Fitbit Charge HR Accuracy

keeponkickin

Hi. I'm new here and I just got the Fitbit HR yesterday. I didn't start wearing it until about 3:30 in the afternoon and by bedtime I was up to around 2,100 calories burned. I was tremendously busy moving around until I even started to wear it and I didn't have gym time yesterday. It will be interesting to see how much it shows me burning over the next few days. How accurate are these gadgets? Are they inflated on the numbers?

chandramiller68

Hey @keeponkickin -- I ordered me a Fitbit Charger HR yesterday. I have always worn a chest strap when exercising and wondered too how accurate can an item be wearing it on your wrist. I guess I am not much help right now, but I plan to test the Charger HR against my Polar monitor with chest strap to see how they measure up to one another. I will be happy to let you know how the experiment turns out.

skinny4me2be

I'm still in the testing stages of using mine. When compared to my heart rate/monitor chest strap-it was only 25-35 calorie burn different. I used to have a Fitbit One and it always told me I burned 2300-2400 calories per day. So I ate between 1800-2000 and was not losing. Someone suggested that maybe fitbit One maybe under reporting my calorie burn. So I decided to upgrade to the Fitbit Charge HR--and wow! Who knew?! I'm still in testing stages of this, but my TDEE average right now is 2700!! Once I upped my intake-the pounds are starting to move. Will continue to monitor, but so far so good!!

keeponkickin

I have 2 polar HRMs and I hate the chest strap. I'm just wondering in general how accurate the Fitbit is.

heybales

Comments on Fitbit site show a normal bell curve of accuracy in reading HR.

Some it can't get even resting right, some it can't get intense exercise high HR levels right, some it blanks out during mild exercise, slight majority seem to have no issues.

They are aware of. If they have nothing to compare to of course - they'd never know if the HR was reading low.

As far as calorie burn - same potential accuracy and inaccuracy depending on when the HR calorie burn is used for exercise, and when the step-based calorie burn is used for rest of the day.

Strength training should be manually logged on Fitbit though, otherwise inflated calorie burn.

tysonhill80

I've been using the hr for 2months, and lost a lot of fat. I'm burning over 3000 cals a day. Working as a tree lopper. I eat 1000cal less than I burn. So it changes every day. But the results are there. I find it extremely accurate. Add me as a fit bit friend. Would be happy to help motivate.

ohiotubagal

I've had my Surge since January and find that for the most part the HRM is accurate. Not sure how different Surge is than Charge. When it does get wacky I reboot it and it settles down.

Most days I make my calorie burn goal of 2200, more if I go for a run. I'm trying to eat 1600-1700, but now from reading maybe it's too low? Must do more reading...