Too many exercise calories being added?

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I know I am getting way too many calories added from Fitbit. For example Monday I did zero exercise sat around a lot of the day but got about 7500 steps from running errands. My fitbit adjustment for that day was 1481. I've checked my settings here and on fitbit my age, sex, weight, height are all correct. Is there something else I should be checking? Also, how exactly does Fitbit come up with calories burned? Is it off of heart rate?

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  • ehwilson
    ehwilson Posts: 19 Member
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    I also feel I get way too many in adjustments. I turned on negative adjustments, but it isn't helping. As of right now (11:30 am), I have only walked just over 4,000 steps and I have an increase of 119 calories for the day. I don't feel I should have any. Is there a way around this?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    ehwilson wrote: »
    I also feel I get way too many in adjustments. I turned on negative adjustments, but it isn't helping. As of right now (11:30 am), I have only walked just over 4,000 steps and I have an increase of 119 calories for the day. I don't feel I should have any. Is there a way around this?

    That doesn't sound too unreasonable for 4,000 steps, although I don't know your stats or what your activity level is set to. What would you expect to see?
  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
    edited March 2019
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    Sounds right to me too for 4,000 steps,I was worried about too many calories being added so I downloaded the pacer app and compare the calories and they're pretty even
  • WynterDreaming
    WynterDreaming Posts: 83 Member
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    That sounds so much more reasonable than mine. I’m mostly sedentary, and as of 4:30 PM with just over 3000 steps logged its giving me 440 calories and it’s driving me nuts.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I know I am getting way too many calories added from Fitbit. For example Monday I did zero exercise sat around a lot of the day but got about 7500 steps from running errands. My fitbit adjustment for that day was 1481. I've checked my settings here and on fitbit my age, sex, weight, height are all correct. Is there something else I should be checking? Also, how exactly does Fitbit come up with calories burned? Is it off of heart rate?

    Tap or hit more info on that adjustment.

    What is the actual math based on?
    Time of sync, Fitbit calorie burn, MFP expected calorie burn?

    Is the time of the last sync correct and close enough (only syncs when 100 higher than prior sync) - does the calories pretty much match what Fitbit shows?

    That is a higher adjustment though for Lightly-Active level, though MFP is probably set for Sedentary.

    Hopefully Fitbit is estimating calories on distance, not HR.
    That would cause issue if it thought you were working out a great part of the day and using HR-based calorie burn.

    Distance of course based on steps. so if the distance on those 7500 steps was really long - problem. May need a stride length correction.
  • MaurahBauwens
    MaurahBauwens Posts: 1 Member
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    I have the same thing. MFP says I can eat 1171 cals more because I had 5969 steps.. Next day it was 2066 cals for 10597 steps. All my measurements are correct and I installed it for 1lbs weight loss/week. But if I would believe MFP, I should eat 3536 cals to lose weight.. lol
  • BuiltLikeAPeep
    BuiltLikeAPeep Posts: 94 Member
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    I think we're confused because 10,000 steps is SUPPOSED to be only 500 calories burned- but what weight, fitness and activity levels are they basing that calculation on ?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Steps does not equal calories.

    Steps is used to calculate a distance.

    Distance & time & mass = calories.

    Different paced steps lead to different distance and different calories calculated.

    And that calculation has nothing about fitness and activity levels in it.
  • jessiedawn8400
    jessiedawn8400 Posts: 37 Member
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    @heybales - Do you know when the fitbit switches from a step-based calculation to an HR-based calculation? Is it based on a certain amount of time it sees an elevated HR? I feel like mine goes into "fat-burn" a lot when its just normal movement? I'm still trying to dial in the accuracy of mine. It will show an extra hour or so a day in the fat-burn zone than was truly exercise. I'm sure this is an accumulation of minutes throughout the day when it may raise for just a few minutes at a time. I'm hoping it's not using HR-based calculations for these
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Good observation, and indeed a problem if it slips to that method.

    It needs about a week, and then it keeps improving on stats - to decide where that HR line is for moving into exercise.
    Part of formula is resting HR. Part is steps. Part is amount time elevated
    So if long enough with enough steps and elevated it goes back and tags that time as workout to apply HR-based to.

    It's usually about 90 bpm in studies, so wouldn't be surprised if that's the starting point. called Flex HR point.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21904287

    They've adjusted the step and time amount - not sure where it's currently at - Fitbit forums may mention it now.

    The problem is if elevated HR compared to avg - may be slipping into that mode easier.
    Other problem if out of shape which is figured if resting HR is higher than a certain amount - than lower line of cross-over.

    About the only thing I've seen people do like if med's keep them elevated during daily activities - is disable HR on device.
    They turn on for exercise, and from time to time to see what it is.
    Turn on at night so Fitbit can estimate resting HR.
  • jessiedawn8400
    jessiedawn8400 Posts: 37 Member
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    @heybales - Thank you! You know so much about them!

    I did change it to a custom max HR so it has to get to 100bpm instead of 93 for the time being to keep it from going into "fat-burn" when I'm not exercising so often. That seems to have helped some. Sometimes folding a large load of laundry would put it there (not sure if this is wise or not, but most of my steady-state cardio is lower intensity so I never get close to max anyway). I shut it off when I do the weights. My resting HR is a little higher, but slowly coming down since I quit smoking. Once its in a good range I will change it again. I like to keep it on constantly so it gets to know me better, though I've had this since November. I'll search the fitbit forums to see if they mention it, though they don't like to reveal many of their calculations.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    That change of HRmax changes the break points for the Zones that it labels certain HR's at.
    It somewhat effects the calculation of calorie burn.

    And as you noticed slightly raised the bottom level. so that's good method.

    I think you'll find the numbers on Fitbit forums for when workouts are auto-counted - they've gotten that out before so people knew.
    Kind of like the Active and Vigorous levels for the workouts.
  • PhillyD520
    PhillyD520 Posts: 1 Member
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    If you're using Fitbit Charge 3 HR, there is an issue with calculating steps. It is counting your arm movements in addition to your steps.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    PhillyD520 wrote: »
    If you're using Fitbit Charge 3 HR, there is an issue with calculating steps. It is counting your arm movements in addition to your steps.

    Is this a known issue?

    Because the wrist devices have also had the challenging of attempting to register step impacts despite the fact the arm is swinging.

    And they generally do good with that scenario - the problem was actually it would register less impact than reality depending on how you swing your arms - meaning less distance given, meaning less calorie burn than reality.

    Also, generally the distance seen with non-steps is so minor and barely any calorie burn - it doesn't matter in the sense of daily calories.

    For steps as a goal figure - sure it messes that up.
  • jessiedawn8400
    jessiedawn8400 Posts: 37 Member
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    PhillyD520 wrote: »
    If you're using Fitbit Charge 3 HR, there is an issue with calculating steps. It is counting your arm movements in addition to your steps.

    Mine doesn't seem to count arm movements in - maybe a few when folding laundry or something of that sort, but I step between the machines so I don't care about those and it's so few in the overall day it doesn't affect much.

    If you are having a problem with yours counting extra arm movements, change your settings in fitbit to say you were it on your dominant arm. That can help.

  • mattstout
    mattstout Posts: 2 Member
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    I've found this too. I got my Charge 3 about a month ago, and noticed a plateau in my weight loss. When the syncing issues happened last week, I just told it to stop counting my steps altogether, and have been manually entering any exercise I do into MFP, and immediately saw results. Now I'm using my fitbit to track exercise calories and remind me not to be as sedentary, but I'm not getting credit for the steps I take in MFP, and it's working much better.