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Fitbit?

ohwhataday
ohwhataday Posts: 1,398 Member
edited September 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Okay, I know something has been posted about this because I just tried searching but I'm not sure what I'm looking for is on there. I just got a Fitbit yesterday and I just reset it to use my elliptical and I was only on there for 30 minutes. My elliptical told me I burned 331 calories, I'm pretty sure the Fitbit told me I burned 1,364 calories. I had it attached to my hip, could this be the reason why? Maybe I shouldn't have put it there.. I'm so confused.

Replies

  • fzyfrog
    fzyfrog Posts: 456 Member
    I am returning my FitBit that I just got Thursday. I ran yesterday and had it clipped to my hip as well. My treadmill said I burned 1300 calories, my Nike+ wristband said I burned 1500, and my FitBit said I burned 2491! I don't feel it has been accurate on other things either.
  • LG61820
    LG61820 Posts: 372 Member
    I am a new fitbit user and love it. Did you separate out just the period of time that you were on the elliptical or are you looking at the day's total of calories burnt? The fitbit is not a heart rate monitor, but a motion sensor. Today so far my fitbit has told me that I've burned about 1800 calories, MFP says 1900. I'm ok with this, I find the fitbit to be a great motivator, I don't want to look back on my day and find that I was sedentary for most of it.

    I wear the sensor on my bra. The many reviews and user comments I read prior to buying it suggested that the bra is the safest place to clip it to prevent loss and that it provides an accurate read there.

    After reading a lot of posts here and otherwise on the web I have come to the conclusion that there are no perfectly accurate measures of how many calories a person is burning that are available at a reasonable price. All of them, base their counts on your age, gender, height and weight. No consideration for how efficient a calorie burner you may be, your muscle to fat ratio, or your body fat percentage. Body media also measures some other things, but is lots more expensive & requires a monthly subscription.

    If you were looking for a HRM you should have likely gotten something other than a fitbit. I was torn between the Body Media Fit and the Fitbit. I'm going to stick with mine and see where it takes me.
  • cynthials
    cynthials Posts: 213 Member
    At any given point in time, the FitBit will show you your total overall calorie burn. If that is the number you saw after you finished the elliptical, it was all calories burned for the day, including your workout.

    The only way to show the calories burned from a certain period of time would be to use the START/STOP feature, or look at the activity graph on the website.

    I have had a FitBit for 3 weeks now and LOVE it!
  • jaxxie
    jaxxie Posts: 576 Member
    Where is the start/stop and how do I reset it to track my workout? Will it still add my overall daily calories burned. I'm really confused too! I'm sick today and haven't done anything, but it says that I have burned over 1200 calories....how is that even possible? HELP!
  • enmaku
    enmaku Posts: 24
    Where is the start/stop and how do I reset it to track my workout? Will it still add my overall daily calories burned. I'm really confused too! I'm sick today and haven't done anything, but it says that I have burned over 1200 calories....how is that even possible? HELP!

    One of the primary misconceptions I'm seeing from the Fitbit is that at any given time the "calories" view on the Fitbit itself will show total calories burned, including those from Base Metabolic Rate (BMR), starting at midnight. So when you see 1200 calories burned on the Fitbit that is probably representative of your BMR only. Your body still burns calories just to stay alive, whether you get up and exercise or not - take your weight, in pounds, and multiply by 10 to get a very rough approximation of calories burned from BMR only. Fitbit does similar (but more accurate) math and then slowly ticks up the calories you've burned, adding both BMR and exercise together.

    Realistically, even if you're entirely sedentary you probably still burn a few hundred calories above BMR just getting up to go to the fridge or use the restroom, this is the number you're seeing on the device. What I don't know is where you can see a summary of calories burned above and beyond BMR. As a developer I'm aware that this data is available via the API and if you link your Fitbit to your MyFitnessPal account it will automatically push that number of calories into your "Exercise" list for each day, but I don't see anywhere on the main Fitbit site that lists this number.
  • spynoodle
    spynoodle Posts: 404
    Okay, I know something has been posted about this because I just tried searching but I'm not sure what I'm looking for is on there. I just got a Fitbit yesterday and I just reset it to use my elliptical and I was only on there for 30 minutes. My elliptical told me I burned 331 calories, I'm pretty sure the Fitbit told me I burned 1,364 calories. I had it attached to my hip, could this be the reason why? Maybe I shouldn't have put it there.. I'm so confused.

    I think the 1364 you're seeing is the total number of calories you've burned (including your BMR) from midnight up until that time.
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