can fitbit recognise step aerobics? only 180 calories burned?!

izbugz

I'm so confused, ive been reading faq's and i still dont understand how this works... So my fitbit alta auto recognised my 30min workout and it says i done 30 mins walking and only burned 183 calories but i really done 30 mins step aerobics, so i would have thought i burned a lot more? fitbit has synced to MFP and now says my net is -52 am i doing somthing wrong?
I have also done over 4000 steps since 7am so i would have thought ive burned a lot more calories? if somone could explain to me simply whats going on that would be great. i'm sorry if the answer is really obvious! thanks for looking!

heybales

If you have MFP set to activity level of Sedentary, right around 4K steps is where I start getting a positive calorie adjustment.

So that's not that many steps overall for expecting a big adjustment. If steps seen were light and easy, even less calorie burn for them.

As to why a workout and a little adjustment combined - if the workout made you tired and you moved less than normal for rest of the day - then it ended up not being much of an addition to daily calorie burn.

You wouldn't be the first where a hard workout makes you move less for rest of the day - netting not much more in calories.

But - you got the wrong idea if you think of exercise for calorie burn and weight loss.
Exercise is for body transformation and heart health.
Diet is for weight loss and if done right fat-only loss.

Only thing exercise can help with for weight loss is making you burn more daily, so when you eat less you get to eat more compared to no exercise.

Burn 2500 - eat 2000.
Or burn 2000 - eat 1500.
Usually one is easier to accomplish and adhere to.

But, if starting out with exercise - then it may be wearing you out too much right now. But that's fine - that's better body changes from it ... usually.

Now, to the amount of burn - 360 cal/hr isn't that bad for walking.
Problem is you probably feel like from HR and breathing you were more intense than walking whatever pace it guessed you were.

In which case your impacts during the workout weren't that great, kind of light enough it thought you did slow walk.

So 2 things to that - have you confirmed it is seeing steps accurately?
It's trying to read impacts despite the swinging of the arm - there are sensitivity settings if not enough steps are seen.
And is distance seen correct for those steps on measured distance?
It's basing calorie burn on the distance it estimates those steps took you - which is actually a really good estimate, better than HRM even - if the distance is correct.

So those 2 things could have the workout less than it should have been - but more importantly - less than the day itself really is too.

dutchandkiwi

183 for steps (depending on weight and fitness) sounds OK to me. When I do my Total Body Workout (aeorobics, steps and strength) I get 381 per hour which is in the same range. And believe me I am drippeing with sweat. So the number seems quite OK.
One of the things I have noticed is that people tend to underestimate what the calorie count is of their food and overestimate what excersise will burn. Tht is until you have some handle on measurements and make it visible.

@haybales explained the MFP settings perfectly

minniestar55

I do power step classes, normally get a calorie burn in my FitBit HR of between 175-275. I am set as sedentary on MFP. I seldom eat many (if any) of my exercise calories.