Does fitbit really work?

JenasyJen
JenasyJen Posts: 15 Member
edited September 2018 in Health and Weight Loss
My son bought me a fitbit watch thingie and i am new to it. I am just wondering what you all thought based on personal experience. Is it accurate is measuring steps, exercise, calories burnt, ect? (yes i said thingie! lol)
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Replies

  • FlyingMolly
    FlyingMolly Posts: 490 Member
    My Alta HR seems to be pretty accurate. I suspect it underestimates my calorie burn a bit--it's mostly meant for walking, so depending on what else you do in a typical day you might find it tends to lean one way or the other for you.

    Since I have a lot of variety in my activity level on different days of the week, it's really helpful for me to have it linked to MFP. I glanced back through the last couple of weeks and one day it took away 100 calories from my goal, while on another it added more than 600; I'm glad I'm not trying to work that out myself every day!

    My advice is to link it up with MFP (enable negative adjustments!), wear it for a few weeks, and see what happens if you eat what it tells you. Watch how your weight responds and that'll give you a pretty good sense of how well it's working for you.
  • tbright1965
    tbright1965 Posts: 852 Member
    It was within a mile of MapMyRide and my odometer on my bike. They all claimed I rode between 52.6 and 53.4 miles today.

    So that part seems pretty accurate.

    I don’t trust the calorie burn estimates.

    I don’t think I burned between 4800 and 5200 calories as they all estimate.

    So they work, but one has to take some of the numbers with a grain of salt.

    They are pretty good for comparison from day to day. But don’t try to go to the moon or train for the olympics with one.
  • Keto_Vampire
    Keto_Vampire Posts: 1,670 Member
    edited September 2018
    Accurate for steps (unless you mess with the settings & intentionally try to cheat doing weird wrist movements) and RESTING HR (calibrated vs Omron BP device). Should mention, currently using fitbit Alta HR also

    Always skeptical about the active HR part & kcal burned; these are still useful though since they are fairly precise at least (say you burn 3,000kcal according to fitbit vs. 2,300kcal burnt in reality; the number burnt reported by fitbit is fairly consistent when activity is roughly the same on a day to day basis). Same treadmill settings, I get similar active HR for the most part given the same environmental conditions (precision).
  • fastfoodietofitcutie
    fastfoodietofitcutie Posts: 523 Member
    I have an Alta HR. The steps are pretty accurate except it does count some steps while driving. The sleep tracking however is useless as it’s never accurate or even close.
  • JenasyJen
    JenasyJen Posts: 15 Member
    awesome feedback TY!
    As far as what device i have it is fitbit versa :). It say's i burnt 563 extra calories on my 1st day and honestly i did alot of cleaning walked to store and shopped but nothing to purposeful. Almost seems to good to be true. I am pretty hungry though so i figure eating back half is a safe bet? We'll see :) .
  • FlyingMolly
    FlyingMolly Posts: 490 Member
    edited September 2018
    JenasyJen wrote: »
    awesome feedback TY!
    As far as what device i have it is fitbit versa :). It say's i burnt 563 extra calories on my 1st day and honestly i did alot of cleaning walked to store and shopped but nothing to purposeful. Almost seems to good to be true. I am pretty hungry though so i figure eating back half is a safe bet? We'll see :) .

    Is your MFP activity level set to sedentary by any chance? Spending a few hours cleaning and shopping could easily add 563 calories onto sedentary. If that’s a fairly normal amount of activity for you, tell MFP that you’re lightly active or active (because you are!) and your Fitbit adjustments will get lower. It works out to the same number of calories either way, but smaller adjustments can feel better psychologically. 🙂
  • kardsharp
    kardsharp Posts: 516 Member
    It has worked for me. I work in an office and I use it to motivate me for NEAT.
  • ghudson92
    ghudson92 Posts: 2,061 Member
    edited September 2018
    I have a fitbit charge HR1. I find it to be fairly accurate steps wise. The HR monitor is consistent with the ones on the machines at the gym. I eat back half to two thirds of exercise calories achieved from the fitbit and have been losing.
  • tbright1965
    tbright1965 Posts: 852 Member
    edited September 2018
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    tbright1965 wrote: »
    It was within a mile of MapMyRide and my odometer on my bike. They all claimed I rode between 52.6 and 53.4 miles today.

    So that part seems pretty accurate.

    I don’t trust the calorie burn estimates.

    I don’t think I burned between 4800 and 5200 calories as they all estimate.

    So they work, but one has to take some of the numbers with a grain of salt.

    They are pretty good for comparison from day to day. But don’t try to go to the moon or train for the olympics with one.

    is that number calorie burn for the day so far? if so that includes your BMR into that number.

    No, that was just the estimate for the ride. This is why I don't trust the estimates.

    I tracked the entire ride on my Fitbit, pausing it during my brunch stop 35 miles into the ride. Fitbit estimated 4806 calories over 52.6 miles.

    MapMyRide, also using GPS like my Fitbit Surge, I broke the ride into two rides. One, on the way to the brunch and a return ride.

    Ride up, MMR claimed 3113 calories over the 34.9 miles up. It then claimed 1719 calories over the 18.4 on the way back. So again in the 4800 calorie range. Distance was closer to what the odometer on my bike indicated at 53.3. My bike odometer had 53.4 miles indicated.

