Fitbit Charge HR says I burned over 1200 cals?
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Elaina291
Posts: 87 Member
The only thing I did today was 40 min elliptical, 25 min of walking the track, maybe 1-2 hours of walking from grocery shopping. It says I took over 15,000 steps but I don't think that burns that many calories. How accurate is the fitbit charge HR and how much should I take off from fitbit?
I was thinking I should only eat back maybe 150-200 to be on the safe side. If that.
I was thinking I should only eat back maybe 150-200 to be on the safe side. If that.
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Replies
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Fit Bit calorie burns is also calculated from your BMR, which is how many calories you'd burn all day if you were in a coma. That's why you wake up with calories burned.1
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What do you see on MFP for an exercise adjustment?
What is your height and current weight?
For 12,500 steps, I got a 533 calorie adjustment yesterday. I'm 5 feet tall and ~115 pounds.
Fitbit showed my calorie burn for the day as just shy of 2000.
~Lyssa0 -
I suspect the number you're looking at (1200) is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) -- it's the total number of calories that Fitbit estimates you've burned so far today, including your BMR and any exercise/movement you've done.1
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macgurlnet wrote: »For 12,500 steps, I got a 533 calorie adjustment yesterday. I'm 5 feet tall and ~115 pounds.
~Lyssa
Wow! Your adjustment is very different from mine. I get approximately a 250 calorie adjustment for every 10,000 steps outside of exercise. Exercise is with a heart rate monitor, regular stars do not include heart rate. I use Garmin.0 -
macgurlnet wrote: »For 12,500 steps, I got a 533 calorie adjustment yesterday. I'm 5 feet tall and ~115 pounds.
~Lyssa
Wow! Your adjustment is very different from mine. I get approximately a 250 calorie adjustment for every 10,000 steps outside of exercise. Exercise is with a heart rate monitor, regular stars do not include heart rate. I use Garmin.
That's interesting! Are you similar height/weight?
I just have a Fitbit Flex and don't have a separate HR monitor. Fitbit's numbers have seemed pretty accurate for me so far. I've had my Fitbit for a year and a half now.
ETA: MFP gives me 1450 as Sedentary maintenance cals; I get a positive adjustment after 2k steps or so. I generally start the day with -80ish
~Lyssa0 -
macgurlnet wrote: »What do you see on MFP for an exercise adjustment?
What is your height and current weight?
For 12,500 steps, I got a 533 calorie adjustment yesterday. I'm 5 feet tall and ~115 pounds.
Fitbit showed my calorie burn for the day as just shy of 2000.
~Lyssa
My current weight is 200 and height is 5'30 -
Well from my fitbit account it says I burned 500 from elliptical so I think I will just use that to make adjustments on how much I should eat back.0
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macgurlnet wrote: »macgurlnet wrote: »For 12,500 steps, I got a 533 calorie adjustment yesterday. I'm 5 feet tall and ~115 pounds.
~Lyssa
Wow! Your adjustment is very different from mine. I get approximately a 250 calorie adjustment for every 10,000 steps outside of exercise. Exercise is with a heart rate monitor, regular stars do not include heart rate. I use Garmin.
That's interesting! Are you similar height/weight?
I just have a Fitbit Flex and don't have a separate HR monitor. Fitbit's numbers have seemed pretty accurate for me so far. I've had my Fitbit for a year and a half now.
ETA: MFP gives me 1450 as Sedentary maintenance cals; I get a positive adjustment after 2k steps or so. I generally start the day with -80ish
~Lyssa
Yeah, I'm 5'3 and 119. Maybe the hrm makes the difference. Doesn't phase me as most of my week day walking is in formal business wear and heels from one building to another for meetings. Though some of the crap I have to carry to said meetings should count as weight lifting.
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OP there are several different numbers you might be looking at so let's make sure we are talking about the same thing.
First, FitBit measures your total calories burned which is the sum of your BMR (what you would burn if you were in a coma essentially), your regular activity (all the steps you take in a day around your house, running errands, etc) and your exercise (elliptical, purposeful walks, etc). That total calories burned from Fitbit is a decent estimate of your TDEE or your maintenance calories.
