Accuracy of fitness trackers

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digidoomed
digidoomed Posts: 151 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
How accurate would you say a fitness tracker such as fitbit or a smartwatch are at tracking calories burned? For example, today I trained legs and apparently burned 400 cals. Is that probably what I actually burned, or is it an overestimate by the watch? I want to know so I don't end up overeating when I try to eat back exercise calories.

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  • sarahthes
    sarahthes Posts: 3,252 Member
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    The only thing they're even remotely accurate at is steady state cardio. Basically running and walking.
  • OldAssDude
    OldAssDude Posts: 1,436 Member
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    most of them over estimate, and some way over estimate.

    the closest one i have found is my fenix 5, but that will cost you over $500.00.

    with the cheaper ones, most people only count about half the calories that are given.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    What tracker do you use? What were you doing that it said you burned 400 calories and for how long did you do it?
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    My FitBit has always been very accurate for me - I lost weight trusting and eating back the calorie adjustment and am now maintaining with the same approach. I mostly walk, some circuit training. If you are looking at the exercise adjustment in MFP and seeing the 400 cals, note that that’s not just how much you burned during your leg workout, it’s an adjustment of what your total cal burn is as reported by your tracker and what MFP thinks you burn, excluding exercise according to the stats you put in when you set up your profile.
  • digidoomed
    digidoomed Posts: 151 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    What tracker do you use? What were you doing that it said you burned 400 calories and for how long did you do it?

    I use the S Health tracker on my samsung smartwatch. I was training legs today so was doing things like weighted squats, hip thrusts, etc for around 60 minutes with 8-10 mins of HIIT at the end and it gave me that number.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    My charge 2 is accurate for he. I am a nurse, and have checked it next to an EKG, and steps. Calories well...... hard to tell. I think it's off, but not by too many. I follow a tree, not a day to day.
  • digidoomed
    digidoomed Posts: 151 Member
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    psychod787 wrote: »
    My charge 2 is accurate for he. I am a nurse, and have checked it next to an EKG, and steps. Calories well...... hard to tell. I think it's off, but not by too many. I follow a tree, not a day to day.

    What do you mean by a tree?
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    Lol auto correct tdee, so I eat for the week.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    psychod787 wrote: »
    Lol auto correct tdee, so I eat for the week.

    Yeah trees don’t tend to move much so there’s not much to follow!
  • digidoomed
    digidoomed Posts: 151 Member
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    I might just use half of whatever my tracker tells me for my exercise calories then since I do a mix of weight lifting and cardio. I just didnt want to try and eat my exercise calories back and end up overeating
  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
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    digidoomed wrote: »
    I might just use half of whatever my tracker tells me for my exercise calories then since I do a mix of weight lifting and cardio. I just didnt want to try and eat my exercise calories back and end up overeating

    That's a good place to start. After tracking for 4 weeks, you can get a good idea of whether or not that is the "sweet spot" for you :)

  • xxerniexx
    xxerniexx Posts: 104 Member
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    my sister whole has been a health nut and marathoner her whole life and she stands by Polar with the separate heart rate sensor. that's what i'm using now because of her.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    What does the accuracy spec say the maximum error is?
  • Sassafras106
    Sassafras106 Posts: 73 Member
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    I take off 20% of my additional calories once my tracker has gone over 500 additional calories for the day

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