Fitbit calories

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toadflaxbex
toadflaxbex Posts: 55 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
To start, I’m a heavy lady (42yrs) just starting again my weight loss journey after COVID set me back by 33kg! Exercise is new too after a couple years focussing on other things.
I have everything set as sedentary and then use some of my exercise calories to bump things up a bit. Normally I’d go for a 45 min bike ride and get about 400 cals for it but don’t push myself much.
Tonight I went for about an hour, I ride slow but enough to get my heart rate up and got myself 754 cals. I’m worried that’s not correct. Attached a screenshot. Can I trust this?qwng5e6bhk0w.png

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,080 Member
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    Duplicate thread...

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10831549/is-fitbit-right#latest
  • toadflaxbex
    toadflaxbex Posts: 55 Member
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    I put it in the places I thought I’d get help on. Some people may not go into that section!?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    toadflaxbex wrote: »
    I put it in the places I thought I’d get help on. Some people may not go into that section!?

    People will point out duplicate threads because we're asked to choose the "best" home for a thread and then not post it other times. Sometimes it's hard to choose the best place, so just do the best you can. It's nothing personal, but just to make sure that discussions stay in one place. If you want, you can request the deletion of the other thread (or this one) by using the "Flag" option.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,080 Member
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    Here's what I posted in that one;
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Since you're set at Sedentary it's going to transfer all of your extra calories earned due to all your activity during the day. I'm assuming you do things other than just a bike for an hour. Chores, work, walking around, etc.


    If you're new to Fitbit, maybe go to the Fitbit group and read their FAQs at the top of their forum.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    FAQ
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-amp-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy#latest

  • toadflaxbex
    toadflaxbex Posts: 55 Member
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    Thanks for replying. Yeah I do other stuff this was just that bike ride I wasn’t sure on. It seemed to give me 754 and I was concerned it was too high as generally I earn less. I know I pushed it tonight, I’d normally go a bit more leisurely . I’m not new to fitbit had various over the years. I have the versa 3 now.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,080 Member
    edited April 2021
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    toadflaxbex wrote: »
    Thanks for replying. Yeah I do other stuff this was just that bike ride I wasn’t sure on. It seemed to give me 754 and I was concerned it was too high as generally I earn less. I know I pushed it tonight, I’d normally go a bit more leisurely . I’m not new to fitbit had various over the years. I have the versa 3 now.

    But is it syncing to Myfitnesspal and giving you an adjustment of 754?

    Please read that FAQ thread.

    It's picking up all your activity - it always has...

    I mean, you're saying you've used Fitbit for a long time but you're suddenly asking if it's right? I'm confused.
  • toadflaxbex
    toadflaxbex Posts: 55 Member
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    Oh my word, because a 45min bike ride would normally give me around 400, tonight I got 754. I’ve asked a question because I am confused at the difference. I don’t know if MFP has received all of the 754 as it generally takes the total over the day rather than a single exercise. As it’s a new Fitbit (since Monday) I was concerned. I will do some research and see what others say to help me out a bit.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    So this is about is Fitbit being generous?

    It depends on how fit you are and how steady-state a ride it was.

    The HR-based calorie burn you received could be inflated if the ride was very interval in nature.
    Your HR graph doesn't appear to show that.

    If very unfit on average for your BMI - then it could be inflated calorie burn too. But that's not a sudden change.

    (Fitbit's claim of Heart zones personalized has no bearing on calorie burn, and the HRmax figure used could still be way off even if expected level of fitness).

    Also sounds like you've been doing this for a few weeks - so one of the tweaks has occurred where Fitbit pays attention to exercise frequency. And that's not sudden change.

    Now - take one of your 400 cal workouts from the past - what was avgHR and maxHR in that case?
    Time obviously adds on more calories - but that has big bearing.

    Maybe your HRM was logging some inflated HR reading because of static, sweat, whatever - compared to the 400 cal ride.
    Maybe you were hotter and HR higher to stay cooler. In which case welcome to the world of why HR is not a measurement for calorie burn.

    Those stats from prior 400 cal ride will be useful to know.
    And as best you recall - temps, perhaps resting HR that day in general.

    Could be you felt great, pushed harder but it felt just as easy, HR was increased accurately, you did burn much more than normal, and for longer.
    And all valid for a bigger calorie burn.
  • toadflaxbex
    toadflaxbex Posts: 55 Member
    edited April 2021
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    See it’s difficult, I only started riding again 3 weeks ago so this is fairly new. I used to ride quite a bit pre COVID weight gain. I only go out 2-3 times a week atm. My previous versa was plying up and the HR was static on it. Was showing 111 for a fair few days without me really noticing (was mainly counting steps). I got Versa 3 this week and my calorie burn has started to increase. I know I pushed harder last night, it had been raining so ground wasn’t as hard as it had been on previous cycles and did get a sweat up.

    I’ve attached the stats from the two other cycles for this week. On the second image my HR wasn’t being picked up for a lot of it (watch was loose) which you can see so that’s a tough one to work out.ki6yw3xk0pf1.png
    a18ib8q8971w.png
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Well, that difference in avgHR between the workouts easily explains the difference in calories. 114 up to 143.

    That last workout is calories for only the minutes HR was seen, but it was given to the whole time period. can't use the 141 there because that's only for the 35 min the HR was even seen. Actually 8.8 cal/min it appears for only those min given a calorie burn.

    Not enough data to say there is a problem yet, but enough to see why there is a difference.
  • toadflaxbex
    toadflaxbex Posts: 55 Member
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    Thank you for taking a look, you e really helped. Did the same route today minus about .8 of a mile and got 524 with average HR of 121bpm. So I guess could be right as last nights was 141bpm. In zone today for 39 mins and yesterday was 111mins apparently. I shall keep an eye on it all for sure.

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