Fitbit Seems to Be Giving Me Too Many Calories

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randilast
randilast Posts: 99 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello, I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this and how you handled it? I got a Fitbit Flex on Friday and I've worn it everyday since. I synced it with myfitnesspal but I feel like it's crediting me with too many burned calories. For example, on Saturday I worked my second job (retail) and it was crazy busy. I was running around a lot and carrying things and I know I definitely walked over 10,000 steps in those 4 1/2 hours (had second pedometer on my show) but I don't believe I burned 1,100 calories doing that. And I was wearing my Fitbit on my non-dominant hand!
I'm keeping my calorie intake goal to the original one myfitnesspal gave me and not "eating back" the ones earned according to Fitbit. But how can I make certain it's not overestimating my activity level?
Thanks for any help!
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Replies

  • nilbogger
    nilbogger Posts: 870 Member
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    I've been using a FitBit off and on for almost two years and I actually think it's fairly accurate. If I stay within the calories it gives me I lose weight.
  • dakotababy
    dakotababy Posts: 2,406 Member
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    I dont think you can really tell if it is overestimating, however, if you imagine yourself at the gym for 4.5hours, it is very well true that you burnt 1100 calories.

    I think the only way to tell is if you get another calorie expenditure device and compare the numbers - or you can just assume a 10% over estimation in the numbers.

    When i first got my fitbit one, i was apprehensive - but it did work. I did eventually give it away, as I wanted something with higher accuracy, so I went with the bodymedia armband.
  • court_fritch26
    court_fritch26 Posts: 297 Member
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    It doesn't just measure the calories burned in that 4 1/2 hours…it the calories you have burned throughout the entire day. Since I have gotten my Fitbit I've felt it was accurate in how many calories I have burned throughout the day. Some days when I am more active I get to my calorie goal faster, some days it takes until later at night. The 1100 calories is your steps, plus the calories you have burned all throughout the day…at 5'1" and 165 lbs I burn about 2200 calories in a day
  • seryph_alethea
    seryph_alethea Posts: 16 Member
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    I find my flex to be very accurate. I've been wearing it since before Christmas and by sticking to it's calories I lost four lbs and then have lost the Christmas weight gain already!
  • Mexicanbigfoot
    Mexicanbigfoot Posts: 520 Member
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    I kind of have the same issue. I got my Fitbit Flex for Christmas. I have my MFP activity level set to "low" since I work a desk job. It seems like even on a regular work day when I'm not that active Fitbit is giving me extra calories. So confused!
  • jasonp_ritzert
    jasonp_ritzert Posts: 357 Member
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    Mexicanbigfoot wrote: »
    I kind of have the same issue. I got my Fitbit Flex for Christmas. I have my MFP activity level set to "low" since I work a desk job. It seems like even on a regular work day when I'm not that active Fitbit is giving me extra calories. So confused!

    I work a desk job too and have MFP set to sedentary since I don't move much, I find it makes my Fitbit that much more accurate.

    Also, you can change the settings on the Fitbit to give you a more conservative calorie estimate if you think it's being too high.
  • dunnodunno
    dunnodunno Posts: 2,290 Member
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    Mexicanbigfoot wrote: »
    I kind of have the same issue. I got my Fitbit Flex for Christmas. I have my MFP activity level set to "low" since I work a desk job. It seems like even on a regular work day when I'm not that active Fitbit is giving me extra calories. So confused!

    https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/How-does-Fitbit-know-how-many-calories-I-ve-burned
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    Fitbit's little calorie counter includes the calories you burn to be alive in its totals and starts at midnight every day. When you wake in the morning, you'll have a few hundred calories burned already due to your resting metabolic rate.

    If you didn't look at the calorie total before your shift, then compare that to the post shift total and see a difference of 1000 calories between those two data points then the odds are you didn't burn that much in 4.5 hours ... it was a total to that point in the day.

  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    Was your Fitbit adjustment 1100? How many miles or steps did you walk that day? For me to get an adjustment that high, I'd have to walk somewhere around 11 miles above a sedentary day, which would be maybe 25k steps. Which is a lot. But retail can do that.

    I've used Fitbits for years and the calorie estimates work for me but common sense tells me they typically underestimate your base burn and over-credit exercise, probably by design to be more motivational. I don't really burn an extra 100+ calories each mile I walk based on other estimators, and I also don't really only burn 1300ish calories on a sedentary day. And I don't work in retail so the over-crediting isn't really an issue.
  • randilast
    randilast Posts: 99 Member
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    Thank you to everyone who has responded! dakotababy, thanks for the tip for assuming a 10% overestimation. It makes sense to do that. mexicanbigfoot, I work a desk job during the week as well and I've been keeping an eye on Fitbit to see how it compares. I believe with some fine tuning (courtesy of the link provided by dunnodunno) it's more accurate now.
  • randilast
    randilast Posts: 99 Member
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    WalkingAlong wrote: »
    Was your Fitbit adjustment 1100? How many miles or steps did you walk that day? For me to get an adjustment that high, I'd have to walk somewhere around 11 miles above a sedentary day, which would be maybe 25k steps. Which is a lot. But retail can do that.

