FitBit
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vatblack
Posts: 221 Member
Does anyone know how the FitBit tracks the calories you've used and eaten? I mean how the device measures the expenditure and intake? What does it measure on your body to know that? What do they list as their potential margin of error?
Has anyone had trouble with their fitbit?
Has anyone had trouble with their fitbit?
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Replies
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Hi! I have a Fitbit Ultra and I believe it uses its pedometer function, plus an accelerometer and whatever gizmo it has to be able to tell if you are ascending. It calculates your base calories on your sex, age, weight and height and the rest is determined from your movement.
it can't tell everything, such as if you're lifting weights - I use a heart rate monitor for that and for anything else you would do that can't be adequately tracked by steps. I play a brass instrument frequently, and it definitely has no idea, so I enter that as an activity.
I haven't had any problems with mine - what are you experiencing?0 -
Had mine since April 29th. I love it!! I even dropped it into the commode once and retrived it, cleaned it really good and it just keeps on ticking for me. I have no complaints. I enter my treadmill steps, time and speed into MFP and at the end of day it gives me the Fitbit adjustment.
Mine is the Ulra also.0 -
Hi, thanks for the feedback. I am not experiencing anything. I just want to know how it knows the things it knows before I decide to spend a $100 on a product. So, basically you are telling me it is doing what the this website does anyway by using tables to determine the information? How does it know how much you eat then? It clearly says on its website it tells you how much calories you take in and burn?
I am very skeptical when I don't know how things work. The website doesn't give enough information for my liking.0 -
It can't know how much you eat unless you tell it - same limitation with the Body Bugg and any other device out there. You can either use the Fitbit site to enter your food (and any activity that the device can't capture) or you can do it here and sync it with the Fitbit site. The food database here is definitely better, for what it's worth.
Its basic purpose is to let you know how much you're burning. What's cool is that you can tell it what your goal is (say 500 calorie deficit/day) and it will take into account how active you are and adjust how much you can eat that day based on your goal. The more you move, the more you can eat!
The big advantage I see to the Fitbit as opposed to the Body Bugg is that it's not noticeable (plus it's A LOT cheaper!). If you know this is something you're going to stick with, it's the best $100 you'll ever spend. Seriously.0 -
Thanks, I understand the purpose better now. For now, it is not worth the money yet. Maybe later when I get closer to my goal, it will be an asset.0
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I've got a fitbit and love it.
Where it is particularly useful for doing EMTWL is that it gives you a more accurate picture of your TDEE.
Every week i look at my average burn for the day (which fitbit can tell me) and then i work out what 15% cut is and check that i'm still on track and that my activity levels are fairly accurate.
I found this way easier than trying to use scooby to work out some kind of estimate of activity level.
Also even though i'm trying to eat the same number of cals every day in reality there is always some variation. So because it also syncs with the food i've imputed into MFP i can also keep a track over a week or even longer period that i'm consistently eating 15% less of what i've burnt.0 -
I've got a fitbit and love it.
Where it is particularly useful for doing EMTWL is that it gives you a more accurate picture of your TDEE.
Every week i look at my average burn for the day (which fitbit can tell me) and then i work out what 15% cut is and check that i'm still on track and that my activity levels are fairly accurate.
I found this way easier than trying to use scooby to work out some kind of estimate of activity level.
Also even though i'm trying to eat the same number of cals every day in reality there is always some variation. So because it also syncs with the food i've imputed into MFP i can also keep a track over a week or even longer period that i'm consistently eating 15% less of what i've burnt.
I just got mine yesterday !! Ive been trying to figure out the cool features..pls tell me how do I sync it with my MFP?0 -
I've got a fitbit and love it.
Where it is particularly useful for doing EMTWL is that it gives you a more accurate picture of your TDEE.
Every week i look at my average burn for the day (which fitbit can tell me) and then i work out what 15% cut is and check that i'm still on track and that my activity levels are fairly accurate.
I found this way easier than trying to use scooby to work out some kind of estimate of activity level.
Also even though i'm trying to eat the same number of cals every day in reality there is always some variation. So because it also syncs with the food i've imputed into MFP i can also keep a track over a week or even longer period that i'm consistently eating 15% less of what i've burnt.
I just got mine yesterday !! Ive been trying to figure out the cool features..pls tell me how do I sync it with my MFP?
Go to MFP Tools and then click on the fitbit ultra link. There's a fitbit users group that has a good stickie and they can answer a lot of questions.0 -
I've got a fitbit and love it.
Where it is particularly useful for doing EMTWL is that it gives you a more accurate picture of your TDEE.
Every week i look at my average burn for the day (which fitbit can tell me) and then i work out what 15% cut is and check that i'm still on track and that my activity levels are fairly accurate.
I found this way easier than trying to use scooby to work out some kind of estimate of activity level.
Also even though i'm trying to eat the same number of cals every day in reality there is always some variation. So because it also syncs with the food i've imputed into MFP i can also keep a track over a week or even longer period that i'm consistently eating 15% less of what i've burnt.
I just got mine yesterday !! Ive been trying to figure out the cool features..pls tell me how do I sync it with my MFP?
Go to MFP Tools and then click on the fitbit ultra link. There's a fitbit users group that has a good stickie and they can answer a lot of questions.
