Yes the Fitbit charge HR is accurate
Bshmerlie
Posts: 1,026 Member
So over the last six weeks since I got the fitbit I have compared exactly what it says are my burned calories (98,932) and subtracted my calories consumed (63,655). The difference is my deficit (35,277) over that time span. At 3500 calories per pound I should have lost 10 pounds. And guess what? I lost exactly 10 pounds. Sometimes I look at my fitbit and wonder did I really burn that much today? Well, I guess its safe to say that I did. 
I am very tight with my weighing and logging everything I eat. I mean not every day can be absolutely perfect but I tend to overestimate if I'm not sure. This gives me a lot of confidence as I continue this weight loss journey. My goal is to be 180 by Xmas. I feel very confident I can get there or at least pretty darn close.
I am very tight with my weighing and logging everything I eat. I mean not every day can be absolutely perfect but I tend to overestimate if I'm not sure. This gives me a lot of confidence as I continue this weight loss journey. My goal is to be 180 by Xmas. I feel very confident I can get there or at least pretty darn close. 0
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Wow -- thanks for doing the math! I've had mine for about a month now and -- while I didn't do the math -- I have maintained exactly as I would expect based on my calories in/calories out (as shown by the Fitbit). It's made maintaining a LOT less intimidating.
Congratulations on the 10 pounds!0 -
I wish mine was closer. I have actually lost 15lbs during the past 8 weeks. My fitbit shows my burned calories 230,693 and my consumed calories 148,374. That is a deficit of 82319 which translates to 23.51 lbs.0
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elkhunter7x6 wrote: »I wish mine was closer. I have actually lost 15lbs during the past 8 weeks. My fitbit shows my burned calories 230,693 and my consumed calories 148,374. That is a deficit of 82319 which translates to 23.51 lbs.
Maybe it isn't the fitbit. OP mentions that they're very tight with their weighing & logging of everything. That could be the difference between their experience and yours.
Tho if you are super diligent when it comes to your weighing/measuring everything you eat & drink, disregard my post
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elkhunter7x6 wrote: »I wish mine was closer. I have actually lost 15lbs during the past 8 weeks. My fitbit shows my burned calories 230,693 and my consumed calories 148,374. That is a deficit of 82319 which translates to 23.51 lbs.
I really am super diligent about being very accurate with the exact amount of calories that I eat and log. You'll also notice in my diary that I do tend to eat a lot of the same foods over and over. So if my diary says I eat 8 ounces of chicken I do actually trim it to that exact 8 ounces. I weigh my fruit to the gram. I am pretty confident that I am never really off by any significant amount. I eat very simple foods so they are easy to enter. I BBQ my proteins and I don't use sauces or oils or things like that where you can lose hidden calories. Like I said the only time I could actually be off is when I go out to eat and even then I error on the side of caution.0 -
I haven't done the long term math, but I find that when I get my weekly "report", the difference in CICO tends to match my actual weight change (or lack thereof) within about 10%.0
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My fitbit is always on target.0
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I would assume the accuracy would rely heavily on the types of activities/exercises the user is doing, no?0
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legacybush wrote: »I LIKE CHOCOLATE!!!
As far as outbursts go, thumbs up, bayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyybe. Thumbs up!
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The reason I did this post is...when I first got my Fitbit my major concern was just how accurate it was at calculating the calories burned. The only way to be fairly sure that it is accurate is to do the math over a period of time. The Fitbit can only figure out the calories burned. As users we need to make sure the calories IN are just as accurate or the information is not going to be usefull. I feel I am very accurate on my Calories IN and the actual weight loss on the scale confirmed that pretty closely.0
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Yea, I would guess it would be pretty accurate for that since walking is one of the easiest exercises to measure caloric burn with. I would guess that folks that use it for weight lifting and other type activities would suffer inaccuracies.
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Thanks, OP, for inspiring me to look at my own data. Now I'm reasonably confident I'm logging well. Given the numbers from my Fitbit Charge HR & my calories based on my logging at MFP, I should be down about 11 lbs. I'm actually down about 9.5 lbs. Less than 20% difference & I'm happy with that for the time being. I will likely need to get more careful once I approach my goal weight. But for now, it's reasonable.0
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I would assume the accuracy would rely heavily on the types of activities/exercises the user is doing, no?
