Fitbit calories seem way too high

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jaredsoster
jaredsoster Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I spent about 30 minutes jogging today with a heart rate of 150 bpm. I also spent a few hours changing out power outlets around my house, not very heavy in activity. After about 15000 steps today, fitbit has adjusted my calories by 1520 calories. That's how much I start with every day. This seems way too high to me, is there something I'm doing wrong?

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  • lefty2cox
    lefty2cox Posts: 1 Member
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    I'm having the same issue. Less than 3000 steps for the day. I haven't left the house but it's adding over 800 calories to my daily goal. Seems a bit high.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    jaredsoster wrote: »
    I spent about 30 minutes jogging today with a heart rate of 150 bpm. I also spent a few hours changing out power outlets around my house, not very heavy in activity. After about 15000 steps today, fitbit has adjusted my calories by 1520 calories. That's how much I start with every day. This seems way too high to me, is there something I'm doing wrong?

    Depending on your weight and your MFP settings for Activity Level and weekly loss rate, I would say the estimated adjustment is within a reasonable amount.

    Last July, I was 54, 5'8" and 150 lbs. I had MFP set to Sedentary/Not Very Active and had negative adjustments enabled. My half-pound per week loss goal was 1610 Calories. That is 1860 Calories maintenance with a 250 Calorie per day deficit.

    On days when my Fitbit Charge HR logged 13,000 steps, my total Fitbit projection was 2600 Calories. That resulted in MFP giving me a Fitbit Adjustment of 980 Calories.

    I lost weight at the desired weekly rate eating back 95% of those Calories. For me the Fitbit and MFP integration was very accurate.

    Note that I have been logging food and drink in MFP for over three years, so I am confident that my intake is as accurate as I can estimate it to be. I use a food scale to weigh all solids and measuring cups to measure all liquids, I verify any new food items I log using the nutrition facts on package labels or from other website sources.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    lefty2cox wrote: »
    I'm having the same issue. Less than 3000 steps for the day. I haven't left the house but it's adding over 800 calories to my daily goal. Seems a bit high.

    What model of Fitbit do you have? What are your stats? What Activity Level are you set at? What rate of loss are you set at?
  • jraper78
    jraper78 Posts: 5 Member
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    I use the fitbit charge 2 HR. I trip out because I'm burning around 3000 calories a day. My fitness pal makes its adjustments, according to how many calories burned, how much macro and micro nutrients I should be taking in. The one thing I'm tripping on is that although the adjustments made are lower in calories than I'm burning. I'm eating around 300 more calories than what fitness pal tells me to because I'm trying to gain some additional weight that I didn't want to lose. I'm 38 yrs old male, 5'11", 165 lbs, and 17.8% body fat. How do I lower my body fat percentage but still gain weight?
  • Cylphin60
    Cylphin60 Posts: 863 Member
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    Doesn't the fitbit show estimated TDEE rather than just calorie burn? That would account for the higher numbers. For instance, right now my charge 2 shows 1257 for 1.3 miles walked. My TDEE is roughly 2500 and I'm about halfway through my day, no other exercise done yet today.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    jraper78 wrote: »
    I use the fitbit charge 2 HR. I trip out because I'm burning around 3000 calories a day. My fitness pal makes its adjustments, according to how many calories burned, how much macro and micro nutrients I should be taking in. The one thing I'm tripping on is that although the adjustments made are lower in calories than I'm burning. I'm eating around 300 more calories than what fitness pal tells me to because I'm trying to gain some additional weight that I didn't want to lose. I'm 38 yrs old male, 5'11", 165 lbs, and 17.8% body fat. How do I lower my body fat percentage but still gain weight?

    Have you measured your stride length? If so, have you changed the Fitbit settings from the default? That could account for a part of those 300 Cals, but not really all of them.

    You may want to check out the Recomposition thread, then if you have more questions, post a new discussion in either the "Maintaining Weight" or "Gaining Weight" board.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat
  • 123stefania
    123stefania Posts: 167 Member
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    same problem here. seem too high.. i think i will disconnect fitbit...
  • ABabilonia
    ABabilonia Posts: 622 Member
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    Just don't eat all your calories back. I usually just try to eat up to 50% of the extra calories Fitbit give me for the day.
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,370 Member
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    Remember the sync assumes you'll continue to burn at that rate for the rest of the day so adjusts down when you become sedentary giving you the accurate additional calories at the end of the day, around midnight rather than when you synced.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    k9education wrote: »
    jaredsoster wrote: »
    I spent about 30 minutes jogging today with a heart rate of 150 bpm. I also spent a few hours changing out power outlets around my house, not very heavy in activity. After about 15000 steps today, fitbit has adjusted my calories by 1520 calories. That's how much I start with every day. This seems way too high to me, is there something I'm doing wrong?

    You're not doing anything wrong. Fitbit's caloric burn estimations are absurdly high (and no, it doesn't matter which Fitbit device you have since the calculations are done by the software, not the device). It's not unusual for Fitbit to, literally, double the amount of calories you're actually burning. I would suggest not syncing the device to MFP, but instead enter exercise manually in MFP.

    My experience with both the Fitbit Charge HR and now Fitbit Charge 2, as I mentioned up thread, shows that the Fitbit estimations are not "absurdly high." In fact, they are very accurate for me, and there are many other MFP and Fitbit users that are using the programs synced together and meeting their goals.

    There is a MFP Fitbit Users group that can provide education on how to use the two programs successfully here...

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
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    Part of it is knowing how exact your logging is. Are you achieving your desired weight loss goals with this data? If not, then tweak the response you have--how much you eat back.

    I had a Garmin with a chest strap--no optical HRM. I upgraded to a Vivoactive HR. Without the optical HRM, i would get about 270 exercise calories for 20,000 steps with a setting of sendentary in MFP. That seemed way too low.

    Now i get about 50-80 calories per 1000 steps, which for me is more accurate. My walking during the day is usually running across a hilly campus in heels carrying a 20 lb briefcase. Now I feel I'm getting more "credit" for what I'm doing. I eat back about 75% of my step calories. And 100% of my exercise calories. They are in line with other website like SparkPeople when I enter in my stats. But it does depend on the day. A cup of caffeinated tea before I spring to my 8:30 am meeting and I know my heart rate will be higher and the calorie projection may be too high. but this works better for me than being too low, like my previous tracker.

    If you're still getting into shape, your heart rate may be high and thus the calorie burn may be over estimated. Can you calibrate a Fitbit for heart rate? Do the stride length--customize anything you can to your body and fitness level.

    Look at the data. Make sure your logging is tight. Give things some time and make adjustments.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
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    How long have you had your Fitbit? Mine became more accurate the longer I wore it. Now after 2yr it is extremely accurate for me. It took around a month of wearing it daily to balance out.

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