Uhoh. Fitness trackers.

NorthCascades

geneticsteacher wrote: »

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.

Without that crucial bit of info, it's not terribly useful news. My Garmin (Fenix 3 HR + Vector 2) underestimates my bike calories by somewhere from 10 to 15 %.

Ipedal4pleasure

I only use my Fitbit to count steps...I track calories burnt with my polar HRM.

rileysowner

Wysewoman53 wrote: »

fmosracing wrote: »

I lost 60 lbs last year after being given a FitBit for my 49th birthday. I used it to estimate my burn in conjunction tracking my calorie intake. I think people who want to consider it to be extremely precise and accurate misunderstand the device. However, claiming it's off my multiple times (x2, x3, etc) seems pretty unlikely, unless the test was rigged to drive the inaccuracy (like, say, claiming your car doesn't properly estimate mileage when you've only measured it while accelerating up an entrance ramp or coasting down a hill).

I understood that it was measuring with a yardstick, not a micrometer. I understand that my experience is anecdotal, but it's also a simple device that quite literally changed my life.

I couldn't agree more!! My tracker changed my life as well. I don't really care what the 'science' says.

This news report is far from science. If a scientist tried to publish a paper with a sample size of 1, they would be considered crazy.

kimny72

I have found my Fitbit Flex to be fairly accurate. It is not an HRM though, not being sure which models were tested.

ALL fitness trackers, online food logs, TDEE calculators, etc are estimates: there is no one formula that can accurately turn your activity or heart rate or food consumption into exact calorie figures, unless you lived in a lab hooked up to machines 24/7 (not even sure that would do it!). I don't remember anything on the Fitbit commercials, website, or packaging saying they give you an exact number you should trust implicitly. They are all just tools that require the user to reasonably educate themselves on those tools and their goals.

My Fitbit has played a huge part in my becoming more active and losing the weight I needed to. But using my brain to figure out the best way to make use of it was even more important

7elizamae

I love my fitbit! It keeps me motivated. I don't expect scientific precision -- just an estimate that can help keep me on track with activity and calories.

Christine_72

Here's my usual day according to fitbit...

chunky_pinup

I dunno...I've lost 45 pounds following the calorie allotment afforded to me each day from my fitbit's estimated burn...I know that everyone is different, but it seems to be working just fine for me!

chunky_pinup

seekingdaintiness wrote: »

Sounds like a great reason not to eat back your exercise calories, which has to be the dumbest idea I ever heard anyway. That's not what I use a fitbit for anyhow - I use it to encourage me to move more.

Why is it dumb? According to what? Do you know each persons' goals? Doubtful. There's plenty of reasons to eat them back, and plenty of reasons not to. What is dumb is to generalize on something that is so broad.

Zipp237

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.

What people say on MFP is irrelevant. Unless the company has paid them, you cannot hold the company responsible for what "some guy on the Internet" said.

The Fitbit people and all the other device companies say very plainly that they aren't accurate. It may be in small print, but that is where you have to look if you want the truth. The important stuff is always in the small print, not in the advertisement. If someone learns this lesson with a fitness device, it's a very cheap way to learn that lesson.

No tracker and no computer app can tell you how many calories make a pound and how much exercise burns one. Not exactly. Your body isn't the same as mine, which isn't the same as the next guy's. They're just giving you estimates.

If an individual happens to gain and lose by the numbers in the MFP app and the fitbit, precisely, it's a fluke. 3600.0 calories is rarely a pound in a human. The walk you do is going to burn more than the walk of someone else and probably more or less than the walk you took yesterday, even if you went the same distance.

That doesn't mean they cannot help people. It also doesn't mean that people cannot enjoy them. If it motivates them, maybe it's worth $50 or $500 or whatever they've paid. A friend of mine keeps bugging me to get one so we can compete. She tells me how many steps she walked. It motivates her and she enjoys it, so it did her good.

I'm not buying one, but I've seen for myself that they help people, so I'm pro-devices.

20yearsyounger

I eat back my Garmin calories and have for the last 19 months. No problem maintaining.

girl_inflames

Great thing I have a Microsoft Band 2 then

ryry_

Like anything it's an estimate. For some the estimate will be low, right on, or high. My main beef with my fitbit is it doesn't have the ability to alter the calculation. If the myfitnesspal numbers are off, I can adjust them until I start hitting my goals. Fitbit is going to keep giving me the same info. I think this ability to adapt will be the next evolution of these trackers.

NorthCascades

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

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

...

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.

You're painting with a very broad brush. I agree with what you say for 90 % of the trackers out there, but I'm uncomfortable with saying the whole lot of them is bad.

Speaking of how much detail they capture, my Garmin tells me that when I run, I have a perfect 50/50 split in terms of how much time I spend on each foot, except when I'm turning or running on a tilted surface. But when I ride a bike, it's typically in the ballpark of 45/55 L/R balance. On the bike it gets closer to 50/50 at higher power outputs but diverges even further when I'm just tooling around.

Psychgrrl

My Garmin Vivoactive is spot on for me. Lost weight and kept it off.