MFP has set you a calorie goal which is based on what it thinks your BMR plus your regular activity is (those two together are called NEAT) and then gives you a deficit from that. If you exercise, or are just more active than what MFP thinks you should be based on the stats you provided, you get an exercise adjustment from FitBit. That's the difference between what MFP thought you would do and what FitBit says you actually did, but allowing for your deficit too.
So when you said Fitbit says you burned 1200, was that a number you saw on FitBit, and it was your total cals burned, or was it your exercise adjustment on MFP?
For example, MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1850. My FitBit says yesterday I burned 2015 cals, so my exercise adjustment was 165 cals because I burned more than MFP thought I would. I have my activity level set to active since I average 15K steps/day, so my adjustments are actually smaller than if you are set at sedentary and rack up a lot of steps or do a lot of extra exercise.5 -
WinoGelato wrote: »OP there are several different numbers you might be looking at so let's make sure we are talking about the same thing.
First, FitBit measures your total calories burned which is the sum of your BMR (what you would burn if you were in a coma essentially), your regular activity (all the steps you take in a day around your house, running errands, etc) and your exercise (elliptical, purposeful walks, etc). That total calories burned from Fitbit is a decent estimate of your TDEE or your maintenance calories.
MFP has set you a calorie goal which is based on what it thinks your BMR plus your regular activity is (those two together are called NEAT) and then gives you a deficit from that. If you exercise, or are just more active than what MFP thinks you should be based on the stats you provided, you get an exercise adjustment from FitBit. That's the difference between what MFP thought you would do and what FitBit says you actually did, but allowing for your deficit too.
So when you said Fitbit says you burned 1200, was that a number you saw on FitBit, and it was your total cals burned, or was it your exercise adjustment on MFP?
For example, MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1850. My FitBit says yesterday I burned 2015 cals, so my exercise adjustment was 165 cals because I burned more than MFP thought I would. I have my activity level set to active since I average 15K steps/day, so my adjustments are actually smaller than if you are set at sedentary and rack up a lot of steps or do a lot of extra exercise.
I have MFP set to sedentary because I am not active everyday and I have a desk job. And the 1200 was what I saw on MFP. 500 for elliptical is what I saw on my Fitbit.
So I guess the other 700 is what I would burn normally everyday?0 -
How long have you had the Charge HR?
The first few weeks are crazy, and you should ignore the data for most of it.
But after that, it gets really accurate.
I've had mine since October 2015, and I maintain my goal weight by eating back all my exercise calories.2 -
Fitbit calculates your TDEE so everything you burn the entire day including BMR, NEAT and exercise, also 15000+ steps is a lot more than sedentary0
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Do you work out at least 4x a week? If so, you may want to change your status to lightly active. Sedentary is 3000 steps or less and you seem to do more than that.0
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nosebag1212 wrote: »Fitbit calculates your TDEE so everything you burn the entire day including BMR, NEAT and exercise, also 15000+ steps is a lot more than sedentary
This.
It doesn't sound insane to me, if your activity is set to sedentary. I never linked my fitbit but I just ate 20% less than the average number it gave me (my exercise routine is pretty much the same every week).
I'm however not sure about how accurate fitbit is for the elliptical.0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »OP there are several different numbers you might be looking at so let's make sure we are talking about the same thing.
First, FitBit measures your total calories burned which is the sum of your BMR (what you would burn if you were in a coma essentially), your regular activity (all the steps you take in a day around your house, running errands, etc) and your exercise (elliptical, purposeful walks, etc). That total calories burned from Fitbit is a decent estimate of your TDEE or your maintenance calories.
MFP has set you a calorie goal which is based on what it thinks your BMR plus your regular activity is (those two together are called NEAT) and then gives you a deficit from that. If you exercise, or are just more active than what MFP thinks you should be based on the stats you provided, you get an exercise adjustment from FitBit. That's the difference between what MFP thought you would do and what FitBit says you actually did, but allowing for your deficit too.
So when you said Fitbit says you burned 1200, was that a number you saw on FitBit, and it was your total cals burned, or was it your exercise adjustment on MFP?
