Fit bit calories

Options
mia1410
mia1410 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi can anyone tell me why my exercise calories are so include consistent? I'm nearly hitting 10000 steps and today on my fit pal is only offering 50 cals yet other times at 10000 steps it comes up to around 400?? I'm confused?

Replies

  • Blitzia
    Blitzia Posts: 205 Member
    Options
    I'm not an expert on how fitbit calculates calories, but 1000 steps running will burn more calories than 1000 walking steps. Does your fitbit record active minutes? How many active minutes do you have today vs days where you earned 400 extra calories? Also, you're only eating 800 calories so I'm assuming your day isn't over yet? It may be that your number of calories added is much higher than 50 by the end of the day.
  • crooked_left_hook
    crooked_left_hook Posts: 364 Member
    Options
    I have noticed a difference based on the time of day I start wearing my Fitbit. Fitbit gives MFP an estimate for extra step based calories based on how many calories it estimates you will burn by the end of the day. If you put your Fitbit on at 12:00pm instead of 6:00am it will estimate Lass calories burned for the day, therefore MFP will also report less extra calories for the day.
  • jenniferinfl
    jenniferinfl Posts: 456 Member
    Options
    What are your myfitnesspal activity settings? If you are wearing your fitbit all the time and using the calories from that, then your MFP settings should be sedentary. If you've picked something else, like lightly active or active, then you aren't going to always get an accurate number.

    Also, higher heart rate during those 10,000 steps will give you a somewhat higher calories as will elevation changes for devices capable of seeing those. Additionally if you are doing most of your 10,000 steps in one long walk, you will burn less calories than if you did those same 10,000 steps in a few shorter walks. Your body continues burning more calories at rest for awhile after you finish exercise. So, frequent bursts of activity throughout your day will be worth more calories than one long session.

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,927 Member
    Options
    Time of day and length of exercise bouts play a role. So does intensity. Fitbit *IS* affected by heart rate. Fitbit does not take into account barometric pressure changes (elevation up or down), at least to date.
  • jenniferinfl
    jenniferinfl Posts: 456 Member
    Options
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Time of day and length of exercise bouts play a role. So does intensity. Fitbit *IS* affected by heart rate. Fitbit does not take into account barometric pressure changes (elevation up or down), at least to date.

    I meant like walking up stairs or uphill. I get more calories for a hilly walk. Hills = changes in elevation.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Options
    jenniferinfl wrote: »
    What are your myfitnesspal activity settings? If you are wearing your fitbit all the time and using the calories from that, then your MFP settings should be sedentary. If you've picked something else, like lightly active or active, then you aren't going to always get an accurate number.

    Also, higher heart rate during those 10,000 steps will give you a somewhat higher calories as will elevation changes for devices capable of seeing those. Additionally if you are doing most of your 10,000 steps in one long walk, you will burn less calories than if you did those same 10,000 steps in a few shorter walks. Your body continues burning more calories at rest for awhile after you finish exercise. So, frequent bursts of activity throughout your day will be worth more calories than one long session.

    I average 15k steps/day and as such, am set to active for my activity level in MFP. I eat back the exercise adjustments and the numbers have always been accurate for me. Leaving myself at Sedentary when I'm really not (even though I have a desk job) would mean lower calorie baseline and extremely high adjustments. This is much more accurate and representative of my general NEAT and my purposeful exercise.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,927 Member
    edited May 2017
    Options
    jenniferinfl wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Time of day and length of exercise bouts play a role. So does intensity. Fitbit *IS* affected by heart rate. Fitbit does not take into account barometric pressure changes (elevation up or down), at least to date.

    I meant like walking up stairs or uphill. I get more calories for a hilly walk. Hills = changes in elevation.

    Up-Hill = increased heart rate. Possibly gait change or accelerometer detection.

    Info re Fitbit not considering elevation changes via altimeter to date comes from Fitbit forum accepted answers.

    If you have some more direct info as to elevation being considered via the built in altimeters (I.e. not via accelerometer analysis), or even at all other than indirectly through heart rate, I would love to know more about it.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    Options
    mia1410 wrote: »
    Hi can anyone tell me why my exercise calories are so include consistent? I'm nearly hitting 10000 steps and today on my fit pal is only offering 50 cals yet other times at 10000 steps it comes up to around 400?? I'm confused?

    Silly question, perhaps, but did you check when the two apps last synced? Occasionally, I'll notice that I don't seem to have been credited with as many calories as I think I should - and it usually turns out that the last sync was a few hours out of date.

    Also, I agree with WinoGelato. As long as you have negative adjustments enabled, there's no need to be set to "sedentary". Like her, I use "active" as my baseline. Unless I'm *really* sick, I always wind up higher than that anyway, so there's no reason to pretend I'm sedentary (and on those sick days, the negative adjustments keep my numbers accurate).
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,927 Member
    Options
    +1 on set yourself as close to reality to minimize size of adjustment.

    <6k steps pick sedentary
    <9k steps pick lightly active
    <12k steps pick active
    >15.5k steps pick v active

    The above is biased to generating positive as opposed to negative adjustments if you keep to the number of steps
  • SolotoCEO
    SolotoCEO Posts: 293 Member
    Options
    My experience with a fitbit is that it is so inaccurate it doesn't help at all. Mine went in the trash.

Categories