Calories burned too high

[jimdad09]

From a BMR calculator (male, late 30's, 176lb, sedentary) I lose 1800 calories before any activity. I log about 5,000 steps in casual activity, no actual exercise, but fitbit is calculating that I burn a total of about 2800 calories/day after activity. This seems too high, effectively it means fitbit thinks I'm burning 1,000 calories in 5,000 steps, or 1 calorie for every 5 steps. Do these #'s seem right?

As a complicating factor that might be the cause, I'm an outlier on heart rate. Sitting down I log high 80's. For even light activity like washing dishes I'm in the 105-110 area. I modified my zones to reflect this, with min/max zones at 115 to 200, and an overall max of 200. But it still seems like fitbit is interpreting my HR data as exercise burning energy, and either way I dont know if this is all correct, and if not how to fix it.

Moderator edit: clarified subject

[LanuzaFitbit]

Welcome to the Forums @jimdad09.

Let me help you make sense of the situation.

Since you mentioned that your HR is regularly higher, this does explain the increase in calorie burning. Keep in mind that even if you modify the settings to reflect your personal HR zones, the Dashboard will still count the higher HR as burning more calories and make the calculations based on that.

I hope this does clarify your question, if you have any other ones please let me know.

[jimdad09]

Okay, but I'm not actually exerting myself. Resting Heart Rate  has some natural variation, does Fitbit not have a way to take this into account for calorie burn rates?

Thanks for your help.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hey @jimdad09.

It does take into consideration natural variations, but if your HR is much higher than the average, it would probably go over that estimations. So the question would be, is your HR much higher than average?

Let me know if there are any other questions.

[jimdad09]

I'm not sure if it's "much" higher, but my resting heart rate is on the high end of the "normal" range. The range is 60-100, and I'm around 90, with casual activity (walking around the house, cooking food, etc) causing it to be between 105-115. In my dashboard, fitbit shows me "in fat burn zone" at these times, so today it looks like I have 182 minutes in fat burn zone, but all I've done is 6,000 steps, walking from my office to my car and other casual activities.

I want to stick to my daily calorie budget, but I'm not sure if I should assume Fitbit is over estimating my "burn" rate due to higher resting heart rate, or if that is actually accurate. I don't know if there's a good solution given that bodies & metabolisms vary so much, so Fitbit can only generalize so much, but if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them: I'm very much enjoying my Charge 2 so far. Thanks for your help!

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hey @jimdad09.

If the Dashboard puts you in the Fat Burn Zone, it would make sense as to why you are getting more calories because it doesn't consider you to be 'relaxed'. Unfortunately there aren't many ways to go around this. You could potentially edit your weight/height in order to force the Dashboard to calculate your calorie burning in a more accurate way to yourself. While it wouldn't reflect your actual weight/height, the calorie burning could be accurate. 

Let me know if there are any other questions.

[Featherlight]

Raise your max heart rate to 220,it will shift all of your zones up including fat burn zone. I am certain my zones are off and thus cals. I scrupulously track and I am gaining on an average daily deficit of 500 

This frustrates me to no end. If I get up from my chair I am well into fat burn zone, if I walk across the room my heart spikes into fat burn zone. If I am sedentary it's accurate but  I think fitbit cannot handle heart rates that spike on casual activity. 

It would be fine if these fat burn zone, spikes causing the higher TDEE were accurate and showing correlation with my months and months of calorie intake and weight change data but they are way off. It's a shame

[LanuzaFitbit]

Welcome to the Forums @Featherlight.

Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback on the matter and for suggesting a workaround. 

If you have the time, maybe you could visit one of our Discussion boards. Lots of different topics to talk about in there. 

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

[Krystalpatra]

I just read through this discussion after googling the same problem due to a suspicion this is what’s happening to me.... still, in 2020. I got a Versa 2 for my birthday to replace an older model. I’ve had it for almost 2 months now and noticed a higher “calories burned” trend and was pleased until the thought crossed my mind that because my heart rate runs fast from a medication I am on, it may affect it and false show me more calories. What prompted me to look into it and see if others experienced it was after I had had a seemingly higher than usual calorie deficit, but then weighed more... not incorporating a whole lot of muscle toning so it’s not muscle gain. Anyway.. I’m disappointed, but I guess technology can only go so far. I just hate that I think I’ve been unknowingly sabotaging my own weight loss and relying too much on Fitbit. 

Please, if someone knows a solution that may help I am all ears!

[Miller70]

I am in the same boat.  It just started this week, May 18,  2020.  Suddenly my Fitbit is constantly showing me in a Fat Burn or Cardio Zone.  And I'm sitting at my desk, sedentary and working.  I cant figure out how to change it.  The last two days it listed my calorie burn amounts around 5000 for each day.  LOL!  My average is between 2000-3000.  So this is way off.  I have a blood pressure machine at home.  I used it to check my pulse after my Fitbit told me I was at 130 bpms.  The machine said I was at 80 bmps (beats per minute), so no way is Fitbit recording any of this information correctly.  So very disappointed.  It was working just fine until this week.  So what happened???   Do I need to go shop for a different product?  

[SCarterTX]

I am having the same problem! I know the steps are calibrated correctly but it shows over 5200 calories burned and my steps were 4000.

Now granted I weigh 295, 5'4 and I am 59 yrs old.  I have been pretty darn sedentary for about a year.  Can that possibly be correct?

[Miller70]

I did notice today that my numbers were much more spot on.  I made sure my Fitbit was snug on my wrist as much as I could.  My band is magnetic and the more I moved my wrist the band would loosen up.  I am hoping this was the cause of the inaccurate readings.
I ordered a pack of three new wrist bands today and will get those in a few days.  Until then, I'll just have to keep adjusting my band and making sure it stays snug against my arm.  
I also really cleaned the underside of the fFitbit.
Let's hope these few tricks work.
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