Fitbit versus Garmin calories burned - am I missing something?

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20yearsyounger
20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
After having my fitbit zip for a little while now, I am trying to compare it to the information Garmin gives. I clipped it on to my wristband so the steps are for the most part similar +/- a few 100. Not including syncing to MFP I am noticing that the calories burned reading from my fitbit is exactly 500 calories more than the calories burned on my Garmin device. Both are set to maintain/sedentary and I know Garmin has helped me to lose weight, I am in maintenance, and I haven't been losing anything else for months now. Makes me wonder if there is some setting I am missing and if not what is right. 500 calories is half pound a week.

Replies

  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
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    I don't own a Fitbit, but I've heard people say it overestimates burn. You might want to try checking in with the Fitbit group. :smiley:
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    Psychgrrl wrote: »
    I don't own a Fitbit, but I've heard people say it overestimates burn. You might want to try checking in with the Fitbit group. :smiley:

    Thanks, I might post it there next. I figured I will post here first to see if anyone noticed anything like that between fitbit and other devices.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
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    Common advice for the fitbit is to measure your step length and input that for accuracy (round down to the nearest inch), tell it you are one inch shorter than you really are, and tell it you are wearing it on your dominant hand, but actually wear it on your non-dominant hand. Altering these settings helps to increase the accuracy for many people.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    CoffeeNCardio wrote: »
    Common advice for the fitbit is to measure your step length and input that for accuracy (round down to the nearest inch), tell it you are one inch shorter than you really are, and tell it you are wearing it on your dominant hand, but actually wear it on your non-dominant hand. Altering these settings helps to increase the accuracy for many people.

    Thanks for the suggestion. My Garmin says I did 10 miles today, the Fitbit says I did 8, but still wants to give me 500 calories more burned. I did forget to clip it back on after my shower so I can understand the difference in mileage.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    Do you have Garmin synced to MFP and what are your settings here? Garmin deducts my 500 daily deficit by getting the calorie goal data from MFP.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    VintageFeline wrote: »
    Do you have Garmin synced to MFP and what are your settings here? Garmin deducts my 500 daily deficit by getting the calorie goal data from MFP.

    Yes, the Garmin was synched to MFP. I was trying to help a friend out and switched it so that the calorie adjustment would come from the fitbit versus the garmin and I was surprised at the number. When I looked at both devices outside of MFP, I noticed the difference in the calories. Today is a rest day so mostly walking so the numbers are not muddied by my usual activities. Right now I kept it set for it to use the fitbit adjustment instead of garmin to see if this even makes a major difference at all (weight wise).

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,740 Member
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    Use a weight trend app such as www.trendweight.com (can be connected to fitbit account for automatic weight info transfer), or www.weightgrapher.com (allows manual editing), Libra for Android, Happy Scale for iphone.

    Accept information as given by device for a few weeks and evaluate accuracy of your device and your logging based on weight trend information over a period of 20+days (28+days if having to account for TOM)

    In general I have not run into > 5% TDEE error from Fitbit in spite of small errors in step counts.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Use a weight trend app such as www.trendweight.com (can be connected to fitbit account for automatic weight info transfer), or www.weightgrapher.com (allows manual editing), Libra for Android, Happy Scale for iphone.

    Accept information as given by device for a few weeks and evaluate accuracy of your device and your logging based on weight trend information over a period of 20+days (28+days if having to account for TOM)

    In general I have not run into > 5% TDEE error from Fitbit in spite of small errors in step counts.

    Thanks for the response including the stat for the error. I will try it for 30 days. I guess fitbit still has to learn me so if I start to gain weight it might change the calorie burn numbers.

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