Calories burned, specifically on walks
beaky1980
Posts: 85 Member
So I posted this on fitbit's website with no luck. I apologize if this has been answered already somewhere but I've searched and searched with no luck. I'm just confused. Here's what I wrote:
I recently purchased a charge 2, upgrading from the one. I've taken a few neighborhood walks which are 3.2 miles. Besides the distance on the mobile run app being off slightly (today I walked 2.86 and the app said 2.75), my calories burned seem rather high. I used the stopwatch feature under "walk" on the device itself as well as the mobile run app. When I went to sync, it said I burned 450 calories. There is no way this is possible. I am overweight (195lbs at 5'3"), but 450 calories for just under 3 miles? I've entered my stride length so that's correct. I also have walking turned off as a recognized exerciset to be detected. I wear the device on my non dominant hand with dominant hand selected for wrist. Should I just not record my walks as an exercise? Do I need to let it "get to know me" longer? I've had it for 5 days. I do plan on starting to run again after I lose a bit of weight (I used to be a daily runner and walker), so I would like to rely on this for my calories burned for workouts. I would hate to be overeating when I'm obviously trying to lose weight. Please help, my brain hurts from all the research I've been doing lol.
Also, I deleted the recorded activity yesterday then manually entered it in. The calories were then generated as 190. Where did those come from and how? They do seem more accurate.
I recently purchased a charge 2, upgrading from the one. I've taken a few neighborhood walks which are 3.2 miles. Besides the distance on the mobile run app being off slightly (today I walked 2.86 and the app said 2.75), my calories burned seem rather high. I used the stopwatch feature under "walk" on the device itself as well as the mobile run app. When I went to sync, it said I burned 450 calories. There is no way this is possible. I am overweight (195lbs at 5'3"), but 450 calories for just under 3 miles? I've entered my stride length so that's correct. I also have walking turned off as a recognized exerciset to be detected. I wear the device on my non dominant hand with dominant hand selected for wrist. Should I just not record my walks as an exercise? Do I need to let it "get to know me" longer? I've had it for 5 days. I do plan on starting to run again after I lose a bit of weight (I used to be a daily runner and walker), so I would like to rely on this for my calories burned for workouts. I would hate to be overeating when I'm obviously trying to lose weight. Please help, my brain hurts from all the research I've been doing lol.
Also, I deleted the recorded activity yesterday then manually entered it in. The calories were then generated as 190. Where did those come from and how? They do seem more accurate.
0
Replies
-
I don't know on all of this, but I would not suggest adjusting which wrist you are using during the learning phase.
Having said that, 2.86 miles with a slight grade and over a long enough time period for someone of your size could easily be 450 calories.
Using this: http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/walking-calorie-burn-calculator.shtml
If I put in 195 lbs., 2.86 miles, 3% grade, and 80 min., I get 446 calories. I don't know the grade or time, so those are guesses of course. But the point is that 450 doesn't seem as high as you might think, depending on variables. and 190 definitely seems low. The lowest I can get is 278 calories with a 5% decline and 40 min.0 -
Thanks for the reply. Regarding your figures, I tried several calculators, including the one you mentioned. I walked for roughly 54 minutes, so that calculator gave me 332 calories on a level grade.
I'm going to try not using the mobile run app today and just doing an activity record to see what I get.0 -
Thanks for the reply. Regarding your figures, I tried several calculators, including the one you mentioned. I walked for roughly 54 minutes, so that calculator gave me 332 calories on a level grade.
I'm going to try not using the mobile run app today and just doing an activity record to see what I get.
