How accurate are FitBits?

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ThatDoll
ThatDoll Posts: 37 Member
edited July 2016 in Fitness and Exercise
I have a FitBit Charge HR and according to it, I burn ALOT of calories a day.
I have trouble believing so because it's saying I burn around 3,000 calories per day, when I workout (gym or run) and go to work. I have a somewhat active job at a grocery store taking out people to their cars all the time, usually fast paced walking and lots of cleaning at the end of the night. But I don't know if that's enough to shoot me into the 3000s for calories burnt.
I aim to eat 1,500 calories per day, but I usually end up eating 1,700-2,000. If I really was burning that many calories, wouldn't I be losing weight at a rapid rate? Am I doing something wrong?
Does anyone know how I can get a more accurate reading?

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Replies

  • capaul42
    capaul42 Posts: 1,390 Member
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    Unless you're taking your Charge off while working and putting it in your pocket, it will count all your hand movements (like scanning groceries) as steps. So, odds are your step count is higher than it should be, meaning your calorie count may also be off.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    How long has it been since you've lost weight and how are you measuring your intake? Some people have found the calories burned to be inaccurate (especially on the HR reading models), but your first priority should be making sure you aren't eating more than you think.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    I have a zip, I find it pretty accurate. If anything it seems to underestimate a bit. If you aren't losing at the expected rate either the FitBit is wrong, or you are inaccurate in calculating your calories in (which is very common). If you are using measuring cups, eyeballing, or using the weight on the package as a way to log your calories in, you are probably underestimating how much you are eating. Food scale is the most accurate. It's sad how little a serving of cheese really is. Plus the numbers on the packages can be off by up to 20% (they are typically over by a fair amount, enough to throw your totals off by hundreds per day). The other area to check is your database entries. Most of the database has been entered by users, many are wrong, some are very wrong. There are also regional differences between countries. So double check those numbers as well.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    I have a zip, I find it pretty accurate. If anything it seems to underestimate a bit. If you aren't losing at the expected rate either the FitBit is wrong, or you are inaccurate in calculating your calories in (which is very common). If you are using measuring cups, eyeballing, or using the weight on the package as a way to log your calories in, you are probably underestimating how much you are eating. Food scale is the most accurate. It's sad how little a serving of cheese really is. Plus the numbers on the packages can be off by up to 20% (they are typically over by a fair amount, enough to throw your totals off by hundreds per day). The other area to check is your database entries. Most of the database has been entered by users, many are wrong, some are very wrong. There are also regional differences between countries. So double check those numbers as well.


    All of this

    My Fitbit zip is accurate

    I don't like the HR versions, I think they are a marketing dream. HR is only useful to generate a calorie burn estimate under steady state cardio

    If you're walking that much daily you are highly active though
  • gareths1980
    gareths1980 Posts: 32 Member
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    Hi, I also have a charge HR and find it to be accurate. I doubted the figures but I've tracked it against MFP in an excel sheet for about 15weeks now, and the weight lose it pretty much bang on.
    Have you set the watch up to your correct age,sex,weight,etc. Is it on your non dominant hand.

    Or your not tracking your food intake 100% accurately with food scales (including oils you cook in etc)
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    For those step counts I'd say you've got about twice the calories you should have.
  • gareths1980
    gareths1980 Posts: 32 Member
    edited July 2016
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    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    For those step counts I'd say you've got about twice the calories you should have.

    I would second that comment.

    I don't know how to attach a screen shot, but my weekly overview is;
    76000steps
    55km
    22000cals

    Also I've been told to never use fitbit food intake calculater, I only use MFP for intake and fitbit for expenditure.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    I think it depends what is being logged in exercise and the calorie override, if you're doing that

    For example these are days with about 5 miles worth of steps but also a decent gym workout which overrides them and they are fairly accurate to me

    I could well see OP getting higher burns with higher activity ...but not losing weight because calories intake is where it matters

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  • _runnerbean_
    _runnerbean_ Posts: 640 Member
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    When you log your gym workout or run on mfp make sure you include the correct time of day. Eg if you run at 6pm and add the run to mfp at 8pm then change the start time to 6pm. If you don't do this it counts the exercise twice (Fitbit plus mfp entry). It took me a while to realise that.
    I've a Fitbit zip and it seems fairly accurate.
  • rnurse82
    rnurse82 Posts: 94 Member
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    I have had a charge HR since March I think. I find it more accurate the last 2 months. It has been spot on with my weight loss within 100 calories out the last few weeks. I trust mine.

