FitBit Seem Stupid?

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  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    daisyverma wrote: »
    I am a little confused. The fitbit shows the sum of all activity...walking, breathing,sleeping etc ? For example a friend of mine does 10,000 steps using their fitbit and it shows over 2000 calories burned. I am thinking that is from everything that person does and also their body movements

    How does one figure out which calories are "exercise" calories and which are "being alive" calories?

    With the exception of the Zip, there is an Activity mode you can turn on for workouts.

    Also, if you look at the fitbit dashboard (website) there is a graph that breaks up your day into 15 min time segments. If you change this graph to view calories (it also can show steps and a few other things), then find a segment with no activity and it will tell you how many calories you get for every 15 mins of no activity. These are the calories that are your BMR. Then any activity (walking to the fridge, walking to your car, walking around a store, ect) add to that and finally exercise calories along with all of that.

    The Fitbit adjustments are when the calories you burned through out the day exceed what MFP estimated based on activity level and logged exercise. So if Fitbit says with your activity you burned 2400 calories, but MFP thinks only 2000 than you get an adjustment of 400 calories. This can also work the other way. If MFP thinks you burned 2000 but fitbit says based on your activity it's more like 1800, you will lose 200 calories (if negative adjustments are enabled).
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    daisyverma wrote: »
    I am a little confused. The fitbit shows the sum of all activity...walking, breathing,sleeping etc ? For example a friend of mine does 10,000 steps using their fitbit and it shows over 2000 calories burned. I am thinking that is from everything that person does and also their body movements

    How does one figure out which calories are "exercise" calories and which are "being alive" calories?

    You don't have to worry about that. My fitbit only "counts" calories over my basal 1600 a day as being "extra" calories to be eaten back.

  • sugaraddict4321
    sugaraddict4321 Posts: 15,895 MFP Moderator
    SammieePaigee wrote: »
    Try changing the settings, wear the device on your non-dominate hand but set it to dominate it worked for me.

    Great suggestion! I have a Zip and a Flex and I find the Flex definitely over-estimates my cals. I'll try setting it to dominant even though I wear on non-dominant and see what comes up. :)
  • d_kiwi66
    d_kiwi66 Posts: 3 Member
    Maybe try exchanging it for a different Fitbit. I use the One and find it to be very accurate in terms of knowing when I'm walking or driving/on the train/whatever.[/quote]

    I have the Fitbit one also and it seems to be very accurate for counting steps.
  • ShanitaMarie85
    ShanitaMarie85 Posts: 44 Member
    I love mine and can't give without it! Hoping to win this challenge this week! It'll be my 3rd win in a roll!
  • Kimdbro
    Kimdbro Posts: 922 Member
    SammieePaigee wrote: »
    Try changing the settings, wear the device on your non-dominate hand but set it to dominate it worked for me. Also, have you set up the 'food plan' its a part of fitbit that helps you lose weight, you need to set it to the same goals you have for MFP :smile:

    Exactly what I did, and immediately it worked correctly. I've walked around holding it and counting my steps as I do and it's bang on. Weird things like if I'm doing an excessive amount of map folding (part of my work) it reads weird, so I take it off doing that) obviously if you're waving your arms around a lot this will be an issue... maybe think about that. It works as it was designed to, but if you swing your arms around or are a "hand talker" being a preschool teacher, you may be setting it up for failure. I'm not a step counter really anyway, I care more about calories burned and km (or miles if you prefer) person, steps are relative. I like the motivation. I hav the Surge, so i'm using it as HRM for my gym workouts mainly... the steps per day is just an add on, but I've had no issue with that. Unfortunately the HRM beam crapped out today, so I'm off to exchange for a new one after work.... it's a new product, so I expect some glitching. If making the appropriate changes still doesn't work for you, I'd suggest returning for another. It may just be one of the defectives that are bound to occur.

  • Dragn77
    Dragn77 Posts: 810 Member
    The calories burned per day include everything your body burns in a day...2000 actually sounds about right... If you do nothing at all, if you only sleep all day and never get out of bed, your body is still burning calories just to keep you alive. Fitbit counts all these calories, not just the ones from activities.
  • PayneAS
    PayneAS Posts: 669 Member
    I don't know if the Charge is one of those ones you wear around the wrist but I've heard that people get inaccurate results with those because it'll count steps if you swing your arms. As a teacher—and even more so as a preschool teacher—I bet you are moving your arms a lot even when you aren't walking. I love my FitBit One tracker. Had it for 3 years now and find it accurate. I clip it on my bra and forget about it. It's actually done it's job a little too well in the forgetting department because I keep forgetting to log my sleep every night which I used to do daily.
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    I would recommend that you trust your FitBit, and test it. I don't think that 17000 steps is unreasonable for a preschool teacher. The "average" teacher sits at a desk, stands and lectures, or writes on a chalkboard a lot - activities that probably don't factor into your day a lot. Those activities don't generate a lot of steps or burn that many calories, but getting up and down working with preschoolers is going to mean more activity detected.

    You should join the MFP FitBit Users group. Read the FAQ that is a sticky there. I know it is long, I know it seems complicated, but heybales really did a great job with it and there's really good information in it. There are several very knowledgeable people in the group who will answer your questions.

