Calorie Device

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LexiKazoo95
LexiKazoo95 Posts: 83 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What's the device where you workout and it tells you how much calories you've lost during a workout. I don't think it's a Fitbit, if it is. How accurate is it?

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  • laurenebargar
    laurenebargar Posts: 3,081 Member
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    The device that I use is my fitbit, I find it to be pretty accurate, but I only eat around 50% of my exercise calories back to account for errors, either in my logging or in the estimate of calories burned
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,070 Member
    edited May 2017
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    lexipooh652 wrote: »
    What's the device where you workout and it tells you how much calories you've lost during a workout. I don't think it's a Fitbit, if it is. How accurate is it?

    Any fitness tracker will give you an amount based on your stats (and your heart rate if it has that function), accuracy differs from device-to-device and from person-to-person. The only way you can be sure how accurate it is, is to log your food accurately (weight it) for a period of time whilst sticking to your goal and eating a fixed percentage of your calorie goal back (50% is a good starting point) if you find after a 4 week period you're losing at a faster rate than you have set in MFP then eat more, if you're losing at a slower rate, eat less.
  • LexiKazoo95
    LexiKazoo95 Posts: 83 Member
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    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    lexipooh652 wrote: »
    What's the device where you workout and it tells you how much calories you've lost during a workout. I don't think it's a Fitbit, if it is. How accurate is it?

    Any fitness tracker will give you an amount based on your stats (and your heart rate if it has that function), accuracy differs from device-to-device and from person-to-person. The only way you can be sure how accurate it is, is to log your food accurately (weight it) for a period of time whilst sticking to your goal and eating a fixed percentage of your calorie goal back (50% is a good starting point) if you find after a 4 week period you're losing at a faster rate than you have set in MFP then eat more, if you're losing at a slower rate, eat less.

    Do you have a device if so, what do you use?
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,070 Member
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    lexipooh652 wrote: »
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    lexipooh652 wrote: »
    What's the device where you workout and it tells you how much calories you've lost during a workout. I don't think it's a Fitbit, if it is. How accurate is it?

    Any fitness tracker will give you an amount based on your stats (and your heart rate if it has that function), accuracy differs from device-to-device and from person-to-person. The only way you can be sure how accurate it is, is to log your food accurately (weight it) for a period of time whilst sticking to your goal and eating a fixed percentage of your calorie goal back (50% is a good starting point) if you find after a 4 week period you're losing at a faster rate than you have set in MFP then eat more, if you're losing at a slower rate, eat less.

    Do you have a device if so, what do you use?

    I use a Garmin Vivoactive HR which for me is relatively accurate (around 2% margin of error for walking, running, cardio based workouts & strength training)
  • Sheisinlove109
    Sheisinlove109 Posts: 516 Member
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    I've owned two of the most popular ones and I'm not sure if I couldn't set them up right or what but I felt they were extremely inaccurate i. Distance, status, calories, sleep...everything except heart rate.

  • LexiKazoo95
    LexiKazoo95 Posts: 83 Member
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    Noel_57 wrote: »
    I've noticed many people here say they only eat back half of their exercise calories, if at all. Probably because the calories burned figure on these devices is not very accurate. At least according to the latest study on them.

    I thought they were only eating half just to be safe
  • LexiKazoo95
    LexiKazoo95 Posts: 83 Member
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    sunsweet77 wrote: »
    I've owned two of the most popular ones and I'm not sure if I couldn't set them up right or what but I felt they were extremely inaccurate i. Distance, status, calories, sleep...everything except heart rate.

    Maybe the brand could have helped you
  • susanp57
    susanp57 Posts: 409 Member
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    I use my smart phone with a bluetooth heart rate monitor. There are many apps that will do what you want. I generally use endomondo.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
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    Note that devices like fitbits are designed to be used as step-based activity trackers. So, walking, jogging, running, etc. They are not designed to track other non-step based workouts such as weight training, cycling, rowing, etc.

    So although they are great (and my fitbit is wonderfully accurate) they have limitations in the type of exercise they can monitor the calorie burn for.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    My device (Garmin Vivoactive) tracks all types of activity. So they can be used for other activities you just need the right model.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    Here's a recent news item:

    http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/05/24/529839681/fitness-trackers-good-at-measuring-heart-rate-not-so-good-at-measuring-calories

    Those with a heart rate monitor will be more accurate.

    https://www.fitbit.com/en-ca/chargehr

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