09-07-2024 00:13
09-07-2024 00:13
FitBit overestimates calories burn rate by factor of ~2.
No way I burn 843 calories on 70min workout with average HR of 132 and barely touching peak HR.
Or I burn 427 calories on a slow, 50 minute-long walk where my HR is not even touching zone 2.
I see this consistently across many exercises. For example I was having 30min session on elliptical, equipped with it's own HR sensors and Fitbit consistently measures ~2-times more calories, than the machine itself.
I contacted support and they told me to reset to factory state, use previous version of app, update to latest version, clean up sensors, avoid interference with strong WiFi (?), ensure properly set demographics, use original band on my Pixel Watch 2, disable step tracking on phone, ensure calories burn rate on watch is the same as on phone, reinstall phone app, try other hand, ensure HR sensor works properly (tested at my cardiologist with stress exercise and the watch measures HR precisely), even exercise warranty and get new watch, ... nothing helped. Furthermore, they claim that calories burn rate incorporate basal metabolic burn rate. While this could be true, the calories burn rate is still way too high. I did different test this time, I did not workout during entire day (only 14 zone minutes), just slowly walking a lot (~19k steps) next to river (almost no elevation gain).
My basal metabolic burn rate is ~2100cal and there is no way I burn additional ~2000cal just from slowly walking 15.5km.
Is this just me? Because this renders pretty expensive watch useless as a fitness tracker. I mean... what is the point of measuring calories intake with FitBit?