Can I do anything to make my Fitbit flex more accurate?

samanthachen
samanthachen Posts: 360 Member
edited November 30 in Fitness and Exercise
I've looked through past posts, and I've found people asking if their fitbit calorie burns are accurate. However, I can't really find any info on making it more accurate.

For me, my Fitbit is a wonderful tool to motivate me... get me movin' around. However, the calorie burns seem really far off and all over the place. I wear a HRM for workouts, and the fitbit estimated workout burns seem low compared to my calibrated HRM. However, my daily burns and suggested intake are usually 300-1000 calories more than my 1lb/week calorie goal.

Before it's suggested, I will say that the 1000 more calories are not necessarily on workout days, and the 300 are not necessarily on more sedentary days.

Is there a setting on Fitbit that I'm missing that will make the burns more accurate? I've entered my accurate weight, height, etc.. I log food and exercise in MFP. Is that where stride length comes into play?

So many people rave about how accurate it is for them, so much so that they base their daily calorie intake on that fitbit number. I'd love to be able to do that, if possible.

Thanks in advanced!!

Replies

  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
    Adjust your stride length and I've set mine to dominant but wear it on my non-dominant hand, to lessen the chance it might over-count any steps.

    With MFP set to sedentary, I often get adjustments of a similar value, but mine definitely correspond to more active days! For me it has been very accurate, with the few tweaks above.
  • brb_2013
    brb_2013 Posts: 1,197 Member
    What stride length do you use to make the fitbit think you're walking less? I always feel like it's more steps than I really take. Sorry I'm not able to answer your questions, I have the Charge Hr and do the same trick as above- I say it's on my dominant hand but it's not.
  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
    brb_2013 wrote: »
    What stride length do you use to make the fitbit think you're walking less? I always feel like it's more steps than I really take. Sorry I'm not able to answer your questions, I have the Charge Hr and do the same trick as above- I say it's on my dominant hand but it's not.

    I just made sure it was accurate for my stride. I actually think my Fitbit misses some steps, like when I'm carrying things whilst walking so my arms are more still.
  • samanthachen
    samanthachen Posts: 360 Member
    Thank you!

    I do struggle with the dominant v. non-dominant hand aspect because I write with my left hand, but I do so many other things with my right hand.

    I will try those things and see if it helps.

    Thanks for the help!!!
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Fitbit uses stride length x steps to estimate MILES traveled. Stride length has NOTHING to do with accurately counting the steps. The wristband models are known to less accurate than the body models, like the FB One because they pick up more extraneous arm movement. I don't know of any way to adjust the calories calc.
  • samanthachen
    samanthachen Posts: 360 Member
    Thank you! :smile:
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