MFP?

[BigTy]

Hello all. I've been using my FitBit for a few months now and really like it. I just recently started taking my fitness/weight loss seriously. So I still have a lot to learn about calories burned, intake, etc. (I'll be asking a lot of questions!)

My concern now is how the additional calories from cardio workouts from my FitBit show as additional (intake) calories in MFP.

Also, I just got an app called "Fitness for Weight Loss" by redrockapps. It's basically short high-intensity workouts. I got it becuase it's supposed to integrate directly with my FitBit (and it does). My question is, after a workout, it tells me how many calories I can add to my daily intake (cardio) as measured by my FitBit too.

1. Can anyone tell me how (or give me an idea) how these additional calories are calculated (because they change based on me running, walking or doing cardio)?

2. Anybody have any experience with the short, high-intensity workouts and how those calories are calculated?

(Forgive the questions if they seem really elementary... I'm really just getting into this fitness thing!)

Moderator edit: Updated subject for clarity.

[SteveH]

Please don't apologise for the questions! It's great that you are getting more into your fitbit and this is exactly what the community is for.

As far as MFP goes, when your activity increases beyond your normal, resting level fitbit sends MFP a calorie adjustment. Say you go for a run and log 200 extra calories, fitbit will send this to MFP as an adjustment which then gets added to your allowed calorie intake.

On the other hand, if you have a really lazy day your calories may drop below normal. Here, fitbit can send MFP a negative adjustment but this is disallowed by default in MFP so check your settings if you want to allow this.

In terms of what is normal, this all comes down to BMR which is explained in this article:

http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/How-does-Fitbit-know-how-many-calories-I-ve-burne...

I've not come across the app you mention and it doesn't appear on the list of fitbit supported apps at:

https://www.fitbit.com/apps

I don't know how it calculates calories and, more importantly, I don't know if it does a better or worse job than fitbit at doing so. It might be worth experimenting with the manual logging of exercise within fitbit. If that does a similar job you may be able to avoid the double entry:

http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/How-do-I-log-or-record-an-activity/

Hopefully someone more familiar with the app will contribute to this thread.

You are getting into a complex subject with calorie burn vs intake but stick with it as it maximises the benefits of using your fitbit and gives you the best chance of meeting your fitness/weight goals.