Calories burned on walk does not seem right

[miratps]

For background, I am male, 26 and weigh 125 lbs. I use Fitbit Blaze too

So I tend to walk A LOT, I'm talking hours in the day, been recently hitting 30k, 40k and even 50k steps on the regular (not that my legs are thanking me). But when I go for a dedicated walk I set it to exercise mode for walk and off I go no doubt with the usual buzzing that it lost connection to my phone for the millionth time.

Normally I always trusted the figure but because I never ate anywhere near the calorie number Fitbit gave me, I always kind of ignored the figure to a degree even though it's synced to my MFP - my intake goal was usually done on that. But now I want to maintain more healthily without doing a stupid amount of exercise on top of the walking. Problem is, I looked at my most recent walk which was 3 hours in duration and supposidly 9 miles (very leasurely I know, I just finished at the gym and previous days were hurting!) and it said I burnt over 1000 cals. Now this normally would make me think, fantastic but I typed my stats into another few websites, including MFP and Map My Run and they both say I would have only burnt half that.

Why is the FitBit overestimating so much? Am I missing something?

[USAF-Larry]

@miratps- When I go for a casual walk/hike, I typically burn somewhere between 100 and 150 calories per mile. So, if I did a 9 mile walk, that would be 900 and 1350 calories. Yesterday, I went for a fairly brisk 3.75 mile walk, and the Charge 2 calculated that I burned 536 calories, or 143 calories per mile.  But then I'm almost 50 years older than you, and weigh a little more....

[miratps]

Thanks for the response. But the issue is still, do we trust the figure we are given or 'cut it in half' to be on the safe side based on other calculators. Was also told elsewhere that exercise mode is not great because they prioritise the HTML or something, so best to leave it as it is without any changes and just go for a walk/run etc.

[USAF-Larry]

You should do whatever your are comfortable with, @miratps, since it is all relative anyway....  I am happy with my numbers, and my doctor is happy with my fitness level, so that is all I need.  Just keep on stepping!

[nightswimming]

The total calories for exercise fitbit gives includes those from your BMR. If your BMR is 1500 a day, which it would be if you are around 5'8", a 3 hour walk will include almost 200 of these calories. So taking that off the total, 800 calories for 9 miles is 90ish per mile, which seems about right, certainly closer to the truth that a figure half of that. It is certainly possible your Blaze is overestimating your calories, but probably only by 10% or so. See how it goes and cut calories slightly if needed until you find the right balance.

[emili]

Yep, I am with @nightswimming. One other thing to consider, all calories in and out are rough estimates of the actual. None of it exact. If you are keeping fit and maintaining your weight- trust the numbers. If you are gaining adjust. All of it is try, try and try again.

[pierrotsc]

@miratps Indeed, i found outthe same thing. The blaze would overestimate calories when i walk. I would walk for 45 mn at 3 mph and would burn 450 calories. On the other hand, cycling calories were fine.