The elevation gain will come through on Fitbit as "floors" (10 feet = 1 floor). That might help to see if you were climbing in elevation.0 -
Remember that FitBit is including your base burn in those calories. So, it's not "you burned an extra 450 calories by walking 3 miles". It's "you burned 450 calories while you were walking 3 miles."3
-
So I took a 3.2 mile neighborhood walk today. I used the walk activity record and it said I burned 439 calories. I am assuming this includes my BMR? It took me about an hour. My question now is, at 10:50pm last night my calorie burn was 2652. Which means I will burn just over 2700 for the day. This seems rather high. Based upon my previous experiences with fit bit (fitbit one), I used to barely reach that with a 10k run during the day in a few years ago. Should I turn off the heart rate except for exercise? Like I said, the calories burned for the day just seem very high.0
-
Yes, that includes BMR during that time.
Give it more time. If you want to turn off the heart rate when not exercising (did not know that was an option... it isn't on my Surge, anyway), it won't hurt anything. But I'm not convinced it will help much either.0 -
I agree with turning the HR monitor off when not exercising. I dont see the point of having ones heart rate monitored when you're just sitting around or shuffling about the house or office??0
-
Ditto's to Christine for turning off HRM except for exercise - and if exercise is walking - pace and weight based calculations more accurate than HRM anyway.
That's where the 190 came from. Except that does seem mighty low - sure you entered duration correctly?
You did create a Workout record with start and duration time, right, not an Activity Record with start and end time?
But - do you walk naked, as in the weight Fitbit is using for those calcs?
Lifting shoe weight, and all clothes you wear - maybe 2 lbs? Over 1 hr of walking? Possibly a notable difference.
Except when grade comes into play, and not just up, down takes more energy too. So unless it truly was a level high school track or similar, you probably had some grade change as Midwesterner said.
As to daily burn, HRM can confuse that, thinking you have times of workout and start using HR-based calorie burn when it shouldn't.
But - confirm your stride length setting is for average daily pace, not grocery store shuffle and not exercise walking pace. Either extreme will make the much longer walking in your daily life incorrect.
Set it for walking a normal purposeful pace. Then it will be slightly off for both grocery store and exercise walking - but closer to reality for the majority of the day.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I agree with turning the HR monitor off when not exercising. I dont see the point of having ones heart rate monitored when you're just sitting around or shuffling about the house or office??
I thought it used the heartrate to determine when you are and aren't asleep? I find that part interesting.0 -
SusanMFindlay wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »I agree with turning the HR monitor off when not exercising. I dont see the point of having ones heart rate monitored when you're just sitting around or shuffling about the house or office??
I thought it used the heartrate to determine when you are and aren't asleep? I find that part interesting.
Copied from the Fitbit forum:
All of our wrist-based trackers automatically detect your sleep. Autodetection is based on your movement. When you haven’t moved in over an hour, algorithms assume that sleep has begun, which is confirmed by the length of time your movements are indicative of sleep behavior only (rolling over, etc). Morning movement tells your tracker that you’re awake.1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »I agree with turning the HR monitor off when not exercising. I dont see the point of having ones heart rate monitored when you're just sitting around or shuffling about the house or office??
I thought it used the heartrate to determine when you are and aren't asleep? I find that part interesting.
Copied from the Fitbit forum:
All of our wrist-based trackers automatically detect your sleep. Autodetection is based on your movement. When you haven’t moved in over an hour, algorithms assume that sleep has begun, which is confirmed by the length of time your movements are indicative of sleep behavior only (rolling over, etc). Morning movement tells your tracker that you’re awake.
Cool. Thanks! I still like to check the heartrate graph occasionally during the day - but that could be the stats junky in me.
I think I may also have confirmed that FitBit is not necessarily calculating HR-based calories just because you're in the "fat burning zone". Just had a walk recorded that was almost exactly an hour. It was 5500 steps so 2.7 miles. I burned 330 calories, but 60 of those would be from my BMR. So, 270 calories. 270 calories for 2.7 miles is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from step counting with no HR "boost". I was in "fat burning zone" the whole time. (I'm 40. It's not hard to get my heartrate over 80bpm.)
This is with a Charge 2 (which I've been finding pretty accurate based on what I calculate my average daily burn to be).1
This discussion has been closed.