How does Fitbit Coach estimates my calories burned?

[KaylaHiggins1]

I decided to try out the Fitbit Coach app and I subscribed for the year. I am now unsure if I should have done that because I am having issues tracking how many calories I am actually burning during the workout. I go back to try and manually log the workout but there is no option for the type of workout I did. Does anyone have any advice on what to chose top manually track the workout calories burned?

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[WendyB]

All the ones I have done have been very accurate.

A lot of times people think they burn more calories than they really do.

Can you give an example of which one you have tried that you think is in accurate? That way I can check it out

Moving to the Coach forum now

[KaylaHiggins1]

Good afternoon,
I believe I may be burning less than what it says, not more. There are some times when I skip a specific move or do it for less time but it still says the calories that it estimated before I even did the workout. I do not mind manually inputting a workout after it and then deleting the one it transfers over however I am unsure as to what to log it as (cardio sculpt, zumba, etc.).
Thank you, Kayla

[jeffw132]

I've used Coach for awhile.  I believe it uses a standard number of calories regardless of person. Not sure if the Fitbit app adjusts the number sent by Fitbit Coach in the total daily calorie count.  For sure in the number posted under the Exercise section it only reports the number from Coach.  For me it's a low number.  

[AlejandraFitbit]

A warm welcome to the Community @KaylaHiggins1, @WendyB and @jeffw132 thanks for stopping by.

Our friend here @jeffw132 is right, Fitbit Coach calories estimation are a general estimation, and do not take in account your profile data. For more information, you can take a look at the About Fitbit Coach article.

Let me know if you need anything else. 

[canitmoosoo]

I think that this is very disappointing.  After having invested in a Charge 2 and used it for a month I was very pleased with the results and decided to upgrade to Fitbit Coach.  It is VERY demoralising to see that with the Coach I am burning approximately HALF of the calories I burn using the normal exercise options on the Charge 2.  I would have thought that this was an upgrade to motivate the user to burn more calories.....but to see only half the calorie burn for the same identical exercise is a real downer.  Is there a way where the Fitbit dashboard records the actual calories / data from the Charge 2 as an exercise instead of the pre-set calorie estimate in the Coach workouts?  I want to use the Coach as an app but I also want to see the actual calorie burn based on my actual effort.  A manual workout is giving me about 630 calorie burn whereas the Coach estimate logs 324 calories on the dashboard.  A negative difference of 300 calories is very depressing after the effort that was put in.

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[SunsetRunner]

Couldn't agree more! How can the "Premium" service by FITBIT themselves not use the actual device I bought to track the Coach App workouts? This seems crazy to me.

Like yourself, I have been pleased with the Charge 2 HR and thought, "Ok, let's up the game" so paid £32 for a year's subscription to then find out it doesn't even pull the data from my charge 2 to give me an accurate calorie burn and therefor motivation.

I'd go as far to say that it is very, misleading to customers to say "Upgrade to Premium" to find the premium option doesn't use the tracker you paid all that hard earned cash for.

[SunsetRunner]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

Couldn't agree more! How can the "Premium" service by FITBIT themselves not use the actual device I bought to track the Coach App workouts? This seems crazy to me.

Like yourself, I have been pleased with the Charge 2 HR and thought, "Ok, let's up the game" so paid £32 for a year's subscription to then find out it doesn't even pull the data from my charge 2 to give me an accurate calorie burn and therefor motivation.

I'd go as far to say that it is very, misleading to customers to say "Upgrade to Premium" to find the premium option doesn't use the tracker you paid all that hard earned cash for.

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Look at the calorie burn graph for the Coach Session. That is pretty useless. Bitterly disappointed.

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to see new faces @SunsetRunner, welcome!

I really appreciate the feedback provided about this topic and recommend taking a look at the Integrate heartrate data into Fitbit Coach calories burned request, vote for it and leave your comment.

Keep the stepping up! 

[Slackers]

He just said it was misleading ....

I was about to spend some cash on this but no thanks, it's unfinished.

Having to request a feature like this is silly.  

When it gets integrated  it's going to be like "See, we listened"

It's like going to work everyday and working at 50% effort.  That day you put in the extra 50% you expect praise.

[AlejandraFitbit]

Welcome to the Community @Slackers.

I appreciate the feedback provided about the Fitbit Coach app. If you are interested in it and want to know how it works, I recommend taking a look at the help article About Fitbit Coach.

Keep the stepping up! 

[Msp434]

I just completed a 40 min Fitbit coach run .I ran 4 miles .in what world would I have only burned only 230 calories?  The run was great and I appreciated the format but the miscalculation of calories burnt is really disappointing. 

[AlejandraFitbit]

Hey @Msp434, welcome to the Forums.

As mentioned previously, Fitbit Coach calories estimation are a general estimation, and do not take in account your profile data. For more information, you can take a look at the About Fitbit Coach article.

Catch you later. 

[Antenna]

You can try tracking the run on your watch at the same time as you use the coach app. Then you can use the guiding of the app, but delete the app-workout from the dashboard afterwards. I haven't tried this in a while, but it worked before with my Charge 2.

[Ippyevie]

Two years and no plan to change. They really listened. I’m changing to Apple Watch once this Inspire breaks. 

[erdemkeren]

At least compare the coach and watch workout date and time and merge them if they are colliding omg 

[Tbgelfling]

This is exactly what I e been wasting my phone battery and time to figure out before I go for a workout. I want to know how many calories I (JUST ME) burned, not an estimate. Sure they know my height and weight and I guess they know my usual heart rate, but when it came back with EXACTLY the number estimated, twice, I’ve just gotta know. For one thing I’m running in 90 degree heat; that alone totally changes calories burned compared to if I were on a treadmill. If it’s not accurate what’s the point?