For those with fitness trackers, do you trust the numbers it gives you?

I don't even look at the calories on my Garmin. My exercise is pretty much restricted to walking and running, which are easily computed so I let MFP tell me what I burned. Any extra calories from shopping, stretching, etc. I just consider as bonus.

I don't have any kind of fitness tracker (I don't trust them) and I don't log exercises calories given by the machines or MFP either. I only log the time spent doing exercises and I log 10 calories per type of exercise, just to give myself a little "extra."

Since I am in maintenance, I decided to set my own TDEE calories because my workouts are not very intense anymore, and because I know how much I am able to eat. It works for me.

I've had my Fitbit Versa watch for about 8 months and I would say it's been generally accurate on my calorie burns. Over that time period, I've consistently lost weight using the estimations it gave me. Although, I agree with the poster above that it can vary greatly from person to person and what type of exercise you're doing. I do primarily cardio and some strength-training and I usually ignore the readings it gives for strength training but cardio seems to be more accurate.

For cycling, yes, because I have a power meter. Everything else, I'm suspect.

I know I can't trust mine because I have a very high maxHR. If I'm sedentary all day then it's pretty close. But as soon as I move I get crazy high burns.

I used a fitbit charge 2 for 10 months, and it was pretty accurate - I eat all my exercise calories back and the weight lose was spot on. Then I switched to an apple watch 4, and the estimation is very similar to that of the fitbit, so I'm also trusting it. My weight is behaving as expected, even during these days (I've decided to set MFP to "maintenance" until January 7th, when the Christmas celebrations are "officially" over), so at least for me, they are accurate.

My Fenix 3HR comes in a little light for calories burned in a run if compared to the common formula. So instead of 411 cals for 5 K it gives me 385.

I'm okay with this.

I use my Fitbit charge 3 and find it pretty accurate for my daily calorie burn. I sync al my activity through it and keep my activity set to sedentary.

I have used (in order I remember them):

Fitbit’s:
-The One
-Surge
-Charge 2
-Charge 3
-Versa
-Ionic

Garmin
-Vivofit
-Vivoactive HR
-Fenix 5s
-several others for tracking runs and things-but they weren’t all day trackers

Jawbone Up24

Bodymedia armband (bodybugg)

Polar
-M400
-M430

Apple Watch Series 4

Motiv Ring

Idk-maybe some others

I have logged all my food for 7 years. I have weighed/measured food for 5. I have a good record of my actual intake and my change in weight. I lose/gain/maintain according to pretty much all of these trackers.

Based on all that-and the mountain of trackers...they are all reasonably fine. Like an online TDEE calculator if you itemized every minute of your day, the trackers still produce an estimate. If you’re reasonably close to the largest portion of the bell curve, the tracker will probably produce a reasonable estimate for you.

Some read a little high, some a little low. But they are all consistent (with themselves). So the same kind of day will produce roughly the same numbers each time. So you can use the numbers and adjust as needed.

I find the numbers produced SEEMed high when I logging food but not weighing. No way I was burning that much if I was only eating 1200 and not losing. I was logging 1200. I was eating closer to 1600-1800. So the tracker numbers were (and are) pretty close for me. But that’s about the same difference as me thinking my tracker is way overestimating my burn and me way under logging my food (it’s the same 500-ish calories in error-whether attributed to the tracker or my logging).

Anyway-I’m assuming I’m pretty close to the biggest part of the bell curve so any system I use comes up with a reasonable estimate. I prefer using a tracker because my level of activity varies quite a bit and having a tracker takes away the guesswork.