Uhoh. Fitness trackers.

geneticsteacher

On the evening news tonight, there was a story on fitness trackers. Fitbit, Garmin, and jawbone were tested and found to over estimate calories burned by 2x, 3x, and 4x. Sorry, I don't remember the models tested.

daniip_la

I've collected data with my Fitbit for 3 months. I've tracked my calorie intake (through MyFitnessPal), my calorie output (through Fitbit), and my weight loss (with a physician's scale, weighing daily). It matches almost exactly, I'm losing slightly faster than predicted within a margin of 1lb.

lulalacroix

I saw that show. I couldn't believe how inaccurate the calories burned were. I've waited to get a tracker and now I know why.

DresdenSinn

Most come with a disclaimer stating they are meant to be used as a tool to get a "rough" estimate. Most of us "old timers" have doing it the "old fashioned" way years before the advent of these fancy fitness trackers anyways.

Christine_72

My fitbit definitely over estimates, which is why i have never eaten all the calories it gives me back. It's a great motivational tool and does give a rough estimate, but it is far from spot on.

SherryTeach

I saw that segment and disagree with the method they used to measure calories. They used a 500 step walk and monitored the calorie burn on the device. I think it would have been more accurate to use a 24 hour burn. I'll have to say, my fitbit is pretty accurate at giving me a good total burn at the end of the day. If I eat about what my fitbit says I have burned, I stay the same weight. And it nearly matches several websites where I have entered my numbers.

auzziecawth

I'm pretty sure the trackers also take into account the calories you would be doing in that time frame if you weren't "exercising" so it's probably not a very accurate test either. (I could easily be wrong though) but when it comes to any kind of calorie estimation I take everything with a grain of salt because they will never be right on the money. Just another tool to use.

RosieRose7673

They're averages. That's all.

Like someone else up thread said, you can track your food on MFP and your calorie burn via any fitness tracker. Then compare the results. Not a big deal.

I found my Apple Watch severely UNDERestimated my burn. Again, I'm not upset about it, they are rough estimates based on averages.

Meh.

Zipp237

They're just fun fitness toys. They don't claim to be accurate and I doubt anyone relies on them for anything other than fun. People have been playing with fitness toys for as long as I've been alive. Haven't seen it hurt anyone yet. Some people feel that they're helpful. They're not accurate, so what.

pebble4321

My apple watch seems to give me pretty high calories for activity, but I'm usually eating around those numbers (sometimes under, sometimes over, sometimes poor logging days or lots of estimates so I'm really sure) and I'm averaging 0.45 kg/week lost when my MFP settings are at 0.25 kg/week. So, losing more than I'd planned/estimated.

For me, tracking my steps is useful to get me moving more - it's easy to see when I've been really busy with desk jobs at work and not moving much, and seeing a very low amount of activity in the day motivates me to fit a bit more in before or after work, or even to get out for a 20 min walk at lunchtime.

I don't treat any of the numbers we are working with as accurate - food calories are all estimates, exercise/activity calories are estimates, MFP's calculation of BMR and other numbers are estimates.
I think the best thing to do if you like these kinds of gadgets is to use one, eat according to the numbers calculated and then adjust over time if things are going faster or slower than they should.

Oh, and I can add that when I first started MFP over 5 years ago, I used MFP exercise numbers and had very similar results. For me, with or without a tracker if I moderate what I eat and move a bit more - and do those things consistently over a period of time - then I will lose weight.

nutmegoreo

I find mine actually underestimates total daily burn. When I'm actively trying to lose, I rarely get to 2400 calories burned as per FitBit, yet lose 2lb/week eating 1600 cals.

CattOfTheGarage

Zipp237 wrote: »

They're just fun fitness toys. They don't claim to be accurate and I doubt anyone relies on them for anything other than fun. People have been playing with fitness toys for as long as I've been alive. Haven't seen it hurt anyone yet. Some people feel that they're helpful. They they're not accurate, so what.

I think taking money from people by saying your product will do something, when in fact it can't do it, is harm.

There may be small print saying it's an estimate, but all the marketing for these devices talks about how they will calculate your calorie burn, and these forums are full of people talking about how tracking exercise manually via mfp is so terribly inaccurate and you should use one of these instead. In fact, it seems their results are every bit as much of a generic rough guess as mfp's exercise numbers, which makes them not fit for purpose, imo.

In fact they don't record enough data to get close to a "calculation" of calorie burn, so it's not a question of inaccuracy, it's a question of claiming they can do something when they are totally unequipped to do it. All very well to say it's just a toy and people shouldn't take it seriously, but that's not the way it's marketed, and a lot of people DO take them seriously.

Maxematics

My Fitbit Charge HR has been spot on for me, if not a bit of an underestimation, so for me it's not just a "toy". In fact, before I bought it I was undereating; it's partially because of my Charge HR that I realized I was a lot more active than I thought and could eat more. I've had it for a bit over a year. When I bought it I weighed 131 pounds and now I'm 108 pounds.

