FitBit Seem Stupid?

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  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    It's gotten much better, thank you

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