Fitbit Calories Burned

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juicymisslucy
juicymisslucy Posts: 72 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been pretty active so far today, but my fitbit calories burned is showing just over 500...I feel like this is way over...any fitbit users out there that can relate? Thanks :)
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  • katro111
    katro111 Posts: 632 Member
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    500 for the whole day so far? I usually hit the 50% mark by now (1300 burned)!
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    I am admittedly not familiar with how fitbit itself works but a lot of calorie counter devices do not subtract your BMR from the reported value.

    What I mean is lets say you go jogging for an hour and the device says 600 calories burned. Now lets say you sat on your *kitten* for an hour and did absolutely nothing, the device would say "300 calories burned". Why? Because most of these devices queue off your heart beat and your heart is beating even if you aren't doing anything at all.

    What that means is although it said you burned 600 calories exercising really you only burned 300 above what you would have if you had done nothing at all.

    Not sure that's the issue with fitbit, again not sure how that device works, but it could be.
  • katro111
    katro111 Posts: 632 Member
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    I am admittedly not familiar with how fitbit itself works but a lot of calorie counter devices do not subtract your BMR from the reported value.

    What I mean is lets say you go jogging for an hour and the device says 300 calories burned. Now lets say you sat on your *kitten* for an hour and did absolutely nothing, the device would say "300 calories burned". Why? Because most of these devices queue off your heart beat and your heart is beating even if you aren't doing anything at all.

    What that means is although it said you burned 600 calories exercising really you only burned 300 above what you would have if you had done nothing at all.

    Not sure that's the issue with fitbit, again not sure how that device works, but it could be.
    Fitbit tracks your TDEE so your BMR + any activity is included.

    ETA: Fitbit is also not a heart rate monitor.
  • juicymisslucy
    juicymisslucy Posts: 72 Member
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    I have probably walked total for the day about 45mins at a quick pace (walking dog, walking to the store) , the rest was just daily activity. Could it be that I really burned that much??
  • katro111
    katro111 Posts: 632 Member
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    I have probably walked total for the day about 45mins at a quick pace (walking dog, walking to the store) , the rest was just daily activity. Could it be that I really burned that much??
    As long as your stats are up-to-date (current weight, correct height, etc.) I don't see why not.
  • juicymisslucy
    juicymisslucy Posts: 72 Member
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    Woot! :happy:
  • caranais
    caranais Posts: 101 Member
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    I have usually burned around 480 cals by the time I wake up in the morning. This is because the fitbit logs every calorie not just "extra" ones. You burn approximately 1 calorie a minute (depending on age height, weight etc) so even when sleeping or lying down - as long as you are breathing - you are burning calories. Any extra walks, exercise etc is just added in. If you look at your fitbit dashboard graphs you will see how many calories burned and when. Hope this helps you a bit.
  • Julesoola
    Julesoola Posts: 51 Member
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    Nvm, reread the original post. 500 is probably on target, yeah.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Fitbit tracks your TDEE so your BMR + any activity is included.

    ETA: Fitbit is also not a heart rate monitor.

    Okay thanks for the info.

    Then yes jyucymisslucy understand that when your fitbit tells you you have burned 500 calories it is including the calories you would have burned just from being alive which, dependent on the exercise and the amount of time spent, could be a large portion of that number.

    If you want to know (within the accuracy of the device) how many calories you are burning from the exercise itself then do this:

    Step 1) Put on your fitbit and perform the exercise, note the number of calories it reports you burned AND the amount of time you spent.

    Step 2) Put on your fitbit and just sit or do your normal daily things no exercise for the exact same amount of time you spent excercising and then record how many calories it said you burned.

    Step 3) Subtract the calories burned in step 1 from the calories burned in step 2 and that's how many calories that exercise burned.


    As an example:

    I put on my fitbit and go for a 30 min run, it says I burn 500 calories.
    I put on my fitbit and watch TV for 30 min, it says I burn 150 calories.

    That means my run burned 350 calories.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Understand that if you put on your fitbit and watched TV all day then took a 12 hour long nap after 24 hours it would probably report that you had burned a little over whatever your BMR is (so lets guess like 1400 calories).

    Your body is constantly burning calories whether you are active or not just to keep your brain functioning, your heart beating and your body at 98.6 degrees F
  • juicymisslucy
    juicymisslucy Posts: 72 Member
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    The only exercise I log on fitbit/mfp are any circuit training dvds, and I always log from the exact time I started until the exact time I finished. Thanks all for the replies :)
  • easjer
    easjer Posts: 219 Member
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    Yep. My TDEE on low activity days is still ~2400, which is right in line with the average from online calculators. If I hit my steps goal for the day, that'll easily get me to ~2800-3000 per day, and so on.

