Why so different?

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aflies
aflies Posts: 78 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok, so this may be a stupid question, but I am going to ask anyway...

Two people, weigh about the same but different in age and height, (although not much)
Both people walk for one hour at same speed with each other.
Why does my fitbit thing say I only burned around 238 and theirs say that they burned over 600 calories? What the world am I doing wrong to not burn the calories?

Replies

  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    Younger and taller people tend to burn more calories doing the same thing. If they are also male, they burn even more. And then there is the stride length setting. They may have a different stride length set up. Are you using Fitbit HR by any chance? If the other person is not very fit, their heart rate would be higher and would falsely register a higher burn. To be honest, your numbers look more accurate than theirs for a 1 hour walk unless it's a steep incline.
  • aflies
    aflies Posts: 78 Member
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    We are both female. Less than 5 years apart. She is taller. I am still using the very old original fitbit.( lol )
  • aflies
    aflies Posts: 78 Member
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    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    Younger and taller people tend to burn more calories doing the same thing. If they are also male, they burn even more. And then there is the stride length setting. They may have a different stride length set up. Are you using Fitbit HR by any chance? If the other person is not very fit, their heart rate would be higher and would falsely register a higher burn. To be honest, your numbers look more accurate than theirs for a 1 hour walk unless it's a steep incline.

    Thank you for lending your thoughts!
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    aflies wrote: »
    We are both female. Less than 5 years apart. She is taller. I am still using the very old original fitbit.( lol )

    So that's why. She is probably using HR which registers higher burns than the original. Either way, your numbers sound more accurate.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    She is taller - there's your answer.
  • aflies
    aflies Posts: 78 Member
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    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    She is taller - there's your answer.

    ok. Thank you. Wish I was taller now! :smiley::wink:
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    walking you will burn ~57 calories per mile per 100lb (yes, height and other factors play in, but the biggest contributor is weight for normal speeds). If you walked for 1 hour you may have walked ~3-4 miles, which if you weigh 150lb comes out to ~255-340 calories.

    So, either your friend weighs 260-350lb or the heart rate monitor is improperly inflating calorie burns or the stride length is way off (or some combination of both).
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    aflies wrote: »
    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    She is taller - there's your answer.

    ok. Thank you. Wish I was taller now! :smiley::wink:

    and so do all of us shorties LOL :smiley:

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