MyFitnessPal, The Band, and You

[valadon]

I am a little confused with how the Band integrates with MyFitnessPal. I usually use a Fitbit One that syncs up with MyFitnessPal, as the day progresses and I get steps it adds or subtracts calories from my daily goal depending on how active I am being. In other words if I walk/run more in a day, then I can eat more.

I have paired the Microsoft Band to MyFitnessPal in the Health app and then selected Microsoft health as my step counter in the MyFitnessPal app, but it does not seem to be adjusting my calories as my fitbit did. In fact it doesn't seem to do anything at all besides display the steps. With the fitbit I used to see a calorie adjustment under exercise on the MyfitnessPal website, with the Band nothing shows up there at all.

Is this working as intended? Right now there seems to be very little point in syncing up the Band to MyFitnessPal, there seems to be no actual integration. Has anyone else tried it?

Thanks

 

[TheZuneLune]

Good question. There does not seem to be much official guidance on this.

 

[thericeman]

The band won't update My Fitness Pal with your normal "resting" calorie consumption. I haven't felt comfortable testing the Band with a run because of my busted clasp, however the Band has updated My Fitness Pal with the calories burned from walking/step count. It will show up as "Cardio Exercise" with an entry that says "Microsoft Health calorie adjustment".

I wish I could tell you what triggered the update - whether it was automagic, or I had to launch the Microsoft Health app to update. With Runtastic Pro, it only updates My Fitness Pal after I upload the run to my Runtastic Account from the phone, so I am going to assume the APIs work the same and your calorie information from the Band doesn't update until after you launch the app on the phone (or possibly also when you sync with the PC app).

 

[garyhartaz]

I don't see anything in MyFitnessPal account although it does show as a Connect App in my Microsoft Health profile. What is the trick?

 

[valadon]

After you have connected it from Microsoft Health, you can then go into the MFP app and in the menu choose steps, and select microsoft health.

However that info doesn't seem to actually do anything, it just displays the steps in the MFP and doesn't send any of the info to the MyFitnessPal website or do anything with it at all as far as I can tell. So right now I am not sure that MFP and The Band actually really work together.

Here is microsofts site that seems to indicate that it actually does something when you sync, but they are not very specific.

Microsoft Health and MyFitnessPal

 

[sketchy9]

Haha I was just coming to post a new topic about this very issue. I had previously linked MyFitnessPal to Health using the Health app setting. So I just completed a 30 minute row on the erg using the dumbbell icon (the general exercise where it just tracks time and HR). I got a calorie consumption of 411 calories. Next I opened the Health app on my phone so that it would force a sync with the Band. Workout shows up in Health. All good so far. Next, I waited about 10 minutes and lo and behold the workout showed up in MyFitnessPal as a general exercise with 411 calories burned. This adjusted my daily caloric need as if I had entered in the exercise in MFP by hand.

I was actually checking the website on my computer for the workout to show up; once it did, I opened the app on my phone and it was there as well. Naturally this automatically updated the live tile. I don't know if the live tile will update on its own without the app being opened (although I assume it will; it does if I enter a workout in on the website manually).

As an aside, I've been using a formula from this paper (using average HR and estimated VO2max) to determine caloric expenditure prior to my purchase of the Band:
http://www.braydenwm.com/cal_vs_hr_ref_paper.pdf
I think the formula in that paper is fairly accurate and, in conjunction with calorie counting, it's been reliable in terms of losing and maintaining weight. That being said, when using the average HR and the time as shown on the Band for my row, the formula above and the Band showed almost identical calories burned (within 5 calories, so about 1%). I'm very happy with that.

 

[sketchy9]

I am a little confused with how the Band integrates with MyFitnessPal. I usually use a Fitbit One that syncs up with MyFitnessPal, as the day progresses and I get steps it adds or subtracts calories from my daily goal depending on how active I am being. In other words if I walk/run more in a day, then I can eat more.

I have paired the Microsoft Band to MyFitnessPal in the Health app and then selected Microsoft health as my step counter in the MyFitnessPal app, but it does not seem to be adjusting my calories as my fitbit did. In fact it doesn't seem to do anything at all besides display the steps. With the fitbit I used to see a calorie adjustment under exercise on the MyfitnessPal website, with the Band nothing shows up there at all.

Is this working as intended? Right now there seems to be very little point in syncing up the Band to MyFitnessPal, there seems to be no actual integration. Has anyone else tried it?

Thanks

You might want to read this page on the MFP page:

MyFitnessPal | Why is there no option to Enable Negativ...