    I love it because it's a lot more accurate for me and I adjust my calories accordingly.
  • Koldnomore
    Koldnomore Posts: 1,613 Member
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    I'm @ 1270 so far today with 4000+ steps.

    It's going to depend on how much you weigh how many calories you burn. Someone who is carrying more weight will burn more calories doing the same activity as someone who is carrying less weight. That being said I wouldn't eat back ALL the calories that the Fitbit give you unless you are tracking daily with a spreadsheet and can confirm that your weight lost jives with your calorie deficit. I know for me the fitbit still OVERESTIMATES my TDEE by about 200 / day which at my weight is enough to put me into maintenance instead of losing - which is why I no longer use it for exercise calories.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    The only exercise I log on fitbit/mfp are any circuit training dvds, and I always log from the exact time I started until the exact time I finished. Thanks all for the replies :)

    Then I would suggest putting on your fitbit right now while you are not exercising and let it log for the same amount of time as your circuit training DVD then see how many calories it says you have burned. If you subtract that number from the number of calories it says you burn from your workout that would be the number of calories you burn BECAUSE of the workout.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    Your Fitbit burn is your TDEE. Way more accurate than any online calculator. MFP has a Fitbit Users group: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/1307-fitbit-users

    Edited to add an explanation of Fitbit calorie adjustments:

    When you set up your MFP account, you specified an activity level: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided MFP used your answer, plus your age, sex, height & weight, to estimate how many calories you burn every day (not including exercise). Then you set your weight-loss goal, and MFP subtracted the appropriate deficit to calculate your daily calorie goal.

    Once you link an activity tracker to your MFP account (via the "Apps" tab at the top of every page), you start getting calorie adjustments. If your tracker says you burned more calories than MFP estimated, you get a positive adjustment (meaning more calories to eat). If you enable negative calorie adjustments http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings and you burn less than the MFP estimate, you will lose calories. (But negative calorie adjustments will never drop your daily calories below 1,200.)
  • huck23
    huck23 Posts: 116 Member
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    bump
  • scubasuenc
    scubasuenc Posts: 626 Member
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    Your FitBit gives you calories burned in 5 minute intervals all day long. If you leave the FitBit sitting in a drawer it will still burn calories at your BMR rate. Mine is on my bedside table while I sleep, the activity log shows that I burned 6.1 calories every 5 minutes while I was sleeping. That means I burned 420 calories before I ever got out of bed this morning. When I checked a few minutes ago it said I have burned 1679 calories with 8530 steps. That includes 320 calories from my stationary bike ride that I entered into MFP.

    I have found the TDEE calculated by FitBit to be very accurate.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    Is the "500" what MFP is showing as your FitBit burn? Like in the "net" calories area of the screen?

    Then that's your earned exercise calories. You can eat those. Or half of those. Or none of those. Your choice.

    Like for me, if I never exercise in the day, FitBit assumes I'll burn about 1700 calories (my BMR+enough to get drive to work and back) and MFP will tell me to eat 1450 calories. But if instead I burn 2000 calories (my average TDEE) then MFP will show a FitBit adjustment of 300. Meaning I can eat 300 more calories that day, if I want, and still have my original deficit of 250 calories (or 0.5 lb per week of fat loss).

    Be careful though, if you have negative calories or estimated calories enabled, it might take some of those BACK if you, for instance, exercise really heavily in the morning. It might assume you're gonna be that active all day.
  • juicymisslucy
    juicymisslucy Posts: 72 Member
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    I wear my fitbit from the minute I get out of bed until I go to bed and put it on the charger, repeat in the morning. I don't usually eat my exercise calories back because I tend to splurge here and there throughout the week. It was just odd to me that I had burned that many calories already at that time. According to my fitbit right now at 4:45pm I have taken 16632 steps & have burned 602 calories. :) And That is ok by me :):)
  • gabrielleroberts3
    gabrielleroberts3 Posts: 15
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    I wear my fitbit from the minute I get out of bed until I go to bed and put it on the charger, repeat in the morning. I don't usually eat my exercise calories back because I tend to splurge here and there throughout the week. It was just odd to me that I had burned that many calories already at that time. According to my fitbit right now at 4:45pm I have taken 16632 steps & have burned 602 calories. :) And That is ok by me :):)

    That sounds right to me...I have 310 exercise cals and just under 5000 steps...of course that is also counting my yoga class.

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