Did you find your numbers were off after using a fitbit?

ehimay10ins
ehimay10ins Posts: 57 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am logging my food as best as possible without being accurate. I do not weigh my food, but I do understand portion sizes and try to log it accurately. At times I'll even add 100-300 calories to a meal if I just feel the calories logged seem too little.

When it comes to logging exercise I do my best to log accurately. However I will log my zumba class and my "dance it out" class both as zumba. I will log the AFT machine (i think that is what it is called, the stair and elliptical combined) as an elliptical even though i'm probably burning more calories on it.

If I were to get a fitbit, will it say my current counting/numbers are completely off? Will I see that in reality I am burning 200-400 calories LESS THAN I thought, or will it be closer to a 50-100 calorie difference?

Replies

  • Unknown
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  • Samstan101
    Samstan101 Posts: 699 Member
    The Fitbit bases in calorie burn on walking only. Any other exercise needs to be logged and just like here the Fitbit website has a database of exercise with an estimated calorie burn against it so you won't know 100% accurately either way. However, given that weight loss is at least 80% diet I'd be more concerned with weight & measuring your food to get an accurate calorie intake rather than be overly concerned with your calorie burn as you are obviously fairly active. I'd be very surprised if you didn't find you were underestimating the calories you're eating.
  • ehimay10ins
    ehimay10ins Posts: 57 Member
    If you're not weighing and measuring your food, you will never know. You need to be accurate. A fitbit won't fix that.

    i know it wont make my food count more accurate so in terms of weight loss I may still have a problem but i'm saying if I'm logging that I am burning 500 calories, has it been other's experiences that they were told they were actually burning closer to 300 or 700 and not the 500 or was their calories burned just more precise and it told you you were actually burning 558 calories instead.
  • yogicarl
    yogicarl Posts: 1,260 Member
    - there is nothing to say that the Fitbit, or any other device that is supposed to measure calorie burn, is accurate.

    - the only system that works is to log all food intake as accurately as possible, log an estimate of your calorie burn, eat back a portion of your exercise calories and watch the scale and/or your tape measurements.

    - if your weight goes up, eat less. If you lose a sensible amount of weight carry on as you are, you've found the right level. If you lose too much and you were hungry, eat slightly more until you meet the level you need to get to where you want to be.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    It's all estimates. A Fitbit might improve your estimate or might not. For most, it's probably better info than just putting in 'lightly active' or whatever to a calculator. It doesn't 'only count walking' but it does only estimate steps-based activities with any accuracy. Whether your classes are steps-based, I don't know. A stair-type machine won't be a good candidate for the Fitbit to estimate.

    I agree with yogicarl. You don't really need a great estimate of what you burn if you track your intake and weight, because you can adjust your intake based on your weight loss.

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