Yes the Fitbit charge HR is accurate

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Bshmerlie
Bshmerlie Posts: 1,026 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So over the last six weeks since I got the fitbit I have compared exactly what it says are my burned calories (98,932) and subtracted my calories consumed (63,655). The difference is my deficit (35,277) over that time span. At 3500 calories per pound I should have lost 10 pounds. And guess what? I lost exactly 10 pounds. Sometimes I look at my fitbit and wonder did I really burn that much today? Well, I guess its safe to say that I did. :) I am very tight with my weighing and logging everything I eat. I mean not every day can be absolutely perfect but I tend to overestimate if I'm not sure. This gives me a lot of confidence as I continue this weight loss journey. My goal is to be 180 by Xmas. I feel very confident I can get there or at least pretty darn close.
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Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Wow -- thanks for doing the math! I've had mine for about a month now and -- while I didn't do the math -- I have maintained exactly as I would expect based on my calories in/calories out (as shown by the Fitbit). It's made maintaining a LOT less intimidating.

    Congratulations on the 10 pounds!
  • elkhunter7x6
    elkhunter7x6 Posts: 88 Member
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    I wish mine was closer. I have actually lost 15lbs during the past 8 weeks. My fitbit shows my burned calories 230,693 and my consumed calories 148,374. That is a deficit of 82319 which translates to 23.51 lbs.
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
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    elkhunter7x6 wrote: »
    I wish mine was closer. I have actually lost 15lbs during the past 8 weeks. My fitbit shows my burned calories 230,693 and my consumed calories 148,374. That is a deficit of 82319 which translates to 23.51 lbs.

    Maybe it isn't the fitbit. OP mentions that they're very tight with their weighing & logging of everything. That could be the difference between their experience and yours.

    Tho if you are super diligent when it comes to your weighing/measuring everything you eat & drink, disregard my post :)
  • Bshmerlie
    Bshmerlie Posts: 1,026 Member
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    elkhunter7x6 wrote: »
    I wish mine was closer. I have actually lost 15lbs during the past 8 weeks. My fitbit shows my burned calories 230,693 and my consumed calories 148,374. That is a deficit of 82319 which translates to 23.51 lbs.

    I really am super diligent about being very accurate with the exact amount of calories that I eat and log. You'll also notice in my diary that I do tend to eat a lot of the same foods over and over. So if my diary says I eat 8 ounces of chicken I do actually trim it to that exact 8 ounces. I weigh my fruit to the gram. I am pretty confident that I am never really off by any significant amount. I eat very simple foods so they are easy to enter. I BBQ my proteins and I don't use sauces or oils or things like that where you can lose hidden calories. Like I said the only time I could actually be off is when I go out to eat and even then I error on the side of caution.
  • MakePeasNotWar
    MakePeasNotWar Posts: 1,329 Member
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    I haven't done the long term math, but I find that when I get my weekly "report", the difference in CICO tends to match my actual weight change (or lack thereof) within about 10%.
  • Yoshirio
    Yoshirio Posts: 242 Member
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    My fitbit is always on target.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    I would assume the accuracy would rely heavily on the types of activities/exercises the user is doing, no?
  • Bshmerlie
    Bshmerlie Posts: 1,026 Member
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    Hornsby wrote: »
    I would assume the accuracy would rely heavily on the types of activities/exercises the user is doing, no?
    Possibly. I'm walking on a treadmill.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,651 Member
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    legacybush wrote: »
    I LIKE CHOCOLATE!!!

    As far as outbursts go, thumbs up, bayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyybe. Thumbs up! :)

  • Bshmerlie
    Bshmerlie Posts: 1,026 Member
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    The reason I did this post is...when I first got my Fitbit my major concern was just how accurate it was at calculating the calories burned. The only way to be fairly sure that it is accurate is to do the math over a period of time. The Fitbit can only figure out the calories burned. As users we need to make sure the calories IN are just as accurate or the information is not going to be usefull. I feel I am very accurate on my Calories IN and the actual weight loss on the scale confirmed that pretty closely.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    Bshmerlie wrote: »
    Hornsby wrote: »
    I would assume the accuracy would rely heavily on the types of activities/exercises the user is doing, no?
    Possibly. I'm walking on a treadmill.

    Yea, I would guess it would be pretty accurate for that since walking is one of the easiest exercises to measure caloric burn with. I would guess that folks that use it for weight lifting and other type activities would suffer inaccuracies.
  • golgoroo
    golgoroo Posts: 69 Member
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    Thanks, OP, for inspiring me to look at my own data. Now I'm reasonably confident I'm logging well. Given the numbers from my Fitbit Charge HR & my calories based on my logging at MFP, I should be down about 11 lbs. I'm actually down about 9.5 lbs. Less than 20% difference & I'm happy with that for the time being. I will likely need to get more careful once I approach my goal weight. But for now, it's reasonable.
  • MakePeasNotWar
    MakePeasNotWar Posts: 1,329 Member
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    Hornsby wrote: »
    I would assume the accuracy would rely heavily on the types of activities/exercises the user is doing, no?

