calories burned is not accurate

[jjb149]

The calories burned is not accurate. I've accurately tracked how many calories I've eaten over the past two weeks and I should have lost at least 2 lbs per week based on my calorie deficit, but have not lost any.

I track my calories eaten very carefully, so I know calorie intake is accurate. I eat only prepackaged foods with the calorie count on the package and weigh the food every time, and the very few times I've eaten out, I overestimate the calories eaten. Therefore, that must mean the calories burned is not accurate if it is showing such a large calorie deficit and I am not losing any weight.

[jjb149]

I mistakenly relied on Fitbit's own false claims of providing calories burned with any usable accuracy.  The calories burned is so far off that I don't even think it's useful as any kind of tool and is actually very misleading. Completely useless.

On another note, the heart rate meter works only sometimes now.  It often doesn't show any heart rate.  I'm always having to reset it.  It's also completely useless for tracking heart rate during high intensity interval training (HIIT) because it can't keep up with the large changes it heart rate over short amounts of time (or it shows no hear rate at all).

[JK07]

I have to agree. These are useless when it comes to calories burned. I’m 5’6 178lbs and 9% body fat. My wife got me the Fitbit ionic when she bought hers. I’ve been in the gym for years and workout 5-7 days a week. She has never worked out but just started recently when she realized she had gained too much weight. She’s completely out of shape and no muscle mass. So I should be burning more calories than her bcof muscle mass and metabolism. I’ll train her through a 1 hour full body routine, and even increase the intensity for myself. At the end of the workout she’s burned almost 600 and I’ve burned 200 walking around soaking wet with sweat. I’m taking mine back. It becomes frustrating bc I KNOW IM BURNING MORE THAN 200 CALORIES IN THAT HOUR. I one day trains my HARDEST for 2.5 hours mixing cardio with weights and I only got to 500. The other thing is my wife can get on the elliptical for 30 min and burn 350 calories and her Fitbit is always within 10 calories of what eliptical shows. Is it reading my BMI wrong thinking I’m overweight. My BMI shows I’m obese but I’m 9% body fat. I’m built like a gorilla. 🙂

[ElainaJade85 · Accepted solution]

Eating prepackaged food has NO bearing on weight loss. You can eat freaking cheeseburgers and still lose weight as long as you are UNDER the calories your body needs.  That's like saying Jenny Craig doesn't work because it's not "homecooked". You are not even answering the OP's question at this point just regurgitating incorrect weightloss drivel. 

[AlexaW95]

I’m sorry, but calories in/calories out is a gross oversimplification of the body. 

[qw_bbg]

It is likely that the fitbit calculates your wife as higher because she has a higher fat to lean body mass ratio than you. Also, if you have been working out regularly for some time your heart rate would be able to handle the stress of a workout better than your wife. Lastly, age plays into heart rate as well.

If someone is higher weight they automatically burn more calories for the same workout, they would also have a higher BMR/RMR. If you want to you can compare calories burned on a machine (elliptical, treadmill, arc trainer) to a recorded workout on your fitbit. They will likely be within 20% of each other. Do a side by side with your wife where she enters her weight, height etc as well. See the comparison of burn.

I have done this in the past with my partner. He was Overweight nearly obese, 2 inches shorter than me, and hadn't been active in some time. He was always able to have a higher calorie burn than me even when the resistance on the machine was much less than mine.

I'm not saying the fitbit is perfect but based on common science. A elliptical will have a calculation based on simpler science than your fitbit because your fitbit takes into account everything you do in a day (BMR), plus heart rate, steps, etc. While the machine will really only take into account the time it sensed heart rate during the workout, plus what it calculates BMR to be and calorie burn.

I hope that makes sense.

In summary, the longer you workout the harder it would be to burn more calories because your body has learned to adjust to the intensity of cardio. While if you've spent some time away and are overweight your body works harder to burn the calories, therefore burning much more.

[Tristanlm_33]

That all makes sense. Thank you!

Sent from my iPhone

[jjb149]

My wife? I don't have a wife.

[qw_bbg]

I was referring to user JK07 who commented something specifically pertaining to their Wife's calorie burn versus their own.

