FitBit Accuracy?

sarahmaryfearnley

We recently bought a XBox Kinect and got a free FitBit with it. I didn't even know what it was but it's valued at $100 so ya, I wanted it for free It's sort of like a pedometer and bodybug, I guess. It clips on and is essentially a motion sensor so it gives your steps, distance, and cals burned per day. The feature I like best is the sleep mode to track how efficient your sleep patterns are. I am a troubled sleeper so that's pretty cool, especially as I have been trying different things to improve my sleep habits.

SO....I've had the FitBit for about 2 weeks and it consistently indicates I burn a lot more calories than MFP says. I set up both with my age, weight, and height and set both goals to 1500cals for 0.5lb loss per week. The FitBit has confirmed that I am definately Lightly Active but I wonder if I'm actually more like active under MFP? I usually keep pretty close to my MFP goals (1500) but the FitBit wants me to eat generally between 200-600 more calories per day.

The FitBit is not a HR monitor, it's just a motion sensor. What do you think about the accuracy of the FitBit calorie estimation?

I have been losing again since the holidays and I'm not too worried about it right now but I wonder if this discrepency will cause me to stall out at some point. Also, I'm just a wonderer in general so I wonder about the FitBit.

Thoughts, comments, and opinions are welcome.

imafatloser

I use fitbit and it seems pretty accurate in my case. It comes in at just about the same daily calorie expenditure that the online calculators say I "should" burn for a person my height/weight/activity. I also use it when I walk on the treadmill and get consistent numbers. I chose the sedentary setting on MFP when I signed up...but according to fitbit I am at considered at least lightly active, some days even active. I think I probably underestimated my activity level when I started MFP.

At lightly active, MFP says I should burn around 1720 calories a day.

Fitbit records my daily expenditure at 1850 -2050 a day, before exercise.

I tend to think something personalized like fitbit, which reads body movement, gives a more accurate reading than a program like MFP where you just plug in numbers. MFP has no idea how much you move during a day. I use MFP numbers as a starting point & go from there. Hope that helps.

bevskiwolf

Great timing. I just got mine today, So far I love it! ♥

sarahmaryfearnley

Thanks! After I posted this, I discovered you can sync your Fitbit with MFP from the MFP site under Tools. There is also a Group for us FitBit users. I've learned so much today

I am in agreement that the FitBit gives an accurate burn but as I suspected and was confirmed by other Group members, the FitBit estimation of calorie intake is a little high.

I love the FitBit. I'm a sucker for cool little gadgets. I think it's very accurate with the burn amount but MFP is more accurate with calorie intake.

msiamjan

Has anyone compared the "burn" with what an HRM gives for the same workout?

nikki1anna

I got my fitbit free with my kinect yesterday "yay me" I really love it, I even started tracking and logging my food on it. While NOTHING can compare to the MFP Community I am happy with tracking with FitBit

imafatloser

Thanks! After I posted this, I discovered you can sync your Fitbit with MFP from the MFP site under Tools. There is also a Group for us FitBit users. I've learned so much today

I am in agreement that the FitBit gives an accurate burn but as I suspected and was confirmed by other Group members, the FitBit estimation of calorie intake is a little high.

I love the FitBit. I'm a sucker for cool little gadgets. I think it's very accurate with the burn amount but MFP is more accurate with calorie intake.

So glad you pointed this out...I hadn't seen the info to sync the two. I'm interested to see how it'll work. Thanks!