Definitely. I log non-step exercises separately because the Fitbit is not really meant for it, and even the HR function is inappropriate for a lot of things. I find that it's not a huge issue for me, though, because all I really do these is hiking and strength training, and the strength training burns so few calories that a small error margin there makes little difference.
When I was still boxing several times a week, my Fitbit was pretty useless.0 -
I am really glad to read this post because when I saw what the Fitbit gave me for a simple dog walk I was convinced it was on crack. People in the forums are always saying that walking doesn't burn much, but the Fitbit thinks otherwise!
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Mouse_Potato wrote: »When I saw what the Fitbit gave me for a simple dog walk I was convinced it was on crack.
The only way to gauge the accuracy of any device is to trust it for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress. I was shocked how many calories Fitbit said I could eat. But I lost the weight—and kept it off.
Also, I enabled negative calorie adjustments, log everything I eat & drink accurately & honestly, and log exercise in Fitbit—never MFP.0 -
Thanks for this. I only got mine yesterday and was worried it seem to be showing a lot more activity than it should... But I am also very diligent when it comes to logging and weighing so fingers crossed. I am a little scared to trust it and have closed down tonight with a large deficit as a result!0
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elkhunter7x6 wrote: »I wish mine was closer. I have actually lost 15lbs during the past 8 weeks. My fitbit shows my burned calories 230,693 and my consumed calories 148,374. That is a deficit of 82319 which translates to 23.51 lbs.
I really am super diligent about being very accurate with the exact amount of calories that I eat and log. You'll also notice in my diary that I do tend to eat a lot of the same foods over and over. So if my diary says I eat 8 ounces of chicken I do actually trim it to that exact 8 ounces. I weigh my fruit to the gram. I am pretty confident that I am never really off by any significant amount. I eat very simple foods so they are easy to enter. I BBQ my proteins and I don't use sauces or oils or things like that where you can lose hidden calories. Like I said the only time I could actually be off is when I go out to eat and even then I error on the side of caution.
I weigh and log everything as well. I am 5'11, 211lbs, 44yrs and other than lifting weights 3x week and walking 5 miles 4 days a week, I am not extremly active. During the past 56 days according to my weighing of food and logging, I have averaged eating 2649 cals/per day. If my Fitbit burn is correct then I was actually averaging closer to 3181cals/per day eaten. And I still lost 15lbs which means I was eating at around a 937 cal/per day deficit! That would put my TDEE at around 4118 ?
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editorgrrl wrote: »Mouse_Potato wrote: »When I saw what the Fitbit gave me for a simple dog walk I was convinced it was on crack.
The only way to gauge the accuracy of any device is to trust it for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress. I was shocked how many calories Fitbit said I could eat. But I lost the weight—and kept it off.
Also, I enabled negative calorie adjustments, log everything I eat & drink accurately & honestly, and log exercise in Fitbit—never MFP.
I am familiar with this concept. I wore a BodyMedia for about a year, quitting only when they changed the algorithm and it started telling me I was burning 2700 on rest days.
What I find interesting about the Fitbit (and granted I've only had mine a few weeks) is that it seems to start with an assumption of very low BMR, but then credits higher than expected (for me) burns for any exercise at all. The online calculators I've used have all estimated my BMR to be around 1300, but the Fitbit assumes 1210. Then it makes up for it by giving me more credit for movement. At the end of the day, the numbers look about like what I would expect.0 -
Mouse_Potato wrote: »I am really glad to read this post because when I saw what the Fitbit gave me for a simple dog walk I was convinced it was on crack. People in the forums are always saying that walking doesn't burn much, but the Fitbit thinks otherwise!
