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Increased Exercise Calories with New Fitbit

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theSophiemeister
theSophiemeister Posts: 9 Member
in Social Groups
Last week I upgraded from a Fitbit Zip to the One after repeated battery issues with the Zip. Since the upgrade, MFP has been giving me many more exercise calories than I had been getting for the same activities (mainly ~30min dog walks, several per day) with the older Zip. I try not to eat my step calories back, regardless. Has anyone else noticed this change? I didn't change any Fitbit settings when I changed devices, but I believe they announced they have been tweaking some of their algorithms.

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  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    We should all be looking for the maximum number of calories at which we lose—never the minimum. Trust your Fibit for a couple of weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

    I upgraded from the Flex to the Charge HR at the end of March. I haven't compared my burns at all, but I'm still losing.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    I'll be watching this thread. I've had my zip since March and have changed the battery 3 times!! I'm thinking of updating to the ONE

    If you're not eating your step calories back then it shouldn't matter. The only exercise I do is walking, of which I eat most of my calories back. So I have to make sure the data is pretty spot on.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    christinev297 wrote: »
    If you're not eating your step calories back then it shouldn't matter.

    If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments, then eating back your adjustments means you're eating TDEE minus deficit.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Have you compared if the number of steps on your average days are about the same, and the distance is about the same.

    Those 2 things cause the calorie burn estimate.


    Curious how you calculate what calories are associated to steps (since basically everything above your BMR is based on steps actually)?
    Or does that mean you are only eating at your BMR?

    And if that is the case, or some other low level - why use the Fitbit with it's chance to be more accurate with what you burn daily, what's the motivation then?
    Just curious.
  • 2essie
    2essie Posts: 2,863 Member
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    I upgraded to the charge HR and like you, I do dog walks. The walks are more often than not the same every day. I also do a Leslie Sansone walk at home dvd, I noticed when I got the charge HR that I got more calories for the same walk and the LS walk than before with my old fitbit, which was the fitbit one. I also get more calories than MFP suggests on their website too which everyone says is inflated. However, I am still losing weight at a very nice rate but I do admit to not eating back all my exercise calories during the week. I quite often eat them all back at weekends though.

    I will also point out that when my fitbit report comes in at the end of the week that the deficit and the amount of weight loss does tally (eg 3,500 calories per lb or at least very close). So, I may not trust my fitbit 100% but I trust what I am doing. It works

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