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Fitbit zip accurate?

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Christine_72
Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
in Social Groups
I got a fitbit zip 2 days ago so am still learning. My question is, how accurate are they when it comes to calorie burn? I walked over 11,000 steps yesterday and it gave me 366 extra calories on mfp. I'm too scared to eat the calories back as i don't know if it over estimates the calorie burns like so many machines/devices tend to do. The only exercise i do is walking. If i do eat back the calories, do i only eat back 50-70% as is so often recommended on the boards here?

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  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,757 Member
    edited March 2015
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    Read this:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy

    I leave a few calories on the table, (10-20%) just in case, and I still have slightly over 20 lbs to go in my weight loss. I am just so glad to not be eating 1200 cals everyday.

    As far as accuracy, you'd have to work out with both a fitbit and a heart rate monitor to see if it is right on for you. It was for me.

    I just use mine, accepting all the defaults, set MFP to show negative cals. then let it and MFP do their thing, I was not losing and since starting with the fitbit about 1.5 months ago, I am down 5 lbs.

    I am older & shorter, and don't do a lot of other exercise besides my steps either, so I think that is a good result for me.

    Try it for a couple of weeks or so and see if you are hitting your target weight loss. Most do.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    christinev297 wrote: »
    I got a fitbit zip 2 days ago so am still learning. My question is, how accurate are they when it comes to calorie burn? I walked over 11,000 steps yesterday and it gave me 366 extra calories on mfp.

    Click on any adjustment to see the math MFP used to calculate it. Your default MFP calorie goal is activity level minus deficit. Adjustments are the difference between your Fitbit burn & your MFP activity level.

    If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided then eating back your adjustments means you're eating TDEE minus your deficit.

    The only way to gauge the accuracy is to eat back your adjustments for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited March 2015
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    christinev297 wrote: »
    I got a fitbit zip 2 days ago so am still learning. My question is, how accurate are they when it comes to calorie burn? I walked over 11,000 steps yesterday and it gave me 366 extra calories on mfp. I'm too scared to eat the calories back as i don't know if it over estimates the calorie burns like so many machines/devices tend to do. The only exercise i do is walking. If i do eat back the calories, do i only eat back 50-70% as is so often recommended on the boards here?

    Depends - how accurate was the distance actually done in comparison?

    Calories is based on pace and weight, pace comes from time and distance, distance comes from steps and stride length.
    Calories based on walking/running formula's is more accurate than HRM calculations.

    So ultimately the inaccuracies come from steps or stride length.

    If you test and steps comes up accurate enough, and you don't see steps when NOT doing any - then that's fine.

    If you walk known distance with average pace and Zip has the distance right - then that's fine.

    Eat your adjustment back, which is NOT just exercise.

    FAQ gets in to getting stride length, accuracy, and that adjustment.

    And for machines/database and walking - their calorie burn is probably right on the money, if they ask for weight.

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