All my exercise is walking. I try and hit 10,000 steps a day but sometimes it is only around 5,000. It does also matter how much you currently weigh. Someone who weighs 300 pounds would burn much more than someone who weighs 200 pounds. I'm 5'5 and weigh 210 pounds. I typically burn about 2300 calories per day for my typical day. As I loose weight I'm expecting that burn amount to drop. So if I want to continue at my current pace I will either have to eat less or exercise more.0 -
Question, where did you get to the "calories consumed" amount? Did you just add it all up yourself?0
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Are you adding up the calories in the MFP reports, and subtracting that from the calories burned in the fit bit activity report, then coming up with the number, THEN dividing that number by 3,500?0
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Kimegatron wrote: »Question, where did you get to the "calories consumed" amount? Did you just add it all up yourself?
From the weekly Fitbit reports.
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Kimegatron wrote: »Question, where did you get to the "calories consumed" amount? Did you just add it all up yourself?
Yes I'm a little anal so I have a spread sheet and log how many calories I consume each day and also log how many calories I burn each day. Of course the scale ultimatley determines how I am actually doing. Over a span of six weeks if I am actually burning more than I am consuming scientifically speaking I will lose weight.0 -
Mouse_Potato wrote: »I am really glad to read this post because when I saw what the Fitbit gave me for a simple dog walk I was convinced it was on crack. People in the forums are always saying that walking doesn't burn much, but the Fitbit thinks otherwise!
All my exercise is walking. I try and hit 10,000 steps a day but sometimes it is only around 5,000. It does also matter how much you currently weigh. Someone who weighs 300 pounds would burn much more than someone who weighs 200 pounds. I'm 5'5 and weigh 210 pounds. I typically burn about 2300 calories per day for my typical day. As I loose weight I'm expecting that burn amount to drop. So if I want to continue at my current pace I will either have to eat less or exercise more.
I usually get between 12,00 and 18,000 steps a day, but I am down to that last few pounds, so I did not expect it to burn very much (5'4" 123 pounds). My typical day is 2000-2100 calories burned. It makes a huge difference whether or not I get my steps in. A sedentary day can mean as few as 1700-1800 calories burned and I like eating far too much for those numbers!0 -
Kimegatron wrote: »Question, where did you get to the "calories consumed" amount? Did you just add it all up yourself?
Yes I'm a little anal so I have a spread sheet and log how many calories I consume each day and also log how many calories I burn each day. Of course the scale ultimatley determines how I am actually doing. Over a span of six weeks if I am actually burning more than I am consuming scientifically speaking I will lose weight.
Did you go through mfp adding up 7 days for 6 weeks or did you get the weekly Fitbit report that's a summary for the week?
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Thanks for this. I only got mine yesterday and was worried it seem to be showing a lot more activity than it should... But I am also very diligent when it comes to logging and weighing so fingers crossed. I am a little scared to trust it and have closed down tonight with a large deficit as a result!
the more you wear it the more accurate it becomes. i wear mine everyday and only take it off to shower (which is when i charge it)0 -
Thanks for the post OP.
I woke up this morning and I wasn't going to wear mine today.
I haven't lost weight for the week I had it.
I thought that maybe I have been eating to much? Or it could be that I have up my exercise.
I will give it one or week and will tighten my logging.
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SO I got my Fitbit like 2-3 weeks after I started "logging".. Still eyeball mostly everything, I am so so so so lazy with the scale, but I do weigh my fruits. Anyways, I counted up all of my calories taken in, then I counted the calories burned since I started the Fitbit. For the days that I didn't have it, I just estimated 2,000 calories burned. I came up with pretty much almost exactly what I have lost. This is kind of cool
Thanks for this! 0 -
Kimegatron wrote: »Question, where did you get to the "calories consumed" amount? Did you just add it all up yourself?
Yes I'm a little anal so I have a spread sheet and log how many calories I consume each day and also log how many calories I burn each day. Of course the scale ultimatley determines how I am actually doing. Over a span of six weeks if I am actually burning more than I am consuming scientifically speaking I will lose weight.
Did you go through mfp adding up 7 days for 6 weeks or did you get the weekly Fitbit report that's a summary for the week?
If you go to your Fitbit dashboard it will give you an average burn and average intake for the past 30 days.
Subtract the intake from the burn to get your average deficit.
Multiply this by 30 to get your total deficit.
Divide the total deficit by 3500 to get the predicted number of pounds list if everything has been accurate.0
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