    After having slept, not sure where I got the 5200 calorie number from, so maybe I saw another number, or was just confused after (apparently) being in such a large calorie deficit (sarcasm.)

    I don't allow myself to eat more than 1/2 of any recorded exercise calories.

    I'm sure I burned a ton of calories. But I didn't burn nearly 5000 in 3.6 hours on my bicycle.

    So I'd take calorie estimates with a healthy grain of salt.

    My actual consumption yesterday was on the order of 2200 calories. I'm 5'11" and 215 pounds, FWIW.

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  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Accuracy of the calories burned portion will vary person to person.

    For myself the models without HR actually underestimate by an average of 250 calories a day. Models with the HR seem to be close enough for me to eat all the calories.

    Steps are pretty accurate. I have done step tests with various models and the only one that didn’t catch all my steps was replaced by Fitbit.

    Distance accuracy is actually determined by the stride length settings. Versa I believe will adjust your stride length based on GPS tracked walk and runs. It starts off using the average for your height though.

    I have been using a Fitbit since 2013 and love it. I have MFP set to Sedentary and just let Fitbit make adjustments up or down based on activity. When I first started using Fitbit (a magenta zip) it would actually get a negative adjustment in my exercise diary unless I worked out and that would just bring my calorie burn to even with what MFP expected (so no additional calories). Since I am set to Sedentary, I sometimes see adjustments as large as 1000 calories on active days (for example the day I did the Valley Loop Fitbit Challenge/ 35,800 steps...you don’t actually have to finish these in a day, but I was doing it just to see if I could).
  • Bobthedog3232
    Bobthedog3232 Posts: 54 Member
    It’s fantastic when they work they can’t be faulted but they aren’t durable have had two and both have died just randomly lasted no more then a year charge 2 that is
  • jillchavarria22
    jillchavarria22 Posts: 15 Member
    I may have missed it, but what fitbit model do you use?
  • kdbulger
    kdbulger Posts: 396 Member
    I had the blaze (with HR monitor) for a year or so, and I found it accurate enough to trust the calorie burns it synced into MFP, and lost weight on average as I projected using those values. For me it was a valuable tool that helped me gather a lot of data about my body.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    I can't get my HR to measure distance correctly. It way underestimates. There's no GPS on it, it just estimates distanced based on how many steps you took. I tried updating my stride length and that didn't help any. But oh well. I think calories burned is pretty accurate (at least for me)
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    If a gadget gets you up and moving then it works :smile: It worked for me although moving had become an ingrained habit before I even got mine. It pushed me to do more and more which was no bad thing.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    I had Carge HR and unfortunately it overestimated my calories by a lot - around 300 per day. So after several months I stopped using it.
  • JenasyJen
    JenasyJen Posts: 15 Member
    @jillchavarria22 I use fitbit versa.

    @sparks9777 In some ways it doesn't matter but in some ways it does matter because if it says i burned 5000 extra calories and i only burned 1000 then i may gain weight and im trying to lose weight. :) (im not burning that much just an example lol)

    Overall I'm happy to read its most feel its fairly accurate. Just gonna watch for a week or two and see how i respond to eating back 50% ish of extra calories burned. (if im hungry)

    All in all its a fun & useful early b day gift and it definitely makes me want to get my steps in each day :)

    Ty all for your advice and support
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Charge HR 2 here and it underestimates my calories.
  • debtay123
    debtay123 Posts: 1,327 Member
    I have an HR Charge and I enjoy it- because it motivates me to get my walk in.
  • JenasyJen
    JenasyJen Posts: 15 Member
    i did a little test today walked on treadmill for 30 mins... Treadmill said 150 cals, Fitbit was in the high 200's almost double.... Interesting lol.. Wonder which is right. (i entered in treadmill under exercise in fitbit while i did it)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    JenasyJen wrote: »
    i did a little test today walked on treadmill for 30 mins... Treadmill said 150 cals, Fitbit was in the high 200's almost double.... Interesting lol.. Wonder which is right. (i entered in treadmill under exercise in fitbit while i did it)

    Did you put your info in the treadmill?
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Seffell wrote: »
    I had Carge HR and unfortunately it overestimated my calories by a lot - around 300 per day. So after several months I stopped using it.

    Keep in mind that Fitbit will only be as accurate as your tracking. A lot of people eat more than than they think.

    If I believed my Charge 2, I would be at least 20 lbs heavier than I am now, lol (and I've been lazy in my logging too).
  • desire2bSexy
    desire2bSexy Posts: 5 Member
    If for any reason you'd prefer ordinary pedometers, you can still find decent ones for about $15-20
    I used to use the Nike and the fitbit, too many reasons I went back to old school. Regardless of
    the method, seeing the numbers you create in the little window is motivating all on it's own! :)
  • JenasyJen
    JenasyJen Posts: 15 Member
    Yes. I entered my info in treadmill. I also weigh and measure food when ever possible. So I think my calories going in are fairly accurate most days. Just gonna be careful not to eat back all my calories fitbit says I am burning. Maybe half lol. Burning that many calories just seems to good to be true lol.

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