Most accurate fitness tracker for calorie loss?

jenniator

Hey everyone,

I'm getting back on the weight loss wagon and I'm looking to get a new fitness tracker to help me. I know that the fitness trackers are not 100% accurate, but I was wondering which one offers the closest estimation. 3-4 years ago, I bought the Fitbit Charge 2 and I was a huge fan. I thought it was great and I loved it. But I'm sure since then, that there are a lot more accurate and better fitness trackers since a few years make a big difference with technology. My workouts mainly include YouTube work out videos, walking, the elliptical, and the exercise bike. I am also thinking about jogging once it gets a little cooler. So please let me know your recommendation and which one's you think have the best estimated calorie burn.

NorthCascades

They're all guesses, it's hard to say if any one of them will be more accurate at calories than the rest because people do so many different types of exercise, so if one is good at walking people who bike wouldn't know it, and recommendations from people who use theirs differently might not be right for you. Hey the one with the best features for your needs, and the best looks.

zebasschick

i wouldn't say they're guesses - they're all averages. there's so much about you that no fitness tracker could know - your muscle mass, fitness level, exercise intensity and your body fat percentage are almost always a guess. you may find one that works better for you.

for my circuit training, i go by my heart rate and the amount of calories someone at my size, age and in vaguely my condition would burn at that heart rate. but it's still an average that isn't likely to apply to me.

which basically means none are better than the other. i wear a fitbit inspire because i like the fitbit dashboard and it helps me track steps because when i talk on the phone, i also pace to burn some extra calories. but it's probably no more accurate than anything else.

kgirlhart

I used a fitbit when I first started and have since switched to Garmin. I'm a runner and I just like the Garmin best for running. But as far as calorie estimate they both gave me similar numbers. Which for me are actually underestimated. I would pick one based on what you like and what activities you need it for. The calorie burn will be an estimate and it will either be accurate (they are for a lot of people) or not too accurate. If you use your tracker for a while you will notice if you are losing slower than expected then it might be overestimating or if you are losing weight faster than expected it may be underestimating.

NorthCascades

zebasschick wrote: »

i wouldn't say they're guesses - they're all averages. there's so much about you that no fitness tracker could know - your muscle mass, fitness level, exercise intensity and your body fat percentage are almost always a guess. you may find one that works better for you.

for my circuit training, i go by my heart rate and the amount of calories someone at my size, age and in vaguely my condition would burn at that heart rate. but it's still an average that isn't likely to apply to me.

which basically means none are better than the other. i wear a fitbit inspire because i like the fitbit dashboard and it helps me track steps because when i talk on the phone, i also pace to burn some extra calories. but it's probably no more accurate than anything else.

But you just did say they're guesses! 😉 I'm writing to clarify for the OP.

We're talking about hardware that measures motion, they figured out how to do that a long time ago and all forbes trackers do that part really well. We're also talking about software that turns the measurements into something useful, like calories, activity levels, etc. Each company has its own algorithms to make educated guesses. Each company has different assumptions about their customers to fill in some of the blanks with in the math.

Concrete example. I just got 300 steps from scratching my cat's ears. Trackers that you can tell what you're doing tend to work better than trackers that detect exercise and type on their own.

To get the most out of it it's important to understand that it's giving you educated guesses, it isn't actually measuring your true calorie burn. That's why a lot of people use them for about a month, then figure out how much weight they should have burned based on the calorie estimate, vs how much that actually did lose, and use that to know how to make better use of the numbers. A lot of people say to just eat half the calories these things report, because that don't trust them. But it seems like an awful lot of people who check find out that the trackers are all much closer to the truth than that.

Anyway @zebasschick is right, they're all pretty close for most people, get the one you like. 🙂