    I've used Fitbits for years and the calorie estimates work for me but common sense tells me they typically underestimate your base burn and over-credit exercise, probably by design to be more motivational. I don't really burn an extra 100+ calories each mile I walk based on other estimators, and I also don't really only burn 1300ish calories on a sedentary day. And I don't work in retail so the over-crediting isn't really an issue.
    My adjustment for the whole day was 1,300. Part of the reason it seemed so high to me was I didn't feel my heart rate was that elevated and I know how hard it is to burn calories. Common sense says that I shouldn't eat back the calories since that will just lead to trouble. I'll keep to my original calorie goal as stated by MFP (1540) and just keep working on losing the weight. It's nice to see how active I am and how many steps I do, and the sleeping part fascinates me.
    I'm currently challenging myself to do 20 minutes of Zumba at home on my lunch break and it's fun to see how active I am during those minutes. I do log the exercise on MFP and according to tutorials that's supposed to prevent double counting of steps.
  • enigmaneo
    enigmaneo Posts: 61 Member
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    disconnect the fitbit from MFP. It will save you a lot of headache.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    randilast wrote: »
    WalkingAlong wrote: »
    Was your Fitbit adjustment 1100? How many miles or steps did you walk that day? For me to get an adjustment that high, I'd have to walk somewhere around 11 miles above a sedentary day, which would be maybe 25k steps. Which is a lot. But retail can do that.

    I've used Fitbits for years and the calorie estimates work for me but common sense tells me they typically underestimate your base burn and over-credit exercise, probably by design to be more motivational. I don't really burn an extra 100+ calories each mile I walk based on other estimators, and I also don't really only burn 1300ish calories on a sedentary day. And I don't work in retail so the over-crediting isn't really an issue.
    My adjustment for the whole day was 1,300. Part of the reason it seemed so high to me was I didn't feel my heart rate was that elevated and I know how hard it is to burn calories. Common sense says that I shouldn't eat back the calories since that will just lead to trouble. I'll keep to my original calorie goal as stated by MFP (1540) and just keep working on losing the weight. It's nice to see how active I am and how many steps I do, and the sleeping part fascinates me.
    I'm currently challenging myself to do 20 minutes of Zumba at home on my lunch break and it's fun to see how active I am during those minutes. I do log the exercise on MFP and according to tutorials that's supposed to prevent double counting of steps.
    1300 in addition to your 1540, so it suggested you eat 2800+, with a weight loss goal in there? Wow. How many steps that day? How did the Flex step count compare to the other pedometer?

    Your heart rate doesn't have to be elevated to burn calories. Look at the METs values for walking-
    https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories/walking

    Walking, household, less than 2mph has a METs value of 2.0, which means in tests people burned twice their BMR doing it. So if you normally burn say 80 calories an hour just to be alive, you burn 160 calories walking slowly. Walking at work, moderate pace, is more like 4 times BMR. No sweat, no elevated heart rate, but hundreds of extra calories burned.

  • djscavone
    djscavone Posts: 133 Member
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    enigmaneo wrote: »
    disconnect the fitbit from MFP. It will save you a lot of headache.
    Agree 100%. That is what I did. Too much work and they conflict with each other.
  • brightsideofpink
    brightsideofpink Posts: 1,018 Member
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    djscavone wrote: »
    enigmaneo wrote: »
    disconnect the fitbit from MFP. It will save you a lot of headache.
    Agree 100%. That is what I did. Too much work and they conflict with each other.

    What are you doing with it that is work? Where is the conflict? I'm genuinely curious. I've had mine linked for 6 months now and I've never had to do any work associated with their linkage. I've also never seen any conflict.

    OP- Your numbers do seem unusually high given what you've shared, retail or otherwise. I've had days where I've walked all day long and exercised and I don't think I've ever seen an adjustment that large. I hope it was an anomaly. How did it work out yesterday?

    I have also heard that there can be issues for people wearing wrist-based trackers if you use your hands a lot. My friend has to take hers off to wash her hands because it goes nuts, and there have been plenty of reports of people talking about it not working well if pushing a baby stroller when walking because your hands are so steady. Still, its odd if the adjustment is so high for the 10,000 step range.
  • randilast
    randilast Posts: 99 Member
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    brightsideofpink wrote: »
    djscavone wrote: »
    I have also heard that there can be issues for people wearing wrist-based trackers if you use your hands a lot. My friend has to take hers off to wash her hands because it goes nuts, and there have been plenty of reports of people talking about it not working well if pushing a baby stroller when walking because your hands are so steady. Still, its odd if the adjustment is so high for the 10,000 step range.
    I actually, for the entire day that Saturday, walked over 15,000 steps. My old pedometer was a pebble you would wear on your shoe so it's pretty accurate. But in winter not all my shoes will allow me to attach it so I'd wear it on my waist and it's a lot less accurate there.
    And I do use my hands a lot. I work at a store where I carry a lot of items and move things around. My desk job requires me to mess with paperwork all day and my arms can sometimes feel like they're flying all over the place.
    And I did receive another adjustment that's as high as the previous one. Yesterday I had an adjustment of 1,200. My steps were over 15,000 again since I went downtown with a friend for a basketball game and there was a lot of walking involved. Otherwise the adjustments are within the 300 to 500 range. I work my second job again tonight so we'll see what happens.
  • FitWarrior7
    FitWarrior7 Posts: 332 Member
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    I've been deleting the fitbit adjustment. Makes me work that much harder.
  • cleback
    cleback Posts: 261 Member
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    Depending on how many steps you did, it very well could be accurate... When I had a more active job, it would add an extra 600 calories to my day. Before I had fitbit, I wondered why I was constantly starving at work and had trouble sticking to my calorie goal. When I saw how active I was at work, I saw it made sense...
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    15000 steps and a 1300 adjustment sounds like a mistake to me. If I used a Flex and did a lot of hand-work, I'd do some tests for sure. Getting 200 steps for brushing your teeth sounds fine. Getting 1000 calories for typing- no.
  • amermummy
    amermummy Posts: 12 Member
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    I've done 17,000 steps with a fitbit MFP adjustment of 800 cals today - am 5'6" and 163. I wear my One clipped to my waist and think it's quite accurate - well I hope so anyway! :o

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