fitbit tdee question

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fishshark
fishshark Posts: 1,886 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
so today I have gotten in more steps then i have all week... 8k. And at 10:30pm fit bit (charge hr) says I have only burned 1700 calories. Yesterday I had 6k steps but I burned 2000 calories for the day. Nothing is different I didn't work out today or yesterday if anything I sat more because I was at a baseball game that went to 12 innings. why is my burn today so much lower then yesterday when I walked a good amount more?

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  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
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    That would be a question to probably ask on the FB boards -
  • fishshark
    fishshark Posts: 1,886 Member
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    maxit wrote: »
    That would be a question to probably ask on the FB boards -

    a lot of people on these boards use a fitbit and I trust their judgment as they have helped me with a lot... but thanks?
  • acmanna
    acmanna Posts: 200 Member
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    I think they meant to check out the fitbit group here on MFP. They should be able to answer your question if you don't find an answer here.
    Id look at how many active minutes you have each day and see if there is a big difference.. Just a guess though
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    There's a few threads with this question on the mfp fitbit forum

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • Pawsforme
    Pawsforme Posts: 645 Member
    edited August 2015
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    Fitbit pretty much records your calories in real time. So at 10:30 p.m. you've still got 90 more minutes of calories to pick up. Even if you did nothing but sit around (or sleep) until midnight, you still will have burned some more calories. Plus it's not just number of steps that matter -- it's the intensity. If you walk 5,000 steps at a very quick pace you might burn more calories than if you walk 7,000 steps at a leisurely pace. And of course your other activity throughout the day matters, too.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    edited August 2015
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    fishshark wrote: »
    so today I have gotten in more steps then i have all week... 8k. And at 10:30pm fit bit (charge hr) says I have only burned 1700 calories. Yesterday I had 6k steps but I burned 2000 calories for the day. Nothing is different I didn't work out today or yesterday if anything I sat more because I was at a baseball game that went to 12 innings. why is my burn today so much lower then yesterday when I walked a good amount more?

    The TDEE that Fitbit displays adds on more as you get through the day so you should never compare days until after the full 24 hours is completed. There is a really good chance you were comparing a 24 hour total burn (yesterday) with 20-22 hours (today). Recheck in the morning and see how the two days compare.

    The main difference, if they still are widely different, would be the intensity of the walking you did. 6k of steps that were mostly from a brisk walk will burn a little more than 6k steps from strolling while shopping.

    Once in a great while (like once every couple of months), my Fitbit will give me a weird number. I assume it is a glitch and ignore it.

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    fishshark wrote: »
    so today I have gotten in more steps then i have all week... 8k. And at 10:30pm fit bit (charge hr) says I have only burned 1700 calories. Yesterday I had 6k steps but I burned 2000 calories for the day.

    Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. It's based on much more than just steps, including sex, age, height, weight (none of which changed in one day), and exertion. You probably have more active minutes on your 2,000-calorie day.

    The only way to gauge the accuracy of your Fitbit burn is to trust it for two weeks then reevaluate your progress. I lost the weight & have kept it off thanks to Fitbit + MFP. As others have said, you can learn a lot in the Fitbit Users group—from enabling negative calorie adjustments to syncing your Fitbit with Trendweight to plot a moving average without the "noise" of water weight: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • fishshark
    fishshark Posts: 1,886 Member
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    thanks everyone... I asked on here because I usually will get an answer faster and I was figuring out dinner calories.. wasn't being snarky and sorry if it appeared that way :smile:
  • fishshark
    fishshark Posts: 1,886 Member
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    editorgrrl wrote: »
    fishshark wrote: »
    so today I have gotten in more steps then i have all week... 8k. And at 10:30pm fit bit (charge hr) says I have only burned 1700 calories. Yesterday I had 6k steps but I burned 2000 calories for the day.

    Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. It's based on much more than just steps, including sex, age, height, weight (none of which changed in one day), and exertion. You probably have more active minutes on your 2,000-calorie day.

    The only way to gauge the accuracy of your Fitbit burn is to trust it for two weeks then reevaluate your progress. I lost the weight & have kept it off thanks to Fitbit + MFP. As others have said, you can learn a lot in the Fitbit Users group—from enabling negative calorie adjustments to syncing your Fitbit with Trendweight to plot a moving average without the "noise" of water weight: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    and according my fibit I had the most active minutes yesterday, more miles then any other day, and more floors climbed... So I'm just confused @editorgrrl
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    If you post screenshots from the Fitbit app for both days in the Fitbit group, someone can probably help you.

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