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Fitbit question

pabboo
pabboo Posts: 18 Member
in Social Groups
Can someone explain how my fitbit works out my cals? Usually I weight train and add that via mfp. I take anything between 5000-10000 steps a day. So I am used to it saying I have burned around 1900-2000 a day, more when I weight train, obviously. My bmr is around 1450.

So I was a bit surprised when I took 4423 steps and 6 floors and it said I had burned 1800 cals and then the next day I took 5000 steps and 17 floors and it stated I burned even less, 1562

Why lower on the second day?! In the past when I have logged this amount of steps and stairs, I have still burned around 2000 cals! Even on a day I only took 493 steps and no floor it still said I burned 1638 cals.

Thoughts?
Thanks.

Replies

  • AHASRADA
    AHASRADA Posts: 88 Member
    Did you log fewer workout calories through MFP on the lower burn day? Sometimes it's frustrating when I have met my step goal but still haven't met my calorie burn goal, but that's usually due to burning less during my workout than usual, which is applied to my Fitibit burn through MFP.

    I have a step, distance and calorie goal for the day. If I haven't hit my goals by the end of the day, I hop on the treadmill before bed until I do. Great motivation!
  • pabboo
    pabboo Posts: 18 Member
    I don't log anything apart from food in mfp - other than weight lifting - I just don't get why it would be so radically different on no-workout days with the same steps and stairs,

    But I realise now it was very very low in batteries so I wonder if it just wasn't functioning well.
  • spintronicus
    spintronicus Posts: 45 Member
    Fitbit also estimates gait so if you walk the same amount of steps in less time, it'll estimate more burned calories than if you walk more leisurely and take your time. Makes sense?

    I have a Fitbit one and heard that flex overestimates the steps of you move your hands a lot. That could be the problem too if the same amount of steps were taken in the same amount of time. Which fitbit do you have?
  • 04ward
    04ward Posts: 196 Member
    I usually log activities on the Fitbit site and let it sync to MFP. It seems to be more accurate that way.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Last post reminded me - confirm your times and time zone match up between the two.

    If you manually entered in a lifting workout for 1 hr, and it synced over to FitBit and replaced that time with your calorie burn entry - but it was an hour off, you could have wiped out a big walking session with a small lifting burn.

    As to differences, probably accuracy of the gait as mentioned.

    Little both directions on each day made the gap appear even bigger.
  • jaeone
    jaeone Posts: 649 Member
    Can someone explain how my fitbit works out my cals? Usually I weight train and add that via mfp. I take anything between 5000-10000 steps a day. So I am used to it saying I have burned around 1900-2000 a day, more when I weight train, obviously. My bmr is around 1450.

    So I was a bit surprised when I took 4423 steps and 6 floors and it said I had burned 1800 cals and then the next day I took 5000 steps and 17 floors and it stated I burned even less, 1562

    Why lower on the second day?! In the past when I have logged this amount of steps and stairs, I have still burned around 2000 cals! Even on a day I only took 493 steps and no floor it still said I burned 1638 cals.

    Thoughts?
    Thanks.
    Does the fitbit you have, have the active minutes feature? If so, Check those numbers out, it could be the day you took less steps you had some extra pep in your step or you were a little more physically active doing other stuff!
  • pabboo
    pabboo Posts: 18 Member
    Sorry, lost track of my thread!
    It seems totally fine now - it really may just have been low battery. Active minutes were low, but no lower than my usual ones with the same number of steps.... But, conceivably, I may have walked slower on those days when it logged such a low burn - seems unlikely that I would be only just over my bmr on one of those days. I think it must have been a glitch.
    I have a fitbit one so no worries about hand movements.

    Not to worry, seems to be ok now, and since Monday I have hit 10,000 steps on all but one day when I hit 8500!! Very proud of myself!
  • spintronicus
    spintronicus Posts: 45 Member
    I realized yesterday that my fitbit one under-counts my steps when the battery is low. Congrats on the step count!

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