Accuracy of fitness trackers

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killindafat
killindafat Posts: 24 Member
edited July 2017 in Fitness and Exercise
Hey guys so ive had a garmin vivosmart hr+ and i have been using it while ive been running at my job. It seems to be fairly accurate with how much i move during work. Yesterday was the first time i was able to use it while playing basketball. I played for 1 hr and 24 minutes, 3.45 miles ran while also burning 1,206 calories. Now obviously i dont think i really burned that much although i know its a very energy needed sport and i know i play hard.

Out of the 1206 calories, how much should i actually believe was burned during my bball playing? Its all just an estimate but even having a better idea would be nice. I played basketball twice yesterday for about the same time. Once in the morning and once at night (i forgot my vivosmart in the morning so i only recorded the night play).

Overall i think that the two combined times of playing basketball i played i may have maybe burned 500=>800 calories. Im not an expert though.

What do you guys think?

Replies

  • LotusCass
    LotusCass Posts: 145 Member
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    I also have a Garmin vivofit synced to MFP. When I enter exercise into MFP I usually put about 60% of what I've done. After 8 weeks of doing this I took the previous 4weeka and used a calculation I wa given to check my TDEE. It came out almost exactly as what my Garmin had given me, so for me it seems as though 60% of what Garmin gives me is pretty accurate.
  • ErinMichelle31
    ErinMichelle31 Posts: 29 Member
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    I have been using the garmin vivofit2 for about three months, and I eat back all of the calories it says I've burned--sometimes over 1,000--and have been steadily losing weight. That said, there are a few caveats. I think it is most accurate during cardio. I do interval cardio training, and will burn a lot of calories. However, I find that if I finish a hard interval and then sit down or rest, my heart rate stays elevated, and it probably gives me more calories than it should for those periods. So I think it depends how constant your movement is while you are playing basketball. Second, I do not really trust the calorie burns it gives me when I am lifting weights. My heart rate will become elevated during those periods, but you're not moving the same way.

    An hour and a half of playing basketball, and I would bet you burned more than you think you did if you were really working. That's been my experience anyway. Tracking these message boards, it seems to me that the Fitbits overestimate calorie burn, and a lot of people say the garmins underestimate--neither one is perfect. But I've been trusting mine and have consistently lost weight.
  • killindafat
    killindafat Posts: 24 Member
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    I really appreciate the responses guys. I really enjoy my vivosmart. I already knew to not trust the calories that it gave me for things such as working out but for things such as basketball and HIIT type things i wasnt so sure. I definitely play hard when i play basketball so i could see myself burning a lot of calories. Overall im not looking to eat my calories back as much as figure out an idea of how much to trust my vivosmart haha.
  • jennybearlv
    jennybearlv Posts: 1,519 Member
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    If you think your food logging is accurate you can use this formula to calculate how many calories you burn in a day, then compare the number to how many calories Garmin thinks you are burning:
    [total calories consumed+(total lbs lostx3500)]/days=TDEE
    I usually do a month. This is how I know Garmin underestimates my calorie burn by about 150 calories a day.
  • killindafat
    killindafat Posts: 24 Member
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    Thank you for that! Ill definitely use that to see how on point the tracker is. Even if it is off i knew i burned a lot of calories.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    killindafat wrote: »
    Out of the 1206 calories, how much should i actually believe was burned during my bball playing? Its all just an estimate but even having a better idea would be nice. I played basketball twice yesterday for about the same time. Once in the morning and once at night (i forgot my vivosmart in the morning so i only recorded the night play).

    It doesn't consume as much as you'd expect. I'd suggest no more than 500, which is probably generous.

    When I had a VivoSmartHR I found that the use of HR led to significant over estimates.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    HR-based calculations for calorie burn are most valid for steady-state aerobic exercise - same HR for 2-4 min.

    The farther you are away from that usage - the more inflated it becomes.

    So anaerobic like lifting, which also has the HR going all over the place.
    Intervals even when aerobic, again HR all over.
    And your basketball.

    Those things would actually be best served by going by step-based calorie burn (except lifting - manually log that all the time).

    Like if you looked at the distance purely for the basketball - and created a walking activity with that distance and time, and let Garmin calculate calorie burn based on that - much better.
    Though likely underestimated.

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