Fitbit charge HR overestimates walking calories hugely

The heart rate monitor can actually be turned off in the settings (on the desktop 'app' I believe) on the HR models. Try that and see if you get better numbers.

That 2901 calories (eg in green) is the TOTAL burn. It is what you could maintain at on that day.
What MFP tells you takes into account your deficit, eg 2901 minus 500 calories and you will lose weight.

There is nothing wrong with your Fitbit. Try it for a month and trust it.

Yes, the number Fitbit gives you is your total calories burned so far that day. It's your combined calories from BMI and any activity you've done -- whether that's walking or working out at the gym or cleaning your house or brushing your teeth or whatever. I don't understand how people say "I walked 10,000 steps today and it gave me XXX extra calories." Because many of those steps were in your normal daily activity. You won't see them on your dashboard as a walk. So how could you possibly know how many "extra" calories it's giving based on total number of steps? A variety of things besides walking can affect your TDEE. I didn't walk as many steps yesterday as I normally do, but I scrubbed my front porch. So my TDEE was (understandably) just as high as it would have been if I'd walked more. Walking is not everything!

And don't forget to make sure your settings are as accurate as possible. Measure your stride length and enter it accurately. Make sure your age, sex, height and current weight are accurate.

One thing I do is to wear my Fitbit on my left (non dominant) hand but set it as if I'm wearing it on my right (dominant) hand. That lowers the sensitivity and helps ensure it doesn't give me credit for extra steps. Some people who think their Fitbits are over estimating calories have said they've changed their settings so that the Fitbit thinks they're an inch or two shorter and that's helped.

@gebeziseva I also tend to have a pretty high heart rate when walking and I've also found that the fitbit charge hr grossly overestimates my calorie burn. As a result I haven't really used it much the last 6 months. It has recently been suggested to me to use the webapp to turn off the heart rate monitoring to see if that helps. You may want to try that too to see if its at least as accurate as a pedometer app.

TilKingdomCome wrote: »

I still disagree that it is overestimating. 2901 total calories burnt was not the OP it was someone with similar stats but a high heart rate from memory. I was using that one as an eg.

I too have the same stats as the OP give or take a kg and a couple of cm but I am fit so presumably might have a lower HR. I burn on average 2400/day. If I consume 1900 I lose .5kg/week. I have had a Fitbit for the entire time I have lost weight (23kg) minus a month and have eaten every one of the adjustment/exercise calories (always set at negative adjustment). The total calories burnt has been very consistent between a flex and HR.

I just don't think you can make a claim of it being unreliable after just 24 hours of use. There are a few little tricks to make it as reliable as possible, eg non-dominant, negative adjustments, etc. and there are trackers that overestimate STEPS but these are pretty obvious (my son had one and he would do same activities but thousands of steps more than his brother).

They are hard to trust but they do generally work if you give it a shot and your stats look pretty reasonable to me.

I've just about had it with Fitbit though so this will be my last one (Blaze). The fitbits my family have are continually breaking and I'm at my wits end with their customer service who used to be ok.

I was the one with 2,900 calorie burn. I have a fitbit Alta which does not have a HR monitor.

rcktgirl05 wrote: »

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

Psychgrrl wrote: »

How do you all get so many calories for steps? I'm 5'3, 115 and get about 250 calories for 15,000 steps being set at sedentary in MFP.

By being heavier.

Heavier people take more energy to move the same distance as lighter people because there's more mass to transport.

I'm 5'4" and weigh 183 and I only got 2 calories added today for my 11,000 steps. Odd.

Are you set to "active" by any chance? If not, it could be a one off glitch.

rcktgirl05 wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

rcktgirl05 wrote: »

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

Psychgrrl wrote: »

How do you all get so many calories for steps? I'm 5'3, 115 and get about 250 calories for 15,000 steps being set at sedentary in MFP.

By being heavier.

Heavier people take more energy to move the same distance as lighter people because there's more mass to transport.

I'm 5'4" and weigh 183 and I only got 2 calories added today for my 11,000 steps. Odd.

Are you set to "active" by any chance? If not, it could be a one off glitch.

I am set to Active because I try to do something ever day. Should I not be? I'm confused now.

You can choose which activity level best describes you. Do you have negative adjustments enabled? This ensures you will get calories taken away so you don't eat too many if you don't happen to meet mfp's active level on any given day.

I think I'd struggle keeping to "active" 7 days a week.

amusedmonkey wrote: »

You can be set to active, it makes no difference since Fitbit will adjust calories accordingly, but when you are set to active the extra calories you get from your tracker are mostly used to fulfill that "active" status, so you don't get many extra calories above your allowance. The extra calories people are reporting are mostly for the "sedentary" setting.

Oh that makes sense. In any case, the Fitbit - MFP combo is working for me so I'm gonna keep on keeping on!

amusedmonkey wrote: »

rcktgirl05 wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

You can be set to active, it makes no difference since Fitbit will adjust calories accordingly, but when you are set to active the extra calories you get from your tracker are mostly used to fulfill that "active" status, so you don't get many extra calories above your allowance. The extra calories people are reporting are mostly for the "sedentary" setting.

Oh that makes sense. In any case, the Fitbit - MFP combo is working for me so I'm gonna keep on keeping on!

Just make sure you have negative adjustment enabled for those days where you aren't as active, and that your calorie allowance is reasonable enough to support that level of activity.

Well turns out that feature is not available on the mobile app so I didn't know about it. You have to go to the full website to enable it. Thanks for the heads up!!

Sued0nim wrote: »

I really, really don't like the Fitbit wearable HR monitors

I don't understand how anyone thinks their HR is relevant to calorie burn in anything outside the steady state cardio parameters that underlie the formula

I do appreciate there are other, more expensive, HR monitors which may prove more accurate in other states

Someone told me that actually while walking it reverts to the basic pedometer function to estimate calories (might be made up)

I have a basic Fitbit pedometer (a zip) which I am basically married to (don't tell the husband but seriously I feel more bereft without it than without him) ...and it has proved, over time, to be very accurate

I weigh 72kg (at 173cm) at goal
For 10000 steps I get about 350-500 calories over me at sedentary (1750)
For 15000 it's more like 6-800

With biofeedback over years this has proved to vaguely underestimate my actual burn by 1-200 so I have had to adjust my Fitbit settings to make me 30 years younger, and 5cm taller (come to think of it that might be why I'm so fond of it...well that and the extra calories present it bestows daily)

I got the Fitbit Charge HR because I play hockey and I was looking for a better estimate. My Apple Watch told me that a short walk to the next building over was more calorie burn than my 45 min hockey game. That's why, for me at least. And I wasn't really sure what went into the MFP estimates for that exercise. With the Fitbit I do see a difference based on how intense my game was, if we had more or less subs than normal, if it was easy or competitive.