Log calorie burn with Fitbit or is it unreliable?

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hoops1888
hoops1888 Posts: 93 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I’m wanting to connect my Fitbit with mfp to log my steps and this log calorie burn but am cautious as wondering whether it overestimates the burn? Anyone have thoughts on this or currently do this and have been successful?

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  • Hobartlemagne
    Hobartlemagne Posts: 105 Member
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    I did it successfully, and it will work even if it is a bit off.
    The critical thing is- keep your exercise consistent and weigh yourself every day. Record it.
    If you aren't seeing the results you want, adjust your daily calorie budget by 100cal, and
    continue observing. The careful adjustment of your daily calorie ration should counter any
    discrepancy the fitbit may have.
  • gpoisson
    gpoisson Posts: 2 Member
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    My experience is that Fitbit records calorie burns inconsistently. For example I do 30 minutes spinning on a stationary bike every day, and last week Fitbit recorded 91bpm and 122 cals on one day, and 90bpm and 91 cals the next day. It may be better with steps but it sucks with spinning.
  • Hobartlemagne
    Hobartlemagne Posts: 105 Member
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    When I was doing my weight loss, I exclusively did elliptical with the moving handles.
    I figured the fitbit would absolutely record "steps" if my arms were moving.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    I’ve used a FitBit synced with MFP for over four years and it is accurate for me. It helped me lose the weight I set out to lose and then successfully maintain all while trusting and eating back the exercise adjustments.

    When you do sync them, make sure to enable negative calorie adjustments, make sure your goals are set up consistently in both, and make sure you understand what FitBit is providing as far as data to MFP. It’s an activity tracker so it is providing an estimate of how many calories it thinks you will burn based on your activity at various points through the day. The adjustments may go up and down due to your natural cycle of more activity and less - but at the end of the day it should be a reasonable adjustment of how many calories you burned above and beyond what MFP thought you would burn without any exercise. If you chose Sedentary on MFP, and you average 10,000 or more steps, you aren’t Sedentary and you’ll get bigger calorie adjustments. If you do mostly step based exercise, you don’t need to log anything - FitBit does it all for you.

    Check out the FAQs in the FitBit user group for more advice.
  • angelsja
    angelsja Posts: 860 Member
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    gpoisson wrote: »
    My experience is that Fitbit records calorie burns inconsistently. For example I do 30 minutes spinning on a stationary bike every day, and last week Fitbit recorded 91bpm and 122 cals on one day, and 90bpm and 91 cals the next day. It may be better with steps but it sucks with spinning.

    That's only a 30 or so calorie difference that's not much of a margine of error imo
  • CarlydogsMom
    CarlydogsMom Posts: 645 Member
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    After years of tracking fairly meticulously without any fitness contraption hooked up to me, I got a Samsung Gear Fit2 and used it for about a year. Using my previous knowledge, I found the Gear estimated calories pretty well. Maybe a touch inflated on things like bike rides and hikes, but not outrageous.

    Just a month or so ago, I got a FitBit Alta HR as a prize for some work deal. So I wore both on the same wrist for several days to compare. The FitBit consistently gave me an additional 500 calories more than my Samsung at the end of the day. So, while I'm mostly using my FitBit now (I like the battery life and more slender bracelet appearance, and my Samsung was getting a bit glitchy) I just do a little mental math. I know I'd gain weight if I really followed the FitBit calorie burn. It helps me keep moving, though, so I deal with the discrepancy in my head.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    It will vary person to person.
    I have been using a Fitbit since 2013. Started with the Zip, then a Flex, then a Surge and I just replaced my Blaze with the Ionic.

    For me it has worked out like this:
    Zip and Flex with chest strap HRM for workouts only = 250 calories underestimated a day on average

    Surge and Blaze = Pretty darn close. Currently have a 30 day average burn of 2558 from Fitbit. Based on my logging (using a food scale 80% of the time) and my loss rate, I maintain around 2500.
  • hoops1888
    hoops1888 Posts: 93 Member
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    So, in order to be safe, do you think it’s better if I don’t link the Fitbit with mfp and instead, put the readings in to mfp myself, altering according to whether I think it’s overestimated what I’ve burned? I feel like linking and having it adjust my calories ok it’s own could get dangerous? Maybe I’m being silly.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    hoops1888 wrote: »
    So, in order to be safe, do you think it’s better if I don’t link the Fitbit with mfp and instead, put the readings in to mfp myself, altering according to whether I think it’s overestimated what I’ve burned? I feel like linking and having it adjust my calories ok it’s own could get dangerous? Maybe I’m being silly.

    That’s what it’s designed to do, countless members on here have been successful with this approach.
  • hoops1888
    hoops1888 Posts: 93 Member
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    Okay. Will try it out. Thanks for your help! :)

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