If you are tracking calories in Habitify using Google's Health Connect on Android, you might occasionally notice that the synced numbers do not quite align with what you expect.
This guide will clarify what each of the three options tracks, how they work, and how to choose the right one for your goals.
The Three Calorie Tracking Options Explained
When creating or editing a habit in the Health Connect category, you will be prompted to select one of three calorie-related options. Here is exactly what each option requests from your device:
1. "Energy intake" (What you EAT)
What it syncs: Nutrition calories (consumed calories).
How it works: This tracks the food and drink calories you consume throughout the day. It reads the data written to Health Connect by nutrition or meal-logging apps (such as MyFitnessPal, Lose It!, or Yazio).
Best for: Meal tracking, keeping dietary goals, or monitoring a calorie-deficit/surplus routine.
2. "Burn some calories" (What you BURN actively)
What it syncs: Active calories burnt (physical activity only).
How it works: This option tracks only the active physical energy you burn through intentional movement, walking, runs, and logged workouts. It strictly excludes your body's passive resting energy (also known as your Basal Metabolic Rate, or $BMR$).
Best for: Tracking daily exercise, workout consistency, and active movement goals.
3. "Track calories" (Your TOTAL metabolic burn)
What it syncs: Total calories burnt (Active + Passive).
How it works: This represents your entire energy expenditure for the day. It combines your active calories (from exercise) with your BMR (the baseline calories your body naturally burns just to keep you alive and functioning).
Best for: Monitoring total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) to manage weight or track overall metabolism.
Note: If you select "Track calories" but only wanted to track your workouts, your habit completion progress will look much higher than expected because it is adding your resting BMR to the total!
How to Fix a Mismatched Habit Setup
Because Habitify links habit types to specific database pipelines, you cannot change the synchronization metric of an existing habit after it has been created.
If your synced progress is displaying incorrectly (e.g., you chose "Track calories" but meant to track your food intake), follow these quick steps to reset it:
Open Habitify and tap on the incorrect calorie habit.
Tap the three dots in the top-right corner and select Delete to remove it. (This prevents duplicate tracking).
Tap the "+" (plus) icon to create a new habit.
Select the Health Connect category.
Choose the correct option matching your goals:
Select "Energy intake" for food/nutrition tracking.
Select "Burn some calories" for workouts/active movement.
Select "Track calories" for total metabolic burn.
Save your habit. Your progress will instantly recalculate and sync accurately!
Still Having Trouble Syncing?
If you have double-checked your settings and are still facing sync or display issues, we are here to help!
Please reach out to our support team directly:
In the App: Go to Settings > Chat with Support to start a live chat with us.
Via Email: Send us a message at support@habitify.me.
When contacting us, please mention that you are troubleshooting Health Connect Calorie Sync and share your Android device model so we can help you faster!