[Astdem33]

Hello,

the best way way to get the most accurate calorie count is by creating a my fitness pal account.  If you have already created one link the Fitbit account to the fitness pal account.  It will be more accurate since BMI is taken into account and you can change the settings in my fitness pounds by disabling the negative calorie adjustment.  This will allow Fitbit to track your true activity level and not your overall calories burned.  It will automatically adjust calories put out which will differ from what’s on your Fitbit dashboard.

note: you could be eating back too many calories.  I personally do not eat back the calories burned.  If I do go over my intake it is no more than 200 calories per day.  However, I usually avoid doing this.  You mentioned you eat a lot of prepackaged food.  Be sure to drink an ample amount of water to flush the salt from your body since a lot of prepackaged foods contain a lot of sodium.  Before I had my baby I ate like that because it was easier to track calories and I lost a lot of weight so I know it works.  I also don’t have hypertension or anything and I drank ample water.  

Good of luck on your journey. You will get there with preservation.  It took me two weeks to see it on the scale.  In fact I gained my first week oddly.  Be patient it will happen.

[Julia_G]

@Astdem33, just a quick note to add that Fitbit also takes into account height and weight -- exactly the same as information included in calculating BMI.  It uses a very standard calorie computation for BMR calories.

[jjb149]

Obviously I'm eating too many calories because I am not losing weight. The
point is the Fitbit calories burned is not accurate. According to the
Fbitbit I am burning way more than I eat.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @jjb149, can you give us a few more details about what is going on?  Someone may be able to help.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @jjb149, great to see you in the Community Forums! 🙂

As @Julia_G says, would you be able to provide more details or an example of how your tracker is not counting your calories burned accurately? That will help us or anyone else to be able to help you.

[fastlife]

I have to agree with the other users in that the calories burned estimate is extremely aggressive. I logged 1 hour and 58 minutes for a workout from the time I manually pressed the workout mode to the time I arrived back home.  The fitbit recorded a calorie burn of 1158 calories at a burn rate of 11.2 calories per minute.  This is absurd as my workout included a 15 bike ride to the gym, 60 minutes of calisthenics and HIIT training, 20 minutes of stretching and mobility, 15 minute bike ride back, and a few minutes walking around and getting water.  Even with the HIIT, the average rate is absurdly high.  My bike ride and stretching was at a low intensity, but an average burn rate of 11.2 calories per minute is extremely high, and is the rate comparable to doing burpees for two hours straight for a man of my height and weight!  In order to get a reasonable estimate, I lost trust in the calories burned and make a 30% adjustment to the calories burned.  I do like having something better than nothing, but I believe Fitbit should include a much stronger disclaimer stating calories burned can be off by as much as 50%.  This is assuming proper fit and measurements input correctly.

[Jilpij]

Hi. If you are exercising as well as trying to lose weight it may be that you have gained muscle mass, which weighs heavier than fat. I have been on a slight calorie deficit, yet doing lots of cycling and running. For the amount I have been doing some people would expect to shed pounds! But the scales have barely moved. I have however toned massively and dropped a dress size. I have just built muscle mass. I use the fitbit as a guide and motivator to keep me on track, and use the mirror as a truer reflection of my acheivements. Focus on fitness rather than calories, if you find a sport you love you will tone up and be healthier, which is way better than watching the scales. Hope this helps. X

[jjb149]

If you are in fact at a calorie deficit, you must lose weight (fat, muscle
or both). The body must get the energy from somewhere.

[Gs37]

The calorie counting is absolute bull**ahem**, it says i burn over 4000 a day but my intake has on been 2300 max... 

i got it for xmas, surly I would have died by now...!! 🤣

[DLaessi]

Sometimes I keep my versa in a drawer overnight. When I take it out in the morning, my drawer has burned anywhere from 400-500 calories!!!! That is WAY TOO MUCH INACCURACY!  

Fitbit-can you please fix this?  My drawer is already in good shape. 😡🙃😳

[ajleir]

The calorie count on packaged food is not always accurate.  A good manufacturer can be as far as 20% off on calories, fat, carbohydrates and sodium.  The variance is due to differences in ingredients, processing, packaging.  Always keep that in mind when using the caloric content on the back of a food package.

[Aroyer]

I agree with you. Calories burned is not reflected in a realistic manor. I do however think that they are correct. I am in a Healthy living/weight loss program called Real Appeal. My fitbit links to this app. Yesterday for example: my fitbit stated I burned 3284 calories with walking and running. My maintenance level target for caloric intake is 2777 based on my weight, height and age (real appeal- Doctor confirmed. I had to do a breathing test to calculate suggest caloric intake for loss and maintenance.)  Real appeal calculates fitbit calories minus  maintenance calories to give me a true caloric burn, of 510. It then calculates for me how much I would lose based on my basal net cal. Its a pretty great program actually. I love it, and my insurance covers the costs and fees. You would think fitbit would create the same programming to represent the data in a more simplistic form... future goals?