For example, MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1850. My FitBit says yesterday I burned 2015 cals, so my exercise adjustment was 165 cals because I burned more than MFP thought I would. I have my activity level set to active since I average 15K steps/day, so my adjustments are actually smaller than if you are set at sedentary and rack up a lot of steps or do a lot of extra exercise.
I have MFP set to sedentary because I am not active everyday and I have a desk job. And the 1200 was what I saw on MFP. 500 for elliptical is what I saw on my Fitbit.
So I guess the other 700 is what I would burn normally everyday?
Your Fitbit adjustment is how many extra calories you burned above what MFP thought you would burn. This means it includes exercise and any daily activity that is above your activity level setting on MFP. 15k steps is in the Active/Very Active range which is why you are seeing such a large adjustment.2 -
WinoGelato wrote: »OP there are several different numbers you might be looking at so let's make sure we are talking about the same thing.
First, FitBit measures your total calories burned which is the sum of your BMR (what you would burn if you were in a coma essentially), your regular activity (all the steps you take in a day around your house, running errands, etc) and your exercise (elliptical, purposeful walks, etc). That total calories burned from Fitbit is a decent estimate of your TDEE or your maintenance calories.
MFP has set you a calorie goal which is based on what it thinks your BMR plus your regular activity is (those two together are called NEAT) and then gives you a deficit from that. If you exercise, or are just more active than what MFP thinks you should be based on the stats you provided, you get an exercise adjustment from FitBit. That's the difference between what MFP thought you would do and what FitBit says you actually did, but allowing for your deficit too.
So when you said Fitbit says you burned 1200, was that a number you saw on FitBit, and it was your total cals burned, or was it your exercise adjustment on MFP?
For example, MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1850. My FitBit says yesterday I burned 2015 cals, so my exercise adjustment was 165 cals because I burned more than MFP thought I would. I have my activity level set to active since I average 15K steps/day, so my adjustments are actually smaller than if you are set at sedentary and rack up a lot of steps or do a lot of extra exercise.
I have MFP set to sedentary because I am not active everyday and I have a desk job. And the 1200 was what I saw on MFP. 500 for elliptical is what I saw on my Fitbit.
So I guess the other 700 is what I would burn normally everyday?
No, what you are seeing on MFP is the adjustment above what it thought you would burn at a sedentary, non exercise level and what you actually burned according to FitBit. Even with a desk job, if you are getting that many steps and that big of an adjustment it is likely that you should raise your activity level. I was set at sedentary too when I first got my FitBit for those same reasons but when my exercise adjustments were so high, I got good advice on here that averaging 8000 or more steps a day isn't sedentary. I changed mine to lightly active, and now active. That gave me more calories in my goal from MFP and then the exercise adjustments were smaller and more representative of my actual exercise.
I think I remember you from a thread the other day, if I recall correctly, aren't you currently set to 1200 and losing more than 2 lbs/week? This FitBit discussion is confirming, if that's the case, you really do have your calories set too low. How long have you had the Charge and what does FitBit say your average total calorie burn is?0 -
can somebody post that chart that lists your activity level per number of steps?0
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WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »OP there are several different numbers you might be looking at so let's make sure we are talking about the same thing.
First, FitBit measures your total calories burned which is the sum of your BMR (what you would burn if you were in a coma essentially), your regular activity (all the steps you take in a day around your house, running errands, etc) and your exercise (elliptical, purposeful walks, etc). That total calories burned from Fitbit is a decent estimate of your TDEE or your maintenance calories.
MFP has set you a calorie goal which is based on what it thinks your BMR plus your regular activity is (those two together are called NEAT) and then gives you a deficit from that. If you exercise, or are just more active than what MFP thinks you should be based on the stats you provided, you get an exercise adjustment from FitBit. That's the difference between what MFP thought you would do and what FitBit says you actually did, but allowing for your deficit too.
So when you said Fitbit says you burned 1200, was that a number you saw on FitBit, and it was your total cals burned, or was it your exercise adjustment on MFP?
For example, MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1850. My FitBit says yesterday I burned 2015 cals, so my exercise adjustment was 165 cals because I burned more than MFP thought I would. I have my activity level set to active since I average 15K steps/day, so my adjustments are actually smaller than if you are set at sedentary and rack up a lot of steps or do a lot of extra exercise.
