Does your Fitbit overestimate calories burned?

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  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    Colorscheme wrote: »
    How do you guys know if your fitbit is overestimeating or underestimating? my fitbit says my tdee is about 2100 cals a day and that sounds about right given I'm 5'7" and 158 lbs.

    They know by comparing their actual weight trend to what it should be given their calorie allowance. If they're steadily gaining, Fitbit is overestimating. If the goal is maintenance and they keep bouncing between a few pounds, they've found maintenance. If they're losing at the rate they should be, Fitbit is spot on. If they're losing at a faster rate than they're aiming for, then Fitbit is underestimating their TDEE. This is, of course, based on the hope that the people saying this are actually weighing/logging every single thing they consume to the gram and even that has a margin of error. If they're not weighing their food to the gram, then they really can't say it's Fitbit doing anything wrong as much as it is their own calorie consumption.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    Colorscheme wrote: »
    How do you guys know if your fitbit is overestimeating or underestimating? my fitbit says my tdee is about 2100 cals a day and that sounds about right given I'm 5'7" and 158 lbs.

    Go to your fitbit profile (website).

    it will have a 30 day avg burn and intake

    30 day avg burn - 30 day avg intake = avg daily deficit or surplus
    avg daily deficit or surplus * 30 = total 30 day deficit or surplus
    total 30 day deficit or surplus/3500 = approximate weight loss or gain
    Compare that to what actually happened with your weight
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    shadow2soul wrote: »
    Colorscheme wrote: »
    How do you guys know if your fitbit is overestimeating or underestimating? my fitbit says my tdee is about 2100 cals a day and that sounds about right given I'm 5'7" and 158 lbs.

    Go to your fitbit profile (website).

    it will have a 30 day avg burn and intake

    30 day avg burn - 30 day avg intake = avg daily deficit or surplus
    avg daily deficit or surplus * 30 = total 30 day deficit or surplus
    total 30 day deficit or surplus/3500 = approximate weight loss or gain
    Compare that to what actually happened with your weight

    I never used that, as I use Trendweight, but I went to go do this and it lists my average intake as 0 for some reason. Has that ever happened to anyone else? I refreshed the page several times.

    swm2ls4osu4y.jpg


  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    synacious wrote: »
    shadow2soul wrote: »
    Colorscheme wrote: »
    How do you guys know if your fitbit is overestimeating or underestimating? my fitbit says my tdee is about 2100 cals a day and that sounds about right given I'm 5'7" and 158 lbs.

    Go to your fitbit profile (website).

    it will have a 30 day avg burn and intake

    30 day avg burn - 30 day avg intake = avg daily deficit or surplus
    avg daily deficit or surplus * 30 = total 30 day deficit or surplus
    total 30 day deficit or surplus/3500 = approximate weight loss or gain
    Compare that to what actually happened with your weight

    I never used that, as I use Trendweight, but I went to go do this and it lists my average intake as 0 for some reason. Has that ever happened to anyone else? I refreshed the page several times.

    swm2ls4osu4y.jpg


    It's a glitch. Seems to have been going on for the past couple weeks. Mines currently doing the same thing and there is also a few things missing from my profile page. Fitbit is apparently working on it.
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
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    I read this article recently.

    http://www.runnersworld.com/sweat-science/how-accurate-is-your-wearables-calorie-count
  • lauraesh0384
    lauraesh0384 Posts: 463 Member
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    I'm definitely beginning to think my Zip is overestimating calories. Lately I've been burning 750 extra calories (according to my Fit Bit) which should have me losing some weight and I'm not. I thought about making my height an inch or two shorter to give me a lower BMR and burn the calories I normally would. It's frustrating because I've been at the same weight for roughly a week when normally I can lose weight pretty consistently, even if it's 0.2 lbs here, 0.2 lbs there. My other thought was to try and burn an extra 1000 calories on top of my food intake and see what results I get. Or maybe I just need to drop my calories from 1800 to 1600-1700. Not quite sure yet.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    I recently upgraded from the zip to the Alta, and I'm definitely getting less steps/calories burned with the Alta. I always had a suspicion the zip waay overestimated.
  • Pawsforme
    Pawsforme Posts: 645 Member
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    I've had a Charge HR for almost ten months and as far as I can tell it's pretty darn accurate. I think if anything it slightly under-estimates my TDEE.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,594 Member
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    lauraesh0384 wrote: »
    I'm definitely beginning to think my Zip is overestimating calories. Lately I've been burning 750 extra calories (according to my Fit Bit) which should have me losing some weight and I'm not. I thought about making my height an inch or two shorter to give me a lower BMR and burn the calories I normally would. It's frustrating because I've been at the same weight for roughly a week when normally I can lose weight pretty consistently, even if it's 0.2 lbs here, 0.2 lbs there. My other thought was to try and burn an extra 1000 calories on top of my food intake and see what results I get. Or maybe I just need to drop my calories from 1800 to 1600-1700. Not quite sure yet.

    Or you could give it more than a week. Come on! :)
  • lauraesh0384
    lauraesh0384 Posts: 463 Member
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    glassyo wrote: »
    lauraesh0384 wrote: »
    I'm definitely beginning to think my Zip is overestimating calories. Lately I've been burning 750 extra calories (according to my Fit Bit) which should have me losing some weight and I'm not. I thought about making my height an inch or two shorter to give me a lower BMR and burn the calories I normally would. It's frustrating because I've been at the same weight for roughly a week when normally I can lose weight pretty consistently, even if it's 0.2 lbs here, 0.2 lbs there. My other thought was to try and burn an extra 1000 calories on top of my food intake and see what results I get. Or maybe I just need to drop my calories from 1800 to 1600-1700. Not quite sure yet.

    Or you could give it more than a week. Come on! :)

    I'm not someone that typically goes an entire week without any weight loss, which is why it's extremely perplexing.
  • InfoomaousTete
    InfoomaousTete Posts: 1,383 Member
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    My Charge HR and my new Blaze are very consistant with my rate of loss when you do the math over a month's time. Weight loss isn't linear/horizontal. If you lost 6 pounds over a month that's an average of 1.5 a week. Maybe one week was 2, the next 1, the next nothing, and the final week 3. Hormones and water weight are big factors for women weekly weight as well. Look at the big picture not 7 days.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,594 Member
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    lauraesh0384 wrote: »
    glassyo wrote: »
    lauraesh0384 wrote: »
    I'm definitely beginning to think my Zip is overestimating calories. Lately I've been burning 750 extra calories (according to my Fit Bit) which should have me losing some weight and I'm not. I thought about making my height an inch or two shorter to give me a lower BMR and burn the calories I normally would. It's frustrating because I've been at the same weight for roughly a week when normally I can lose weight pretty consistently, even if it's 0.2 lbs here, 0.2 lbs there. My other thought was to try and burn an extra 1000 calories on top of my food intake and see what results I get. Or maybe I just need to drop my calories from 1800 to 1600-1700. Not quite sure yet.

    Or you could give it more than a week. Come on! :)

    I'm not someone that typically goes an entire week without any weight loss, which is why it's extremely perplexing.

    LOL sorry. I'm just so used to people thinking they hit a plateau after like a day but I get it. I had the opposite problem. My weight loss wasn't even close to being linear when...suddenly...it was. And it went on for something like a month. And, yes, that can be a problem. :)

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