THANk Ya Much!0 -
I used mine yesterday for the first full 24 hours and I am in shock, cause I have burnt almost 2900kcal.I've got a fitbit and love it.
Where it is particularly useful for doing EMTWL is that it gives you a more accurate picture of your TDEE.
Every week i look at my average burn for the day (which fitbit can tell me) and then i work out what 15% cut is and check that i'm still on track and that my activity levels are fairly accurate.
I found this way easier than trying to use scooby to work out some kind of estimate of activity level.
Also even though i'm trying to eat the same number of cals every day in reality there is always some variation. So because it also syncs with the food i've imputed into MFP i can also keep a track over a week or even longer period that i'm consistently eating 15% less of what i've burnt.
I just got mine yesterday !! Ive been trying to figure out the cool features..pls tell me how do I sync it with my MFP?0 -
I have the old fitbit (had it for almost a year). I love it-- it helps me be a lot more precise about calorie intake and it encourages me to move more!0
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So would you get a FitBit or a HRM *Polar FT60*? I have been debating on getting something like this but I can't afford both right now. I really need to know how many calories I am burning to ensure I am doing everything right. Thanks for any input.0
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So would you get a FitBit or a HRM *Polar FT60*? I have been debating on getting something like this but I can't afford both right now. I really need to know how many calories I am burning to ensure I am doing everything right. Thanks for any input.
I would say it depends on the type of exercising you are doing. I have both and I find the fitbit is good for walking, running, eliptical type of exercise but it can't work out things like weightlifting or cycling I have to log those manually and I use the HRM for that. I understand an HRM isn't so good at the kind of exercise that doesn't get your heart rate up so your day to day walking, cleaning etc
Alison0 -
So would you get a FitBit or a HRM *Polar FT60*? I have been debating on getting something like this but I can't afford both right now. I really need to know how many calories I am burning to ensure I am doing everything right. Thanks for any input.
From what I understand, most HRM's are not good for 24 hour use. I have the FT4 (I think) and I tried that. It said I burned over 3000 calories in a 24 hour period - no way in ****. My tested BMR is 1280. On a truly sedentary day my Fitbit showed around 1500 and on a very active day it showed almost 2400. I do use my HRM to log in exercise calories as I think it is more accurate than the averages MFP and Fitbit come up with.0 -
So would you get a FitBit or a HRM *Polar FT60*? I have been debating on getting something like this but I can't afford both right now. I really need to know how many calories I am burning to ensure I am doing everything right. Thanks for any input.
From what I understand, most HRM's are not good for 24 hour use. I have the FT4 (I think) and I tried that. It said I burned over 3000 calories in a 24 hour period - no way in ****. My tested BMR is 1280. On a truly sedentary day my Fitbit showed around 1500 and on a very active day it showed almost 2400. I do use my HRM to log in exercise calories as I think it is more accurate than the averages MFP and Fitbit come up with.
I am doing it the same way. HRM for exersice and FITBIT for the rest of the day0 -
I just got a fitbit ultra the other day and I love it. It syncs with MFP so it gets my calories in from that. I follow the procedure for exercise, hold in the button for a couple seconds and then repeat when exercise is done. Then I go to MFP and log the exercise and I log all my food into MFP also. When it syncs with fitbit, I can clearly see how many calories I've burned that day and how many I've eaten. I'm finding that during the week I'm doing great, but killing all my hard work on the weekends. So it does let me see exactly where I need to make improvements. It's quite addictive.0
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I recently bought a fitbit and I log my food at MFP, but I am using the food plan set at a 500 calorie deficit, medium intensity. Should I follow what the Fitbit log says when figuring out how many calories I should eat or do I need to subtract the 15% cut from that number? I went on scooby and my numbers as follows when choosing 15% cut at moderate activity:
BMR - 1572
TDEE - 2472
15% cut - 2071
The fitbit log says I should eat 1947, which is pretty close to the 15% cut based on my calorie burn for the day. Just a little confused.0 -
My FitBit TDEE averaged over three months was within 50 calories of my calculated TDEE. Pretty accurate for me.0
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So if the majority of my exercise is weightlifting, martial arts, & crossfit I would have to manually enter all that? Are the burns for manually entered info more accurate than MFP? I'd love to have something like this but only if it is accurate. I wish MFP had some way to compensate for increased fitness. I mean 1.5 years ago doing 30 Day Shred might have burned 249 calories but I really doubt that it is now, it just isn't as hard.
Anyone else dealing with this?0 -
t can report that customer service with Fitbit is excellent. I purchased mine at the beginning of May. It never synced properly from day 1. I had issues with syncing wirelessly, would have to put the thing on the little dock to sync and then it stopped. Several emails and some trouble shooting later they sent me a replacement device.
Very happy with their fast service and attention.
As for calorie burns, as far as I am concerned no device or program is ever going to be 100% accurate. The reason is you do your work outs differently each time you do them. So one day you might work harder than the next. Certainly your weight, height, sex is going to factor in.
My Fitbit is also within about 50 calories of my TDEE-15% so I am happy with that. I don't really use it for calories burned. I use it to see my steps, stairs and sleep. I like my weekly report too.
For what the device costs I think it is excellent value. Best pedometer I have ever owned. Love that it is so discreet too.0
