Fitbit help!! I'm at my wits end with this thing

babybluekai

My fitbit (flex) is driving me insane. My only exercise is walking/hiking. I'm having trouble understanding fitbits calories burned estimates.
For example
Tuesday I did 10,432 steps, I went on 2 short 1.5 mile walks Fitbit says I did a total of 4.5 miles. Fitbit app says I burned 2,257 calories that day and MFP added 282 exercise calorie adjustment.. Seems ok
Yesterday I went on a 4.5 mile hike in the morning and a 1.5 mile walk at night. My Fitbit app says i did 16,569 steps (yay!) and a total of 7.15 miles
But the app says my total calorie burn was 2,246... And the MFP calorie adjustment was 271. Like ten calories less than the day before.
How do I burn 10 calories less in a day where I got in more exercise before 10:30 am than I did the entire previous day?
How does walking 4.5 miles in the morning and 1.5 at night only give me 271 exercise calories?
Before this I was using map my walk (not as accurate I know) but It usually gave me about 100 cal. Burned per mile, which would mean I burned closer to 450 in exercise just in the morning alone.
Ugh!
Someone help me before I throw this thing in the trash.
It's making me devalue my walks. And doing 4.5 mile hikes (to me) is an accomplishment.. But Fitbit makes it seem like I burn more doing less so what's the point?
Help!!

DemoraFairy

Things like incline and how fast you walked also affect calorie burn. So if you did a fast, uphill walk it'll burn more calories than a slower, level walk with more steps. Also bear in mind that the MFP calorie adjustment from Fitbit is exercise you've done over what you're expected to do, so when it says you've burnt 271 calories it doesn't mean your walk burnt 271 calories, it means that over the day you've burnt 271 more than the activity level you set on MFP. For example, I've set mine to sedentary so it starts saying I've burnt extra calories back really quickly, if I set it to lightly active I'd get more base calories but it would require more steps for me to start earning calories back.

Having said all that, some of the things my Fitbit says confuse the hell out of me too. Like how I can do 200% of the steps, active minutes, distance and floors it wants me to but still be 300 calories less than what it wants me to burn in the day.

TimothyFish

MapMyWalk is probably more accurate than Fitbit, since it is using GPS to track distance walked while Fitbit it taking the number of steps and multiplying by some distance per step. But how many calories you burned is also based on the intensity level, so walking farther at a slower pace can actually burn fewer calories.

nono706

I don't look at the calories burned much- it's just an estimate, and probably an overestimate in fact. Use it it count your steps and keep walking/hiking! Don't get discouraged!

WalkingAlong

There is more that counts into your total calorie burn for the day than your steps count so it's not odd to see a day with a bit lower steps burn more than a prior day. But yours seems a little extreme-- 10k and 17k steps having similar burns. When you look at your activity charts for both days, does the 10k day seem to have higher highs in the chart? If it thought you were say running hard for 10k steps vs. strolling for 17k that could matter. I also wonder with it being a Flex if it's catching typing or some other casual hand motion as something and that's messing up your data.

wyattj99

At 15K steps a day I MFP says I burn about 600 calories...should I eat those back?

CM9178

this seems weird, 17k steps should give you much more calories burned than 10k steps, whether the walking was strenous or not. Something isn't right.

CM9178

wyattj99 wrote: »

At 15K steps a day I MFP says I burn about 600 calories...should I eat those back?

that makes no sense. You only burn 600 calories in a day with 15,000 steps????
Edit - just re-read this, do you mean Fitbit is giving you an extra 600 calories on top of what MFP is giving you?
- If that's the case, then it adjusts your daily calorie goal. I don't count regular daily activity/walking as exercise calories.
-
If you do some sort of purposeful exercise, then I'd enter that activity on MFP and probably only eat back half of those calories.

CM9178

delete

sodakat

Be sure to set your stride length in the Personal Info section of Fitbit Settings. An incorrect stride length will cause the distance to be off.

SezxyStef

I just got a fitbit zip (won it at work) it's a piece of crap compared to my Jawbone...I don't trust it at all and I guess the rest of them are like that too...