Fitness tracker vs MFP cals burned

PineAndSalt
PineAndSalt Posts: 22 Member
edited April 2019 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi! I started using my Fitbit again, and I was wondering which values would be more accurate for calories burned? For 20 minutes of walking at 3mph, MFP shows 70 cals burned, but my Fitbit shows I burned 127 cals on my walk. Thoughts? Anyone know margin of error for a Charge HR?

Edit - I am certain by gps measurement that I walked a mile. Thanks all!

Replies

  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Your HR was likely used in Fitbits calculation.

    Accuracy is going to vary based on the individual. I find that Fitbits with HRMs are fairly accurate for me (well okay they underestimate a bit since I can get away with not logging roughly 150-200 calories a day). This isn’t the case for everyone.

    Now it could be it overestimates on walks and other exercise, but underestimates in daily life. I really have no way of knowing. All I know is that at the end of the day the I could use the total reported calories burned to adjust my intake appropriately for my goals.
  • sarabushby
    sarabushby Posts: 784 Member
    I believe the Fitbit value includes your BMR but the MFP value does not.

    Hence if you used the calorie burn number from Fitbit and manually entered that into MFP you would be ‘double dipping’.

    I don’t know this for sure so happy to stand corrected but have definitely read it on other posts.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    edited April 2019
    sarabushby wrote: »
    I believe the Fitbit value includes your BMR but the MFP value does not.

    Hence if you used the calorie burn number from Fitbit and manually entered that into MFP you would be ‘double dipping’.

    I don’t know this for sure so happy to stand corrected but have definitely read it on other posts.

    You're correct; Fitbit does include BMR during that time.

    So in 20 minutes, maybe you would have burned 20 calories just sitting around doing nothing but you walked so you burned an additional 107 calories on your walk. If you walked on a path that had an incline or have a Fitbit model with a HR monitor, that can easily explain burning 107 calories on a 20 minute walk instead of 70 via MFPs list of exercises.

    If your Fitbit is connected to MFP, you wouldn't be double dipping as Fitbit will override anything like that. However, let Fitbit make the adjustments and do not enter anything in manually for exercise. If your Fitbit isn't connected to MFP, maybe you should consider doing so and remember to have negative adjustments enabled. If you don't want to connect your Fitbit, you can easily use MFP's number or enter an adjusted number from your Fitbit to account for your BMR. If you notice your rate of loss doesn't match with what it should be, you can adjust as necessary.

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