    Definitely. I log non-step exercises separately because the Fitbit is not really meant for it, and even the HR function is inappropriate for a lot of things. I find that it's not a huge issue for me, though, because all I really do these is hiking and strength training, and the strength training burns so few calories that a small error margin there makes little difference.

    When I was still boxing several times a week, my Fitbit was pretty useless.
  • Mouse_Potato
    Mouse_Potato Posts: 1,503 Member
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    I am really glad to read this post because when I saw what the Fitbit gave me for a simple dog walk I was convinced it was on crack. People in the forums are always saying that walking doesn't burn much, but the Fitbit thinks otherwise! :smiley:
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    Mouse_Potato wrote: »
    When I saw what the Fitbit gave me for a simple dog walk I was convinced it was on crack.

    The only way to gauge the accuracy of any device is to trust it for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress. I was shocked how many calories Fitbit said I could eat. But I lost the weight—and kept it off.

    Also, I enabled negative calorie adjustments, log everything I eat & drink accurately & honestly, and log exercise in Fitbit—never MFP.
  • Sweep79
    Sweep79 Posts: 30 Member
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    Thanks for this. I only got mine yesterday and was worried it seem to be showing a lot more activity than it should... But I am also very diligent when it comes to logging and weighing so fingers crossed. I am a little scared to trust it and have closed down tonight with a large deficit as a result!
  • elkhunter7x6
    elkhunter7x6 Posts: 88 Member
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    Bshmerlie wrote: »
    elkhunter7x6 wrote: »
    I wish mine was closer. I have actually lost 15lbs during the past 8 weeks. My fitbit shows my burned calories 230,693 and my consumed calories 148,374. That is a deficit of 82319 which translates to 23.51 lbs.

    I really am super diligent about being very accurate with the exact amount of calories that I eat and log. You'll also notice in my diary that I do tend to eat a lot of the same foods over and over. So if my diary says I eat 8 ounces of chicken I do actually trim it to that exact 8 ounces. I weigh my fruit to the gram. I am pretty confident that I am never really off by any significant amount. I eat very simple foods so they are easy to enter. I BBQ my proteins and I don't use sauces or oils or things like that where you can lose hidden calories. Like I said the only time I could actually be off is when I go out to eat and even then I error on the side of caution.

    I weigh and log everything as well. I am 5'11, 211lbs, 44yrs and other than lifting weights 3x week and walking 5 miles 4 days a week, I am not extremly active. During the past 56 days according to my weighing of food and logging, I have averaged eating 2649 cals/per day. If my Fitbit burn is correct then I was actually averaging closer to 3181cals/per day eaten. And I still lost 15lbs which means I was eating at around a 937 cal/per day deficit! That would put my TDEE at around 4118 ?

  • Mouse_Potato
    Mouse_Potato Posts: 1,503 Member
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    editorgrrl wrote: »
    Mouse_Potato wrote: »
    When I saw what the Fitbit gave me for a simple dog walk I was convinced it was on crack.

    The only way to gauge the accuracy of any device is to trust it for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress. I was shocked how many calories Fitbit said I could eat. But I lost the weight—and kept it off.

    Also, I enabled negative calorie adjustments, log everything I eat & drink accurately & honestly, and log exercise in Fitbit—never MFP.

    I am familiar with this concept. I wore a BodyMedia for about a year, quitting only when they changed the algorithm and it started telling me I was burning 2700 on rest days.

    What I find interesting about the Fitbit (and granted I've only had mine a few weeks) is that it seems to start with an assumption of very low BMR, but then credits higher than expected (for me) burns for any exercise at all. The online calculators I've used have all estimated my BMR to be around 1300, but the Fitbit assumes 1210. Then it makes up for it by giving me more credit for movement. At the end of the day, the numbers look about like what I would expect.
  • Bshmerlie
    Bshmerlie Posts: 1,026 Member
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    Mouse_Potato wrote: »
    I am really glad to read this post because when I saw what the Fitbit gave me for a simple dog walk I was convinced it was on crack. People in the forums are always saying that walking doesn't burn much, but the Fitbit thinks otherwise! :smiley:

    All my exercise is walking. I try and hit 10,000 steps a day but sometimes it is only around 5,000. It does also matter how much you currently weigh. Someone who weighs 300 pounds would burn much more than someone who weighs 200 pounds. I'm 5'5 and weigh 210 pounds. I typically burn about 2300 calories per day for my typical day. As I loose weight I'm expecting that burn amount to drop. So if I want to continue at my current pace I will either have to eat less or exercise more.
  • Kimegatron
    Kimegatron Posts: 772 Member
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    Question, where did you get to the "calories consumed" amount? Did you just add it all up yourself?

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