    To test your FitBit, you need to trust it for several weeks, log your food very accurately (so you'll really know what your "Calories In" value is) and then use your "FitBit Weekly Report" to see if your weight change matches the difference in calories. I've been doing this test for a couple of weeks now and so far it has been very close, but I'm going to continue to pay close attention to it. If, in the long run, my FitBit (also a Charge HR) seems to be underestimating or overestimating my calories, I'll be able to figure out how much offset to apply.
  • bfitgirl
    bfitgirl Posts: 138 Member
    edited March 2015
    I have fitbit one and it very accurate for me step wise. My friend just got the wrist HR one and she said she's easily clocking up her 10,000! I was quiet jealous of her getting in her daily quota until last Saturday out for a nice meal and drinks she turns around to me and goes 'woohoo just got my 10,000 steps' and there it was flashing on her wrist - I mean we were sitting at a table drinking wine! I do question it myself, however not going to burst my pals bubble she's obviously doing a good bit of walking or either a good bit of drinking!
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    daisyverma wrote: »
    I am a little confused. The fitbit shows the sum of all activity...walking, breathing,sleeping etc ? For example a friend of mine does 10,000 steps using their fitbit and it shows over 2000 calories burned. I am thinking that is from everything that person does and also their body movements

    How does one figure out which calories are "exercise" calories and which are "being alive" calories?

    Why do you need to know? A calorie burned is a calorie burned.

    FitBit is trying to track your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), which is the actual important number. Eat less than your TDEE and you lose weight, eat more and you gain.

    You can figure it out, by tracking the calories the FitBit logs while you're exercising (put it in "exercise mode" and/or log it with a start time and duration), but you don't actually need that information.
  • cruciia
    cruciia Posts: 94 Member
    I have both the One and the Charge HR. I thought the Charge HR was overestimating but I wore them both at the same time and they were very very close.

    I am wary that having it on my wrist will be slightly less accurate BUT I'm enjoying it so far. I just stick to the calorie goal I set for myself, not whatever MFP is telling me I should eat now that the Fitbit has synced.
  • steffiejoe
    steffiejoe Posts: 313 Member
    edited March 2015
    Im sad , My husband pre ordered me the fit bit charge HR in January and I still have not received it. He just got an email saying it want be shipped out until late April :\ .

    I do have the flex and its fairly accurate .
  • Danho36
    Danho36 Posts: 30 Member
    Returned the Fitbit ChargeHR and bought a Polar FT7 for one main reason. I wanted to keep a close eye on my heart rate during the course of my high intensity 30 minute workout. The polar has alarms that sound when my heart rate switches from fat burn to my cardio fitness zone. This feature is helping me push myself more effectively during the course of my workout. On the ChargeHR, I had to manually check my heart rate by pushing the button 3 or 4 times. I'm not bashing the Charge though. It's a great product, but not tailored to my fitness routine.
  • lauracups
    lauracups Posts: 533 Member
    I have the Fitbit one, I'm breaking up with it (yes it feels like I'm ending a relationship). Upon honest reflection and being plateaued for almost a year, losing and gaining the same 5 lbs (the amount of time I've been using it) I realized it was WAY over estimating my "adjusted calories" and I was eating those back. I'm waiting for my HRM and plain ol pedometer to come in (ordered it on Amazon) and I'm going to start calculating my exercise based on that.
  • Rhozelyn
    Rhozelyn Posts: 201 Member
    I can't live without my fitbit...at one time it did a wobbly and was over counting stairs whilst driving...you just need to reset it by plugging it onto your PC and following the instructions. I have only ever hit 19000 steps when I was walking round Paris! lol
  • snowy0wl
    snowy0wl Posts: 179 Member
    Assuming you have adjusted for stride length and put in appropriate specs regarding who you are to fitbit, I'd only regard it as a starting point when you use the device. No device is 100% accurate and it's more important to see the numbers relative to each other. You can try calibrating it by left and right dominant hands but in the end it's about how your relative change from what you were already doing as a start. I question a step counter when you can bounce on a ball and count that as 'walking'. Personally I'd focus on hiit training focusing on how your heart response. Walking only gets you so far anyway unless you are just starting out and or have health issues that prevent you from being physically more active. Just move :)
  • donnelly5673
    donnelly5673 Posts: 4 Member
    larhaefreeman wrote: »
    I did remove it this morning from MFP. However, if its telling me I'm taking 17k steps a day, and I'm burning 2000 calories without any exercise at all.. it seems almost pointless.

    I am a preschool teacher and my classroom is on the second floor, but I read the average person barely makes 3k steps a day, and a teacher typically 7k. So when I hit 17k, I thought this was a pointless little device. I mean, while driving - I'll gain 300 steps.

    I'm just thinking its a waste and maybe I dont know how to read it or whatever

    Try doing a hard reset, many of the fittest came out of the box needing this done, you should see your step count become normal. Fitbit calories incorporate your Basal Metabolic Rate and exercise, so you will wake up with hundreds of calories burned but these are just the calories needed to keep you alive when asleep, as you move and exercise these additional calories get piled on as well.

    MFP extrapolates your fitbit calories by comparing a (1) 24hr fitbit projection and a (2) 24hr MFP projection and adding the extra from 1 to 2.... Simples!

    You may be surprised how many calories you are actually burning, if you're not achieving weight loss/gain/stability then look at how you are tracking your intake... I think almost everyone underestimates and don't count that 1 chocolate or hand full of cheese....
  • kuranda10
    kuranda10 Posts: 593 Member
    Use the DriveBit app to counter the driving steps that you are seeing. It will take all the info it records while you'r driving and turn it into a "driving a car" activity in FitBit.
  • GoddessLotus
    GoddessLotus Posts: 10 Member
    It's gotten much better, thank you
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