Fitbit Inspire HR - is it hopeless? So inaccurate

Options
goatelope
goatelope Posts: 178 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi All

I’m having a really hard time with not losing weight and trying to get as accurate as I can at the moment.

I bought a Fitbit Inspire HR to help me feel more confident about calories earned / burned through exercise. I’m not looking to eat those calories, just to understand what I’m burning.

I found when I walked 10k steps, MFP would say I had earned maybe 150 calories. My Fitbit has, 2 days in a row, calculated about 471 or 600 calories earned through the same amount of walking.

Does anyone have any ideas about this? It seems it is over-sensitive. I have measured stride length and wear it on my non dominant wrist etc, but it’s still a problem.

Replies

  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 909 Member
    Options
    have you tried buying a clip case and wearing it on your hip? i prefer that and get better results with my alta that way, and my most accurate fitbit was the one, which i also wore on my hip.

    btw, fitbit takes into account speed when calculating calories. i don't know the inspire, but if it calculates altitude - stairs or walking up a hill or an incline - fitbit will also take incline into account when calculating calories. not all walks have the same calories.

    ultimately no tracker is going to give you perfectly accurate calorie burn. you could get a chest strap heart rate monitor - i, at least, have found them more accurate - wear it when walking or working out and figure from that.

    what do you mean by "it seems it is over-sensitive"?
  • goatelope
    goatelope Posts: 178 Member
    Options
    zebasschick wrote: »
    have you tried buying a clip case and wearing it on your hip? i prefer that and get better results with my alta that way, and my most accurate fitbit was the one, which i also wore on my hip.

    btw, fitbit takes into account speed when calculating calories. i don't know the inspire, but if it calculates altitude - stairs or walking up a hill or an incline - fitbit will also take incline into account when calculating calories. not all walks have the same calories.

    ultimately no tracker is going to give you perfectly accurate calorie burn. you could get a chest strap heart rate monitor - i, at least, have found them more accurate - wear it when walking or working out and figure from that.

    what do you mean by "it seems it is over-sensitive"?

    Many of the reviews say that Fitbit tried to make them sensitive in order to pick up movements etc, but that some of them pick up too much movement.

    I have disabilities and so I am thinking that perhaps the better one for me is the one on my phone / via MFP. This always gives a conservative estimate eg yesterday 130 ‘earned’ through 8k steps seems more realistic than 600

Categories