News reports are never meant to make people content. Aside from warm, fuzzy stories about animals, babies, the elderly, a couple, or a good deed, most news stories are meant to cause fear in people, stir up drama, and/or create a source of blame. "Not losing weight? It's not anything you're doing! It's GMOs, sugar, HFCS, meal timing, toxins, and now it's the fitness tracker!" Of course an electronic device isn't going to be 100% accurate; that would be statistically improbable. However, it gives people a good window of their activity level, caloric burns, and it's a definite motivator for many people.

I feel like whatever the user puts in is what they get out of it. Sometimes I eat all my calories back, sometimes I eat more, and sometimes I eat less. I don't look at Fitbit's stats and go "Oh, I can eat 500 more calories, let me go get some ice cream!" I pay attention to my body's hunger cues first and foremost. Additionally, I actually weigh my food on a food scale, which most people using fitness trackers do not do. "Oh, Fitbit said I could eat 1800 calories and I ate 1800 but gained!" when the reality was that the person sucks at portion sizing and truly ate more like 2100+ calories and the surplus caused them to gain. I'm not saying everyone should be using a food scale just to get Fitbit to be closer to accurate for them, but people really need to analyze the data and be smart about it. The user is responsible for tracking their food, weight, and trends, and making decisions about whether they should change anything based on the data.

CoachJen71

My Fitbits have been close enough to be useful, and they are very motivating to me. I would be lost without my FB! (And hubby feels the same way.)

JustSomeEm

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

Zipp237 wrote: »

They're just fun fitness toys. They don't claim to be accurate and I doubt anyone relies on them for anything other than fun. People have been playing with fitness toys for as long as I've been alive. Haven't seen it hurt anyone yet. Some people feel that they're helpful. They they're not accurate, so what.

I think taking money from people by saying your product will do something, when in fact it can't do it, is harm.

There may be small print saying it's an estimate, but all the marketing for these devices talks about how they will calculate your calorie burn, and these forums are full of people talking about how tracking exercise manually via mfp is so terribly inaccurate and you should use one of these instead. In fact, it seems their results are every bit as much of a generic rough guess as mfp's exercise numbers, which makes them not fit for purpose, imo.

In fact they don't record enough data to get close to a "calculation" of calorie burn, so it's not a question of inaccuracy, it's a question of claiming they can do something when they are totally unequipped to do it. All very well to say it's just a toy and people shouldn't take it seriously, but that's not the way it's marketed, and a lot of people DO take them seriously.

I think too many people don't realize that we ALL have different calorie burns. No tool or website can be accurate for all the people all the time, because 1. we're all different and 2. we all move differently, which burns calories differently. The products give an estimate - it's up to the user to use the estimate wisely and figure out for themselves how the suggested burn actually matches up to reality. I could go on a rant about absolutes, but I'll save it for another time.

geneticsteacher

JustSomeEm nailed the problem - it is up to the user to use the estimate correctly. How many times have we seen the 'I am not losing weight even though my Fitbit is synced with MFP and says I am burning some ridiculous amount of calories'?

songbird13291

Mine seems to be fairly accurate. I'm losing about a pound a week, which is what I set as my goal, so I'm happy.

Sued0nim

My Fitbit zip underestimates mine by about 200 calories...I have to pretend to be 30 years younger :bigsmile:

ElvenToad

I bought my Fitbit zip over two years ago and have lost 138lbs with it. It overestimates my TDEE by about 250 calories per day for me. I figure it does that because I do a lot of jogging in place which is kind of cheating on the steps and the stride won't be accurate. It still tracks my activity and gives me data and I absolutely consider it an invaluable weight loss tool along with my food scale.

RoxieDawn

Garmin's BMR estimates are way over estimated. So the calories you burn each day are based on their BMR numbers plus activities/exercise/steps calories they give you. Now the forumulas they use with heart rate, blah, blah are definetly higher than normal.

I have had to turn off the adjustment to get just activities not use their calories in/out for the day.

So yes the news about Garmin is correct. There is some know issues with "activities" (exercise and steps calories) in general are known.

Most everyone is comment on Fitbit I see, so all devices are estimates. I have had fibit and garmin and never took anything I received as data output as 1000% accuracy. It is a device, and tool used to guage not be an exact science.

3dogsrunning

RoxieDawn wrote: »

Garmin's BMR estimates are way over estimated. So the calories you burn each day are based on their BMR numbers plus activities/exercise/steps calories they give you. Now the forumulas they use with heart rate, blah, blah are definetly higher than normal.

I have had to turn off the adjustment to get just activities not use their calories in/out for the day.

So yes the news about Garmin is correct. There is some know issues with "activities" (exercise and steps calories) in general are known.

When did you turn it off?

It seems they may have changed their ways of estimating. I am now getting some crazy adjustments. I LOSE calories from MFP's already low estimate if I walk less than 10,000 steps. I have MFP set to sedentary.
I earned 2000 calories in exercise and often only get a credit of 500 exercise calories now.