Activity entry vs fitness watch calc... Accuracy

inglysh731

I am not logging any (non-cycling) activities. Rather, I'm leaning on the data feed from Garmin to give me my calorie adjustments while working toward a caloric deficit.

The cycling activity that I do log is based on an actual power meter and is fully automated, thus I feel like the accuracy /consistency is pretty high.

Results so far after a month and a half have been good. I have logged nearly the same calorie deficit relative to my weight loss (based on a 5-day average weight, assuming 3.5k cal/lb).

I'm quite pleased by both the results and because I don't have to obsessively log my activities... Which vary too much by intensity, duration and/or because I'd have to remember to log/record in the first place. I'm lazy AF.

For some addtl perspective...
I work out 10x a week doing a mix of weight/strength, martial arts and cycling, logging roughly ~12 hours of activity.

That all said, if you have a fitness tracker, how important is it really to make sure you're entering all your activity details?

I feel like, while it may have been important in the past, the data is becoming more and more helpful/accurate. Feel the same? Different?

AnnPT77

If your experience validates your fitness tracker's results, I can't think of any reason not to rely on it. If, down the road, you start getting unexpected results (divergence between what the bodyweight scale says, and the tracker's estimates, over a period of weeks), then that would be a reason to investigate that as one possible source of variation. If that doesn't happen, it seems like using it simplifies your life.

I don't sync my tracker (Garmin Vivoactive 3) because it materially underestimates my all-day calorie burn, as estimated from about 4 years of logging data. Syncing it to MFP would make my life more difficult, so I don't.

(This result didn't surprise me, because a lot of calorie-estimating "calculators" also underestimate for me, by roughly the same amount. I don't know why, don't really care, because I know what I need to do in practice.)

Duck_Puddle

That’s precisely why I use an activity tracker-because it does all that for me and I don’t have to wonder if such and such counts as activity and how many calories should I put in for this or does lightly active include that or what about I’m very active one day and sedentary most others but sometimes not. Using an activity tracker makes life much less stressful for me. My weight change also matches up to my trackers (Fitbit and Garmin).

Fflpnari

I have a Fitbit and love it! I find it pretty accurate. Online calculators or MFP fitness entries are pretty useless

callsitlikeiseeit

as i just mentioned in another thread i use my fitbit to keep track of caloric burn. it seems more accurate than machine or mfp estimates, and is mostly in line with estimated loss per week goals.

traceyroy54

Are fitness trackers acurate?