What gives, Fitbit?! Severely overestimating walking calories. Help!

LaurenAOK

I posted this in the Fitbit users group but figured I'd ask here too in case anyone not in the group has an idea! I've done a search online and on MFP but I can't find anyone else describing the same problem I'm having.

I just got a new Fitbit zip (lost my old one, and they were nice enough to send a replacement free). I don't think this issue has anything to do with the actual device, just the calculation that is happening, but it is a little weird that I'm noticing the problem now for the first time.

I log all exercise on my Fitbit except for walking, because the whole point is it tracks steps, right? Well, last night something weird happened. I went on a two-hour walk that I tracked on Runkeeper. I did not track the walk on the fitbit app, I just let it count my steps as usual. At the end I was shocked to see that Fitbit had increased my calorie burn by 800 cals just for a two hour walk! Runkeeper told me that the walk had burned only about 400 calories. Curious, I decided to manually log the walk on Fitbit - time, distance, etc. Sure enough, Fitbit then reduced my calories back down by 400 - it cut the calories from the walk in half!

Same thing happened today, I walked to work (about 1.5 miles) and at the time did not manually log on Fitbit. I decided to log it afterwards and Fitbit then reduced my total daily burn by about 100 calories.

I'm stumped because it does seem to track my steps accurately, and it's not overestimating my distance by much - maybe slightly. I think on my walk last night I went about 5.6 miles and Fitbit had counted it as 6. So I do need to readjust my stride length a little, but a .4 mile difference should not have accounted for an extra 400 calories burned. I also was not walking very fast either time (around 3.0mph), so it's not like Fitbit should have confused those steps as running steps.

I live in the city and walk quite a lot, and now I'm concerned that Fitbit is far overestimating my burn for those steps. Obviously I don't want to manually log every time I walk down the street - that defeats the point of a Fitbit! Does anyone have insight into what's happening and how I could fix it?

tiggerlove

have you tried contacting support about this. you said you had one before and you didn't notice this happening. Maybe the devise needs to be reset to factory setting or maybe there is a problem with it and they need to send you another one. Hope you get the answer cause I know it can be frustrating when things get out of wack...Good Luck

jodyedgar87

I have never used runkeeper, but I have used another app like it. I was curious about this same thing. Most other apps do not measure inclines. During inclines you body is burning calories faster than say just walking a track. When your heart rate is in fat burn zone or cardio zone your fitbit adjusts your calories accordingly. It is known to be pretty accurate. The app I have on my phone shows lower calories burned than my fitbit also. But if you have access to a treadmill with a heart rate monitor on it you will see that it measures a lot closer to the fitbit than the app...(Well at least mine did)

amusedmonkey

Try to contact them. Yesterday I did about 5 miles and got a 600 calorie MFP adjustment from fitbit (including a logged 15% incline period which bumped my calories up), and I'm much heavier than you so it feels accurate. You may need to mess with a few settings like setting your activity level to sedentary, play around with stride length, re-enter your weight (some people had a weight glitch lately where the app sees a larger weight although it looks correct to you)...etc.

dawniemate

I've been using runkeeper, I think looking at my results they are similar to yours, I know weight height age etc has something to do with it but reading various posts from others, it looks like you burn approximately 100 calories per mile, which seems fairly accurate. A two hour walk would be approximately 800 calories. I may be completely wrong I'm just going off what I do. I usually just add half back to my calories in case it is too high. ....look forward to others commenting on this x

patrikc333

same (fitbit HR)

it's pretty accurate for runs

but walks are completely off, twice as per MFP

editorgrrl

LaurenAOK wrote: »

I went on a two-hour walk that I tracked on Runkeeper. I did not track the walk on the fitbit app, I just let it count my steps as usual. At the end I was shocked to see that Fitbit had increased my calorie burn by 800 cals just for a two hour walk! Runkeeper told me that the walk had burned only about 400 calories. Curious, I decided to manually log the walk on Fitbit - time, distance, etc. Sure enough, Fitbit then reduced my calories back down by 400 - it cut the calories from the walk in half!

I don't understand where you're getting these numbers from. Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. Tracking a walk in the Fitbit app gives you a "snapshot" of your data during that particular time—but you say you didn't even track your walk. So where did you get 800 vs. 400 calories from?

If you're referring to the Fitbit calorie adjustment in your MFP diary, then you've misunderstood how it works. Adjustments are the difference between your Fitbit burn & your MFP activity level. On the app, click twice on the adjustment in your diary. On the website, click the "i" in a blue circle next to the adjustment. Either way, you'll see the math MFP used to calculate it.

I've used MFP + Fitbit for two years, lost the weight, and kept it off. The only way to gauge the accuracy is to enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, trust your Fitbit for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users