Fitbit overestimating calories burned on MFP App?

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brig2221
brig2221 Posts: 3 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I just purchased a Fitbit Charge HR and successfully synced it to MyFitnessPal app. Now instead of my phone being responsible for my steps tracked and "earned" calorie production, my Fitbit is now in charge (no pun intended :) ), which is great as I don't have to lug my phone around everywhere.

That said, I used my phone exclusively for my first two weeks using MyFitnessPal, and the most earned calories I ever earned from Exercise was about 800, and that was from 20,000 feet walked.

I'm on day one of using the Fitbit Charge HR, and I have 7,348 steps tracked (most of them deliberate through two brisk walks), and I'm showing 703 earned Exercise calories. That seems way too high, at least compared to the credit I was getting when exclusively using my iPhone (6) for step tracking.

As I see it, either my iPhone was lowballing my calories burned from its step tracking, or my Fitbit is overestimating. I try to stay at the recommended calorie intake without any Exercise taken into account, but I absolutely depend on that measurement being fairly accurate on those days when I want to eat more, but still stay within the confines of the MFP calorie count to stay on plan.

Does anyone have any experience with this and any thoughts?

Replies

  • CM9178
    CM9178 Posts: 1,265 Member
    edited April 2015
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    what do you mean by "earned exercise calories?"

    your Fitbit tracks your steps and then gives you a total # of calories burned by the end of the day, which is your TDEE. This is based off what Fitbit calculates as your BMR.

    For example, by BMR is around 1500 calories, and so far today I've taken 4642 steps and burned 1154 total calories without any additional exercise besides walking around my office and sitting at my desk.

    Seeing you are in Texas, you posted this around 1pm your time, so 703 total calories burned at 1pm actually seems quite low especially considering you've taken about 3000 more steps than me.

    Unless I"m understanding wrong - are you getting a 703 calorie adjusment from Fitbit pushed over to MFP? If that is the case, then you have your MFP activity level set too low, so MFP thinks you are going to burn a lot less by this time of day.
  • brig2221
    brig2221 Posts: 3 Member
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    The way the Fitbit App tracks calories burned seems fine and makes sense to me. It shows total calories burned for the day, which I assume amortizes out base metabolic rate calories burned throughout the day, and then adds additional calories burned through exercise to the total.

    That said, the MyFitnessPal App starts off each day with a calorie goal based on your calculated base metabolic rate less X amount of calories to get to your entered goal (mine is 2 pounds a week I believe). As it stands today, MyFitnessPal starts me off each day with a calorie goal of 1,540, then it has a section for food, which as you log them in subtracts from your total. They also have an addition to the calorie goal for exercise. If I go out and run a mile and burn an additional 300 calories, I theoretically have earned an additional 300 calories I can eat and still stay within the MyFitnessPal calorie intake parameters for weight loss, which in my example would be 1,840 calories in total.

    As of right now, I have 10,791 logged in steps (mostly walking, a little bit of light jogging) imported into MyFitnessPal via my Fitbit connection. The MyFitnessPal app is telling me I have burned an additional 1,124 calories from these steps. This means in theory that I can consume the 1,540 calorie goal set for me, PLUS an additional 1,124 calories, and still lose weight. In theory, this makes sense, but what does not make sense is the increase in calories burned credit using my Fitbit instead of my iPhone. At this same step count using my iPhone, I would only be receiving credit for an additional 400-450 calories at most for the same step count. The fact that switching over to my Fitbit now gives me over double the credit of calories burned for the same step count is very confusing.

    I'm hoping if someone can confirm my suspicions that my Fitbit is giving me TOO MUCH credit for my exercise as it pertains to my daily caloric intake goals. As noted in my original post, I try to stay at the recommended calorie intake without any Exercise taken into account, but I absolutely depend on that measurement being fairly accurate on those days when I want to eat more, but still stay within the confines of the MFP calorie count plan.
  • TylerDWright
    TylerDWright Posts: 1 Member
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    brig2211,

    I just bought my Fitbit Charge HR and I am noticing the same thing. Did you ever find a solution to your problem? Thanks for the input!
  • yusaku02
    yusaku02 Posts: 3,472 Member
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    brig2221 wrote: »
    As of right now, I have 10,791 logged in steps (mostly walking, a little bit of light jogging) imported into MyFitnessPal via my Fitbit connection. The MyFitnessPal app is telling me I have burned an additional 1,124 calories from these steps. This means in theory that I can consume the 1,540 calorie goal set for me, PLUS an additional 1,124 calories, and still lose weight. In theory, this makes sense, but what does not make sense is the increase in calories burned credit using my Fitbit instead of my iPhone. At this same step count using my iPhone, I would only be receiving credit for an additional 400-450 calories at most for the same step count. The fact that switching over to my Fitbit now gives me over double the credit of calories burned for the same step count is very confusing.
    No. That does not make sense. Daily walking around is factored in with your activity level. So your 'burned calories' are already included in your 1,540 goal. If you eat an extra 1100 per day then you will find yourself gaining weight.

    Tyler - The solution is to ignore any calories the fitbit says you burned.

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