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How accurate is Fitbit Charge HR's heart rate function?
Shauna2626
Posts: 196 Member
Does anyone have feedback on how accurate Fitbit Charge's heart rate function is, especially as compared to MyFitnessPal calories burned? My Fitbit Flex finally died on me, and I'd love to get a new fitness tracker that has a somewhat accurate heart rate monitor built in.
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I use both a Fitbit charge HR and a polar HR monitor.... I find at low heart rates they tend to be similar in calories and heart rate but at higher heart rates there is quite a variance between the two.... I generally find that my polar with the actual heart rate strap is more accurate for calories etc for me than the Fitbit.....0
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For me it is pretty accurate most of the time. However, sometimes it drops out and sometimes I'll get some readings that I think are higher than they should be. So, I wouldn't count on it as a "medical device" but it works well enough for me.0
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Shauna2626 wrote: »Does anyone have feedback on how accurate Fitbit Charge's heart rate function is, especially as compared to MyFitnessPal calories burned? My Fitbit Flex finally died on me, and I'd love to get a new fitness tracker that has a somewhat accurate heart rate monitor built in.
So you are really asking about calorie burn formula to compare to MFP database entry. (Fitbit's database usage is even better)
Fitbit seems to be using a formula that has great chance of accuracy as far as HR-based calorie burn goes. This is same thing the nicer Polar's use, through self-test and setting.
They use your restingHR.
They use your amount of weekly workouts.
They use your BMI.
They calculate your HRmax (bigger negative for women than men, the bell curve is very wide for women).
But - there are many reasons why HR can be inflated above what is needed purely for the workout energy being expended, ie calories burned.
Dehydrated. Stressed. Medicine. Heat. Interval type workouts.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/773451/is-my-hrm-giving-me-incorrect-calorie-burn/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1044313/this-is-why-hrms-have-limited-use-for-tracking-calories/p1
Then comes the accuracy of the HR device being used.
Some find the optical method used by Fitbit and others loses accuracy as HR goes higher, exactly when the bigger calorie burn would occur.
Some find it problematic all the time - that totally just depends, but the method has indeed found to lose it at higher HR's anyway, but that may never matter to you.
So actually, for some workouts - database (Fitbit using actual metabolism figure, not weight based) could be more accurate and a means of confirming HRM.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/774337/how-to-test-hrm-for-how-accurate-calorie-burn-is/p1
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