I have MFP set to sedentary because I am not active everyday and I have a desk job. And the 1200 was what I saw on MFP. 500 for elliptical is what I saw on my Fitbit.
So I guess the other 700 is what I would burn normally everyday?
No, what you are seeing on MFP is the adjustment above what it thought you would burn at a sedentary, non exercise level and what you actually burned according to FitBit. Even with a desk job, if you are getting that many steps and that big of an adjustment it is likely that you should raise your activity level. I was set at sedentary too when I first got my FitBit for those same reasons but when my exercise adjustments were so high, I got good advice on here that averaging 8000 or more steps a day isn't sedentary. I changed mine to lightly active, and now active. That gave me more calories in my goal from MFP and then the exercise adjustments were smaller and more representative of my actual exercise.
I think I remember you from a thread the other day, if I recall correctly, aren't you currently set to 1200 and losing more than 2 lbs/week? This FitBit discussion is confirming, if that's the case, you really do have your calories set too low. How long have you had the Charge and what does FitBit say your average total calorie burn is?
Just to note, if you do change your activity level on MFP, change it to something similar on FitBit.0 -
How long have you had the Charge HR?
The first few weeks are crazy, and you should ignore the data for most of it.
But after that, it gets really accurate.
I've had mine since October 2015, and I maintain my goal weight by eating back all my exercise calories.
This! First few months after I got mine, I didn't find the numbers accurate at all. They are pretty much spot on now as my fitbit has "learned" me (I wear it 24/7).1 -
WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »OP there are several different numbers you might be looking at so let's make sure we are talking about the same thing.
First, FitBit measures your total calories burned which is the sum of your BMR (what you would burn if you were in a coma essentially), your regular activity (all the steps you take in a day around your house, running errands, etc) and your exercise (elliptical, purposeful walks, etc). That total calories burned from Fitbit is a decent estimate of your TDEE or your maintenance calories.
MFP has set you a calorie goal which is based on what it thinks your BMR plus your regular activity is (those two together are called NEAT) and then gives you a deficit from that. If you exercise, or are just more active than what MFP thinks you should be based on the stats you provided, you get an exercise adjustment from FitBit. That's the difference between what MFP thought you would do and what FitBit says you actually did, but allowing for your deficit too.
So when you said Fitbit says you burned 1200, was that a number you saw on FitBit, and it was your total cals burned, or was it your exercise adjustment on MFP?
For example, MFP thinks my maintenance cals are 1850. My FitBit says yesterday I burned 2015 cals, so my exercise adjustment was 165 cals because I burned more than MFP thought I would. I have my activity level set to active since I average 15K steps/day, so my adjustments are actually smaller than if you are set at sedentary and rack up a lot of steps or do a lot of extra exercise.
I have MFP set to sedentary because I am not active everyday and I have a desk job. And the 1200 was what I saw on MFP. 500 for elliptical is what I saw on my Fitbit.
So I guess the other 700 is what I would burn normally everyday?
No, what you are seeing on MFP is the adjustment above what it thought you would burn at a sedentary, non exercise level and what you actually burned according to FitBit. Even with a desk job, if you are getting that many steps and that big of an adjustment it is likely that you should raise your activity level. I was set at sedentary too when I first got my FitBit for those same reasons but when my exercise adjustments were so high, I got good advice on here that averaging 8000 or more steps a day isn't sedentary. I changed mine to lightly active, and now active. That gave me more calories in my goal from MFP and then the exercise adjustments were smaller and more representative of my actual exercise.
I think I remember you from a thread the other day, if I recall correctly, aren't you currently set to 1200 and losing more than 2 lbs/week? This FitBit discussion is confirming, if that's the case, you really do have your calories set too low. How long have you had the Charge and what does FitBit say your average total calorie burn is?
Just to note, if you do change your activity level on MFP, change it to something similar on FitBit.
@zyxst - Fitbit doesn't have an activity level setting.
If you are talking about making sure the calories it says you can eat reports similar to MFP, then they want to make sure their rate of loss is set to the same thing.1
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