overestimating calories burned from walking in MFP - Calorie Adjustment

[LavastormSW]

I'm just getting back into weight loss and whatnot and have started using my fitbit again. However, I had some syncing issued with MFP (which I fixed by going to their website and disconnecting/reconnecting fitbit), but now it's showing that I burned 10,000 calories just by walking:

This is obviously is not correct.

For reference, this is what the fitbit app shows: 

What's going on? How is it showing that many calories from just walking? I checked all my info (height, weight, etc) on both and it's accurate. I have the Charge 2, if it matters, and I haven't entered in any activity from today on either app.

Moderator Edit: Word Choice / Updated Title For Clarity

[RobertoME]

Hi @LavastormSW, nice to see you have joined the Fitbit Community! I was reviewing your post and it seem the calorie adjustment in MFP is giving you more calories than your Fitbit account.

Note that MFP it won't show a calorie burned like your Fitbit Dashboard as you know. For more details about this topic I would like to recommend the following information: My Fitness Pal calorie adjustment.

In addition I recommend also to review this article: What is the Calorie Adjustment in my Exercise Diary?.

Hope this helps and stick around if you have more questions.

[Baltoscott]

@LavastormSW -- Wow!  I suspect that was some kind of sync error on the MFP side.  It seemed to pull the correct amount of steps, but attributed way to many calories.  You can just delete it.  

[LavastormSW]

How do I delete it? Long pressing doesn't work and neither does clicking through it. 

[Baltoscott]

swipe left -- at least that's how it works on my iPhone.

[LavastormSW]

Not on my Android. Swiping left/right just changes what day you're looking at.

[LavastormSW]

@RobertoME

Those articles are nice, but don't solve my problem. How do I get MFP to stop overestimating step calories from Fitbit?

[Baltoscott]

You can do that on iOS too. Seems to depend on where you put the thumb.

[LavastormSW]

I couldn't find any obvious place to swipe left to delete it that didn't take me to a different day instead. Either it's minuscule and dumb or that function isn't available on Android.

[Baltoscott]

You should also be able to use the edit or pencil icon at the top of the screen.  Found this explanation on MFP.  

[LavastormSW]

That worked, but it's rather annoying to do that every day. Is there some syncing or setting fix to prevent it from happening in the first place?

[Baltoscott]

I thought the 10,000 calorie issue was one-off (I haven't experienced myself or noticed others having the problem, so I sounded like some sort of sync glitch).   But if you are getting grossly inflated calorie entries every day, you might try disconnecting your fitbit and MFP accounts and then reconnecting.  If that doesn't work maybe other users will have some suggestions.

[LavastormSW]

No, unfortunately it's a recurring issue. Deleting the entry in the app works for a short while, but when it re-syncs it adds it back in. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the apps a couple times as well, but it didn't help. It's still doing it. 😞

[RobertoME]

Hello @LavastormSW and @Baltoscott! Sorry for my late response, I saw you re still having concerns about the calorie adjustment is happening between MFP and your Fitbit account.

In this case this is not a glitch or issue at the moment to sync. In the previous suggestion I shared with you @LavastormSW. My friend @SilviaFitbit explained that the number of calories 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. In your case this indicates that your calorie burn for the day as reported by Fitbit is greater than MyFitnessPal’s estimate.

For more details, please take a look at this explanation I compiled about similar scenarios: Fitbit steps - greatly varying calories.

Hope this helps.

[Baltoscott]

Thanks @RobertoME.  The calorie adjustment that @LavastormSW reported in her first post is an order of magnitude greater than the issues I've seen other MFP users report -- at +10,000 calories, those 6800 steps probably equate to 5 - 7 normal days for her 🙂 

The thread you linked to explains the typical calorie adjustment issues, but probably not this one. I've not seen any similar reports, and that she continues to get these odd entries even after disconnecting the accounts is really puzzling.

[LavastormSW · Accepted solution]

I'm not entirely sure what I did, but it's not happening any more. I went onto the MFP website and upped my daily activity from 'sediment' to 'lightly active' and noticed my birthday was wrong as well. It was set to 2018 instead of 1993. After I disconnected and reconnected the apps, it seems to have stopped grossly overestimating my calorie burn. So I think it was a problem with my birthday, which is weird because I thought I updated it. Either way, it's fixed now, at least as far as I can see.

[Baltoscott]

LOL.  

@LavastormSW -- thanks for that update.  Age, weight, and sex will affect the BMR calculation on both the fitbit and MFP side (not sure how they reconcile if they are different).  

Has the 2018 date that was in for your birthday occurred yet?  Or was it set in the future?  Either way, I can see how it might generate an out of normal range calculation!

[LavastormSW]

 I appreciate your help, but please don't laugh at my situation. It's not funny to me.

No, it was set to January 27th, which is two months prior to my birthday. It might not have been set to 2018, either, but it def wasn't set to 1993 (I changed it before looking at the year it was set to).

[Baltoscott]

Sorry to laugh, the solution was just unexpected and made realize how many subtitle metrics  are built into that number Fitbit or MFP assigned to a calorie adjustment.

In any event I think you worked it out and I expect this exchange will be helpful to others so I am glad you articulated the problem and explained how you fixed it. 

Cheers

[LavastormSW]

Yeah, there's nothing more frustrating than googling a problem only to be met with:

"Hey I have this problem."

"Never mind I fixed it." 

I try to avoid doing that!