How accurate is fitbit calories burned?

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  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
    edited May 2017
    DapperDassie wrote: »
    I've read people on here suggesting eating half the exercise calories mfp shows since it overestimates calories burned but what about an HR charge fitbit? How accurate are the calories burned and would i still lose weight if I eat all the exercise calories back?

    Very accurate for me. It really varies person to person. I used it to decide on daily calorie intake based on what it said I burned and lost the amount expected.
  • DapperDassie
    DapperDassie Posts: 190 Member
    CaptainHandsome wrote: »
    DapperDassie wrote: »
    CaptainHandsome wrote: »
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »
    DapperDassie wrote: »
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »
    Time will tell really.

    Mine was useless the first month and really over inflated the burns. Now it is right on the money for me and I eat back 100%.
    I'm in maintenance though.
    Try eating 50%. If you lose too quickly increase it.

    I'm not worried about loosing too quickly, more just i like eating haha. I've been losing about a 1 lb to 0.5 a lb a week for quite a while now so an increase in weight loss speed would be quite welcomed

    excess skin

    I'd keep it at that rate.

    This. I lost 40lbs in four months, which isn't totally ridiculous, but it was enough of "too much too fast" to give me a little excess skin under my belly. You can't really notice it unless you look, but I see it in the mirror and it annoys me. I've slowed way down since.

    I unfortunately already have that from pregnancy

    Nothing unfortunate about it. You made something awesome, I was just fat. What you did was beautiful, what I did was drink too much beer and eat too many tacos.

    Haha aw you're sweet
  • Sp1tfire
    Sp1tfire Posts: 1,120 Member
    I stopped wearing my fitbit. I found that it was inaccurate during my workouts especially. I did the exact same elliptical workout every day and the burn would vary 200-300 calories sometimes. On days I went harder or longer, the calories weren't lining up. And on days I didn't go to the gym it was reccomending calories wayyyy too low for me. like, it would tell me I only should eat 1650-1700 some days, and I had it set to MAINTAIN weight.

    Overall, I could only reccomend them for counting steps, personally. I'm sure others have had accurate #'s though.
  • mellowadam
    mellowadam Posts: 114 Member
    I absolutely love my charge HR! I don't think it is very accurate though.

    Last week is said my weekly burn was 27,000cals and I only put in 20,000 in food over those 7 days. I weigh and measure everything. I am very meticulous with my food. I've been doing this for 5 years now. In theory I should have had a big loss. But I actually gained .4 pounds. Even if I was way off on a couple of meals when I dined out I should have dropped weight by its calculations. I'm down 100 pounds and have been in a plateau since November of 2016. I so miss those epic 2 pound weeks from the beginning of my journey.

    I have a very active job on an ICU. I get 20k steps 3 times a week on my 12 hour shifts. Average 10-15k on off days. I am strength training 4 times a week though and I know over the past 6 months I have become much more toned. Even if my body composition is changing I think it would be hard to be gaining very much muscle on that steep of a deficit. So I'm thinking the daily burn is way off. I never eat back more than 50% of what it tells me I can eat and the scale isn't budging at all.

    That being said I still love it. The data motivates me and I have at least been able to figure out what maintenance is by comparing it with MFP. I'm sort of a data junkie and have come to really enjoy the process.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,260 Member
    With the apps connected you will minimize your adjustment calories by setting the closest activity setting to reality on MFP.

    <5 steps sedentary
    <8.5k lightly active
    <12k active
    <15k very active

    Note that the final adjustment is at midnight.

    Fitbit assigns BMR * 1 calories per inactive minute whereas MFP assigns 1.x * BMR (1.25 sedentary, 1.4 lightly active, 1.6 active, 1.8 very active respectively
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    mellowadam wrote: »
    I absolutely love my charge HR! I don't think it is very accurate though.

    Last week is said my weekly burn was 27,000cals and I only put in 20,000 in food over those 7 days. I weigh and measure everything. I am very meticulous with my food. I've been doing this for 5 years now. In theory I should have had a big loss. But I actually gained .4 pounds. Even if I was way off on a couple of meals when I dined out I should have dropped weight by its calculations. I'm down 100 pounds and have been in a plateau since November of 2016. I so miss those epic 2 pound weeks from the beginning of my journey.

    I have a very active job on an ICU. I get 20k steps 3 times a week on my 12 hour shifts. Average 10-15k on off days. I am strength training 4 times a week though and I know over the past 6 months I have become much more toned. Even if my body composition is changing I think it would be hard to be gaining very much muscle on that steep of a deficit. So I'm thinking the daily burn is way off. I never eat back more than 50% of what it tells me I can eat and the scale isn't budging at all.

    That being said I still love it. The data motivates me and I have at least been able to figure out what maintenance is by comparing it with MFP. I'm sort of a data junkie and have come to really enjoy the process.

    Plateaus aren't really a thing.

    If your weight has been stuck since November then you are eating at maintenance. Did you set your stride length in fitbit?
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,073 Member
    whatever number fitbit says I have earned or burned is always much lower than the calories MFP gives me each day. I do not really pay attention to the number, but I am always curious to see what the number is.
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
    It's always been accurate for me...
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    My fitbit overestimates my calories by about 300 per day. I completely ignore it. I use it as a watch and to track my sleep.
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