Charge 5 is tracking my calories too high

[MicheIe]

Hi all,

yesterday I went hiking. It was a pretty enjoyable hike for my standards, if a bit long (17,5km with 1.000m uphill and 1.000m downhill). During supper, I checked the calories burned for the day, and I was surprised to see that I was well over 4.000. I ended the day at 4.770 cal, with the hike alone burning through 2.500 of then.

Now, that seems way off to me. Even now that I'm writing to you, I woke up 3 ½ hours ago and I'm already at 1.000 calories.

I believe there must be something wrong somewhere. My weight is correctly inserted at 75kg, what could be the problem in your opinion?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[JohnnyRow]

I see you are fairly new to Fitbit.  Are you aware that Fitbit includes your BMR (Basal metabolic rate) calories?

[MicheIe]

Hi Johnny, yes, I figured as much. Still, even considering this, it doesn't add up. I don't think that yesterday I burned 4.700 calories. That's close to twice the normal calories consumption of a person of my age. And i just went for a hike.

[JohnnyRow]

I couldn't begin to judge a general case such as "this seems to high".  The only way I could look at it is to break it down to specifics.  I would start with your BMR.  To get this, look at your calorie burn graph overnight while asleep at its minimum.  That show you calorie burn per 15 minute intervals.  Multiply that 15 minute calorie burn times 360 to get daily BMR.

Then, when you said you had been up 3 and a half hours and burned 1000 calories, see what time that was, and how many of those 1000 calories were BMR calories.  And look at you calorie burned graph throughout the day, and your heart rate graph, on which calorie burn is based.

To me at least, that is the only way to get a handle on calorie burn.  I know lots of people like to say, 'this can't be right. this is way too many (or too few) calories burned.'  But the only way I know to address that is to break it down.  Maybe look at some smaller time period.  Look at how many calories burned; how many of those were BMR calories; what was my heart rate during that time; etc.

That's just my take on it.

[MicheIe]

Thanks for your input Johnny but 4.700 calories is nowhere close to being normal for a day with a hike.

Anyone can help me in understanding if I set a parameter wrong somewhere?

[MicheIe · Accepted solution]

Update: I've talked to my brother, he also wears a Fitbit Charge 5, and he also says that calories count is way off.

He says that he keeps getting 3.000 calories burned at the end of the day, and the same happens to me.

I advise the Fitbit developer team to look into that. I remain available for any other information.

[JohnnyRow]

A sudden 3,000 calories at end of day doesn't match with what you said in first post with 2500 calories burned on a hike, 4000 calories burned at suppertime, 4770 at end of day.

[MicheIe]

Bingo.

That's exactly why I said there MUST be something wrong, somewhere, with the calories count in the Charge 5.