Basically it seems like it's supposed to adjust your calorie need upward if you do a lot of activity but not downward. Kind of a bummer. I think what I'm going to do is figure out my average calorie expenditure over several days and input that into MFP at some point.

 

[valadon]

I was wondering if maybe it was just not providing a negative adjustment, and since I have been stuck at the office all day there certainly shouldn't be a positive adjustment yet. I would be nice if there was a negative adjustment, but I will just calculate a good base caloric expenditure and then let the Band add to it if I work out.

 

[Likwidz]

After you have connected it from Microsoft Health, you can then go into the MFP app and in the menu choose steps, and select microsoft health.

I don't have any option in my MFP app for settings steps? Are you referring to the MFP WP app?

Also, anyone having problems with the My Profile in the Health app? I'm getting a connection error "Oops An unknown error occurred with your Band."

 

[valadon]

I don't have any option in my MFP app for settings steps? Are you referring to the MFP WP app?

I am using the iPhone MFP app and it has a section of the menu called steps. The windows phone might not have that yet. But don't worry, you are not missing out, it just displays the step count in the MFP app it doesn't do anything with the data.

It looks like instead it is sending your workouts to the MFP website and using that to adjust calories.

 

[Likwidz]

I reached out to MFP email support and got this reply about the syncing not working...

"Hello ,

We definitely plan on adding more integration partners to our program in the future. At this time, we do not know who those partners will be, nor do we announce any partners until they are officially live.

We will take your recommendation into consideration when we do. We also recommend you contact them as well and let Microsoft know you would be interested in having them integrate with us?

For now, to view a list of our current partners, please visit: Free Calorie Counter, Diet & Exercise Journal | MyFitnessPal.com

In the meantime, thank you for using the program. Please let us know if you have any other problems or questions. We wish you all the success in reaching and maintaining all of your health and fitness goals.

Warm Regards,
Jay
MyFitnessPal "

EDIT--- Follow email from MFP....

"Jay wrote:

OCT 31, 2014 | 04:18PM PDT

We will be linking with Microsoft, our partnership is just not quite live yet. We are working out a few things still.

All the best,
Jay
MyFitnessPal Staff "

 

[TheZuneLune]

I noticed MFP is adjusting target calories based on my calories burned from the Band.

 

[Alex Rodriguez Jr.]

I need the band to sync to mfp which would then sync with fitbit which would then sync with Humana vitality

 

[Upstate Dunadan]

Great thread. I use MFP and am expecting my Band to arrive on Tuesday. I've been wondering about this, so now I have a good idea what to expect. Thanks for the info.

 

[jonesyvoor]

I'm confused. Does MFP factor in calories burned from the Band in order to reflect a calorie adjustment or not? So far i haven't seen it happen but it seems like some folks got this to work?

 

[Likwidz]

For me, it just adjusts the calories burned from exercise alone. Wish it would take into account daily burn.

 

[valadon]

It seems that it is taking into account daily burn but only if you surpass what MFP estimates you are at for the day. It will then add some more calories for you. However it seems a little wonky, actually similar to the problem my Withings was having when it came to overall calories in addition to work out calories. For instance I went on a 4.5 mile run this morning and have about 10k steps for the day, mostly because of the run. So I should get lots of extra calories right? Well not according to MFP. it gave me 568 calories for the run, but then removed 666 for my daily progress giving me -98 calories. So instead of getting more calories when I work out it is giving me less. MFP seems to subtract your workout from your calories instead of adding to it when it gets combined with the step data from the Band. This is the exact same problem I had when I tried to use the Withings pulse.

 

[bigskytool]

I am using a 1520 with DP and have the WP MFP app that is connected with the Microsoft Health app. I have used the band for a couple of runs now and also used it once for a guided workout. The guided workout calories burned showed up under "Strength Exercise" on that day but the Run calories burned did not? I had to manually add the run exercise which does not make sense.

I too do not see anywhere in MFP app to add the Band as my step counter. It seems the features for the Microsoft MFP app are lacking at this point.

 

[TheZuneLune]

You don't add the Band through MFP, you add MFP through the Microsoft Health app.

1. Select the Left menu, which is the icon with three horizontal in the top left corner of the Health app home screen.
   
2. Select Connected Apps.
3. Your IE Browser will launch. Follow the on-screen directions.

 

[klkokke]

The website for Microsoft Health also says it currently works with mapmyfitness but I believe this js wrong as it does not show in connected apps? Any idea?