I want to trust my Fitbit, but....

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  • HappyGrape
    HappyGrape Posts: 436 Member
    edited November 2016
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    Gallowmere1984 wrote: »
    Following mine when having it set to maintain put me up 2.5 lbs./week for two months. Yeah, ymmv, so I'd say, at best "trust but verify".

    yes, I would say checking is always worth it.

  • HappyGrape
    HappyGrape Posts: 436 Member
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    their customer service is good if you decide to return it. As I said, I looked at data for 120 days, all calories tracked on my fitness pal, all calorie burn on fit bit, projected weight loss, actual weight loss and it was spot on. It came 34 calories a day overestimation. I love my fitbit!

  • Wiggymommy
    Wiggymommy Posts: 106 Member
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    If you follow the research on fitbit it over estimates most activities by about 20% to 60% in calories burned. It's very accurate as far as steps you're taking, when not doing activities like biking etc, but I would always assume you are burning half of what it really says. So I would eat back only half of my exercise calories which seems to be what all my researching of the internet seems to agree with. But there is ton of actual research and professional data on the accuracy of fitbit so do look in to that.
  • ChelzFit
    ChelzFit Posts: 292 Member
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    I have the Charge HR 2 and usually I find the calorie burn is pretty spot on. Although have noticed at times when I just walk and don't set my HR into exercise mode it claims I burn way more calories than I should have. For example walking 45 minutes on the treadmill at 3.6 speed claimed my heart rate was at 165 and I burned 468 cals. Way off!! I'm 5'7 134 pounds. When I set it in exercise mode the calories are usually spot on along with my heart rate. I know this because I also wear a polar heart rate monitor with chest strap and both are pretty close. I really use mine more for steps than total calorie burn.
  • HappyGrape
    HappyGrape Posts: 436 Member
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    Would the 60 calories an hour be the difference? Like if you don't go in exercise mode it would calculate the total including what you would burn sleeping for that time. If you do it gives only the exercise calories excluding that 60

    I am 5'7 and 130 lbs now. I lost weight creating super modest deficit and eating about 1900 or more calories a day. This is more than my maintenance level accord to online calculators.
    I am believer!
  • HappyGrape
    HappyGrape Posts: 436 Member
    edited November 2016
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    It doesn't rate weigh lifting highly. Definitely not accurate on this. But I feel it's the over all expanditure that is good and important to me. I had Garmin for few weeks and it's a mess in terms of daily total calculations

    Best approach is if you have the device and track calories use it for a month and see if numbers add up.

    I lost nearly 30 lbs and I would have never been brave enough to diet on 1900 or 2000 calories a day if it wasn't for my fit bit. It worked so well for me

    I plan to move to either charge hr2 (currently have hr) or surge


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