Is Fitbit overly generous?

johnhenry883
johnhenry883 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been logging at times well over 10,000 steps each day on my fitbit one...as I track from the moment I get up...walking the dog and walking at work all day.
There are some days I leave extra calories on the table that were earned from walking.
I am just wondering how accurate people are finding that fitbit is when it comes to getting these extra calories earned.
At times I wonder if I may be getting more earned calories from simple walking than I should and therefore eating too much. Seems I have been stuck at the same weight for several days now.

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Some people yes, others no. However, several days isn't long enough to judge whether it is for you or not. I'd give it a month before evaluating your burns and your logging to see what may be going on.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    When I reached Maintenance - I learned that if I ate under what my Fitbit One showed for calories burned, I continued to lose weight. So to me: it was fairly accurate or even undercounted. But it also depends on what you're doing. Fitbit can't tell intensity. If you're walking on the treadmill at an incline, you're burning more than Fitbit registers for example. (It would theoretically give you the same burn for treadmill 4mph @ 0 incline as 4mph @ 5 incline.)
  • Colorscheme
    Colorscheme Posts: 1,179 Member
    I've had my fitbit since August and when I take ten thousand steps, it says it's something like five hundred calories burned. I dont know if it's accurate or not, and my TDEE ends up being around 2200 calories.
  • Llamapants86
    Llamapants86 Posts: 1,221 Member
    I've been tracking my food and fitbit burns as well as my weight for the last 2 months. My results confirm that my fitbit does give me too many calories by about 100 kcals a day. However even a fitbit just gives you an estimate to be used as a starting point. Adjust as you see fit.
  • Pawsforme
    Pawsforme Posts: 645 Member
    As far as I can tell from using my Charge HR since the first week in August -- if anything it slightly under estimates my TDEE.
  • CooCooPuff
    CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
    When I started using my Fitbit, I would eat back 50% of my exercise calories. I continued to lose, so I've been slowly increasing my intake to maintain weight. I'm currently subtracting 100 calories, not long enough to determine if I should stop here or go lower, but it is very close for me.
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
    I don't tend to eat back exercise calories anyway, but my Fitbit generally gives me a TDEE of 2300-2600 calories, which is the same as I get if I plug my numbers in online, so I guess it's accurate enough.

    I often get 10,000 steps just from rushing around after my kids and being at work (I'm a teacher), and I feel exhausted at the end of the day, so I must be doing something lol.
  • Mouse_Potato
    Mouse_Potato Posts: 1,507 Member
    Pawsforme wrote: »
    As far as I can tell from using my Charge HR since the first week in August -- if anything it slightly under estimates my TDEE.

    This has been my experience as well. It generally underestimates by ~100 calories a day. In addition to intensity, it also does not take in to account body composition.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Several days is not enough time to accurately assess anything. Map it over several weeks.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    edited December 2015
    Mine sems to be pretty accurate. I've been watching it for about eight weeks now. Weight loss is not linear. You will not lose X number of pounds every few days/weeks. There will be slow weeks, there will be gains. You need to give it more time and see what your results are.
  • johnhenry883
    johnhenry883 Posts: 11 Member
    Thanks to everyone for your replies.

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