Is the Fitbit sync accurate?

cc_jaro wrote: »

It's not the steps I dispute, it's the calories burned from them. Like I say, I'm walking for 1k extra calories per day which seems a bit much

I don't know why you're disputing. Actually, I do, and that's because you don't realize how extremely active you are.

Your activity puts you in the top 1% and is substantially above the MFP *very* active setting which most people will exceed somewhere between 13 and 16k steps.

Most people exceed the active level somewhere between 9 and 12k steps.

During the first 12 months of logging on MFP, I lost while eating ~2560 Cal a day and being more than very active due to walking a lot....at 18560 steps per day, on average (not 20 to 30000 steps every day implying a >20k average) for an average tdee of ~3255 based on weight change results and ~3260 based on Fitbit's estimation.

Yes. That accurate before I became normal weight, and less than 5% of TDEE error on average since then.

And yes, my food logging was fairly on point with everything (possible) weighed and most database entries verified.

You may want to connect Fitbit.com to trendweight.com and use your trending weight as your weight level and evaluate your results every 4-6 weeks.

I eat back around 50% of calories fitbit tells me I've burnt off as sometimes I feel it goes a bit overboard! However, I am nowhere near as active as you are as I think my little legs would fall off

Fitbit is pretty accurate for me for calories burned and steps. I stopped using Fitbit and restarted after using a different brand and gained weight due to deficit being inaccurate. I'm losing again with Fitbit but it takes forever to sync.

PokeyBug wrote: »

Fitbits are inaccurate for some of us. I think, for me, it was the PPG technology they use and the fact that it's worn on the wrist. PPG measures light absorption through blood and correlates that with the heartbeat as blood volume increases and decreases. The fact that it's on the end of your arm means that the way you move or don't move your arm as you walk can affect your reading, too. Combined with my hypotension (low blood pressure), the FB just wasn't for me.

Luckily, I was given my FB by my MIL after I already had gotten a feel for how my body works. Within 2 days, I realized it wasn't for me. If I were you, I'd wait a few weeks to eat back the calories FB tells you you have, to make sure you really can. You might be getting an accurate reading, or you might not.

It sounds like you're talking about the HR fitbits; not all fitbits have that function, and I understand you can turn that function off. OP didn't say whether they have an HR fitbit or not.

Also, if you only used it two days, well, that's hardly a fair chance to see if something works or not. Fitbits often adjust over time. OP seems to have made a reasonable decision, try it for at least four weeks, if not longer (I'd go for six weeks if female, I didn't check OP's profile). Adjust if necessary.

Mine is accurate for me.

I find that most people who inherently doubt the adjustments either:
1. Don’t understand what FitBit is actually measuring (total activity and cals burned all day) and how it syncs with MFP to adjust your calories from what MFP thinks you would burn based on your the stats you entered and activity level you chose, and what FitBit says you actually burned
2. Chose too low of an activity setting in MFP compared to how active they really are (and OP with your step counts you’re at the top of very active) so they assume that these big adjustments can’t possibly be real.
3. Have been convinced their entire life that dieting requires a bare minimum of cals and an extreme restriction mindset so when FitBit suggests they can eat >2000 cals and lose weight they think that must be impossible
4. Underestimate the amount of cals they take in during a day so they think they are eating less than they are and when the weight loss doesn’t match the rate they requested they automatically blame the FitBit
5. Some combination of the above...

PokeyBug wrote: »

veganbaum wrote: »

Also, if you only used it two days, well, that's hardly a fair chance to see if something works or not. Fitbits often adjust over time. OP seems to have made a reasonable decision, try it for at least four weeks, if not longer (I'd go for six weeks if female, I didn't check OP's profile). Adjust if necessary.

No, really. It was telling me I didn't burn even 1,000 calories a day, and I swear, I'm not bedridden. I knew it was off, and I figured it out quite easily, seeing that my estimated TDEE is way higher than that. These things don't work for everyone, honestly. Why do you think Fitbit was sued?

No, it doesn't work for everyone, never said it did. Just like any calorie calculator - it's an estimation, and it's not going to be spot-on for everyone.

No one needs to use an activity tracker, but many of us find them very useful, and many of us have had to make adjustments because the estimation is off. However, two days is unlikely to tell most of us whether the device is accurate for us or not. Did you try turning the HR function off, especially given your blood pressure issues? Regardless, I don't personally care whether a tracker worked for any one person or not, whether they find a tracker useful or not, whether they have a deep hatred of activity trackers, or whatever. The OP was looking for advice, got good advice, and made a sensible decision. If the numbers are off after four or more weeks, OP can make a decision about how much the difference matters for their goals. That's a reasonable manner of going about it, for most people.