New to Fitbit and have the Charge HR

patb987

Hey All!

So I just got the Charge HR and I am not sure on the Cal burn that it provide and how close it should be. I have been using MFP for 8 months or so and have done great. My total Cal for consumption for the day from MFP was 2500. Fitbit says I burn almost 4k a day, I just connected it for the first time today and after lunch MFP says I have 2.4k cals left for the day! I am wondering if all the flights of stairs and steps I never counted before is the big difference. Maybe I should see how the next few weeks pan out, just curious if anyone thinks the HR over counts cal burned or not?

NancyN795

I wouldn't trust the numbers on the first, partial day. Give it a few days and see what it says. Chances are that you are more active than you thought.

FitBit doesn't increase the calorie burn estimate based on flights of stairs. This is good, because it is very inaccurate in area. It misses about 1/2 of the stairs I actually climb (avg. 1-2 flights per day - if I check right before I climb the stairs and then right after it often doesn't notice) but usually shows an average of about 20 flights of stairs per day that I haven't climbed. So, I ignore the stair counts.

heybales

Fitbit's are going to tend to underestimate daily calorie burn.

Look at your daily graph of calorie burn.
All non-moving time is given the same sleeping BMR level of burn.
But when awake you burn more - RMR.
When standing you burn even more.
When digesting/processing food you burn more.

All things unaccounted for by Fitbit and it's BMR level burn.

Now, if you have stride length badly off, your moving time could go either way.
If the HRM formula for calorie burn is way off for you, exercise time could be off too.

So best to compare non-exercise day.
If calorie adjustment is pretty good - you have the MFP activity level set wrong the whole time.