    Like others have posted there are a lot of variabilities depending on what type of activity you are doing. Movement of your arm during non walking activity will track as steps. My job, I rarely need to move my arm in ways that would count steps.

    The HR part is spot on as well. I have conspired manually checking my HR and comparing during rest and activity. It's right. However you have to wear it in the appropriate spots.

  • rnurse82
    rnurse82 Posts: 94 Member
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    And if I am reading your weekly report right, you ate most of the calories you burned. You only had 2700 ( can't remember the exact amount) that you had as an OUT. So, how much did your weight change last week? It would have been approx .5-.75 lbs I would assume. And that weight loss could be hid by water retention or weighing at a different time of day or in different clothing.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited July 2016
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    rnurse82 wrote: »
    I have had a charge HR since March I think. I find it more accurate the last 2 months. It has been spot on with my weight loss within 100 calories out the last few weeks. I trust mine.

    Like others have posted there are a lot of variabilities depending on what type of activity you are doing. Movement of your arm during non walking activity will track as steps. My job, I rarely need to move my arm in ways that would count steps.

    The HR part is spot on as well. I have conspired manually checking my HR and comparing during rest and activity. It's right. However you have to wear it in the appropriate spots.

    May I ask what you mean as spot on? You mean it's tracking your HR right ..cos the calorie conversion outside of established parameters of steady state cardio is kinda dubious

    rnurse82 wrote: »
    And if I am reading your weekly report right, you ate most of the calories you burned. You only had 2700 ( can't remember the exact amount) that you had as an OUT. So, how much did your weight change last week? It would have been approx .5-.75 lbs I would assume. And that weight loss could be hid by water retention or weighing at a different time of day or in different clothing.

    Over time yes....but not over one week...she would have to take rolling averages over 6-8 and divide to check accuracy ...weight loss unfortunately is not so beautifully linear

    OP Log into trendweight.com and you'll get all that info automatically via your Fitbit logging
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    rnurse82 wrote: »
    And if I am reading your weekly report right, you ate most of the calories you burned. You only had 2700 ( can't remember the exact amount) that you had as an OUT. So, how much did your weight change last week? It would have been approx .5-.75 lbs I would assume. And that weight loss could be hid by water retention or weighing at a different time of day or in different clothing.

    If you look on the right hand side of that box, it shows the total number of calories burned, the total eaten, and then a third line that shows the rate of loss she has chosen (5250 calories, 1.5 pounds per week) that Fitbit deducts, just like MFP. So that 2700 calorie deficit is on top of the plan, if everything is accurate.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    _runnerbean_ wrote: »
    When you log your gym workout or run on mfp make sure you include the correct time of day. Eg if you run at 6pm and add the run to mfp at 8pm then change the start time to 6pm. If you don't do this it counts the exercise twice (Fitbit plus mfp entry). It took me a while to realise that.
    I've a Fitbit zip and it seems fairly accurate.

    I've chosen to log all activity on FitBit. I find that the calorie estimates are more accurate (or maybe just more believable). For example an hour of swimming: FitBit gives me 250/hour, MFP gives me 450/hour. That's a big difference. The only thing is that you don't get the news feed kudos here. I do make a note in my diary for it though.
  • ragsibobs
    ragsibobs Posts: 22 Member
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    I tried to compare your stats to my polar stats based on steps and calories burned. Your Fitbit estimates a lot more calories burned than my polar on days with similar number of steps.

    For example, on Friday I went for a 10mile run and ended up with 20102 steps and burned 2595 calories according to polar. You've got a similar step count of 21573 steps and burned 3166. Today I have completed a half marathon and my step count is around 30000 and calories burned around 2850.

    On a day where my step count has been around 14000, polar has estimated 2060 calories. On your day with a similar step count, Fitbit has estimated around 2650.

    I'm not saying that either is right or wrong, just pointing out the difference. But if you're not losing any weight in a week or two, I would consider cutting down on some of the exercise calories you are eating back.
  • ragsibobs
    ragsibobs Posts: 22 Member
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    Sorry, I forgot that your calorie burn depends on your size as well, so it could be that Fitbit is not too far off (based on me not knowing your size/weight and height).

    If that is the case, are you logging your food accurately?

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