Fitbit, HRM, Bodymedia Fit 30 Day Comparison

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  • Michelle7897
    Michelle7897 Posts: 108 Member
    Today I ran wearing my Polar H7 heart rate monitor and my Fitbit One. I used the Digifit app on my iPod with my H7 strap. I am starting to think maybe the reason my HRM was so far off from my Fitbit before was because the Fitbit Ultra needed to be replaced. In the interest of full disclosure I must admit I dropped my Fitbit into the water a couple of months ago, so I am lucky it was still working at all since it is not waterproof. My new Fitbit One seems very accurate on both steps and calories burned.

    Today's comparison:
    Ran 63 minutes, 5 miles
    Fitbit calories burned ~ 587
    Digifit with H7 HRM calories burned ~ 580
  • rodow
    rodow Posts: 26
    bump
  • carmi_m
    carmi_m Posts: 1 Member
    thank you for taking the time to post your experiment. You nearly answered all my queries! I have the BMF and was contemplating purchasing a HRM. I am wondering if anyone has used the garmin that will sync with the BMF? I would prefer the Polar that can be used swimming but thought it might be more convenient to have everything downloaded into one system. Now if they only had some sort of tazer device int here to zap me to remind me to keep moving!
  • paulperryman
    paulperryman Posts: 839 Member
    Before I get into my results from today, I just found a feature on the BMF dashboard that I love. You can create a printable four page summary report of all your data customizable by time or a detailed food report.

    Okay, so I walked/jogged in place for 60 minutes wearing my Polar h7 heart rate monitor chest strap. It has bluetooth and can sync to multiple things at the same time. A Polar customer service rep said that would not affect its accuracy. All of the numbers below were taken at the same time during the same workout using the same chest strap, which is supposed to be the most accurate.

    After 60 minutes:
    My Polar FT60 watch said I had burned 529 calories.
    My Polar Beat app (same company as the watch & chest strap) said I had burned 613 calories.
    My Digifit app said I had burned 564 calories.

    I was surprised to see the numbers were not closer together, especially the Polar watch & Polar Beat app since they were both made by the same company as the chest strap.

    I must say I didn't feel as though I burned that much, certainly not 613! I was still able to sing along with the music on my playlist for over half the time, although poorly and missing a few words here and there. :tongue:

    I also set the timer on my Fitbit and used the workout log on my Bodymedia Fit app during this time. Here are the numbers from them:

    My Fitbit said I burned 423 calories and my total calories burned for the day was 1554. It gave me 2242 for my TDEE estimate for the day.
    My BMF said I burned 419 calories and my total calories burned for the day at that point was 1542. It gave me 2393 for my TDEE estimate for the day.

    I feel pretty certain the heart rate monitor is way too high. I have been entering the number my HRM gives on myfitnesspal and sometimes eating part of my calories back. I think this might be where my problem was. I think I may have been over estimating my burn, which meant my calorie deficit would have been much smaller than I thought. Some days I was very close I probably ate more than I burned without realizing it. I believe I will learn a lot in 30 days from my little experiment. Would anyone be interested in me updating this throughout the next few weeks?
    I'm not surprised by the HRM results but this is the first time I've seen a Fitbit and BMF comparison. I don't use Fitbit but it is nice to see that BMF and Fitbit gave similar numbers.

    I think the HRM will give more accurate results to people who have been pushing their cardiovascular system on a regular basis. Since the HRM doesn't know the cardiovascular ability of the person using it, it must use an 'average' in their calculation. Even if we input a weight, a person can be very overweight and have great cardiovascular ability, or skinny and unable to run a minute.

    Thanks for posting your results. I'd be interested in seeing other results you get. It almost makes me want to get a Fitbit myself to compare various activities.

    replying to an old thread but the FT60 and higher models register Vo2 which is what the professional testers use to determine your oxygen mix and thus how efficient your cardiovascular is but the Polar HRM's do it based on the resting heart rate, don't know how it does that without actually measuring your breath but on mine my VO2 tests i do the morning following a rest day have risen from 40-47 which is considered getting fit range and it then takes that and determines what your Heart Rate Zones are for efficient fat/caloric burns based on the current heart rate..

    just out of interest i had a FT7 and now i have a FT60 and i used both of them to do a base 24hr test of my probably 24hr TDEE on a rest day (ie normal day not including intentional exercise) the latest one on the FT60 came up with 2800 calories, with an obvious margin of error, that would be above very active by MFP's TDEE activity levels not including going to the gym where i burn an average of 10-15 calories a minute doing cardio and 5-10 doing resistance/weights in 60 min sessions 5 days a week.

    my job is a Storeman/Forkilift Driver in a very busy production/export warehouse.

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