How to calculate calories burned from exercise

[brucesharon]

How do I calculate the total calories I have burned from exercise? The Fitbit dashboard burned calories
Includes calories from my BMR.

My total calories before exercise is approximately my BMR as 70% of total calories without exercise. So what is the actual number of calories burned by exercise?

[brucesharon]

When you register for an account, you give your age, sex and height. The BMR is automatically inputed from there.

Here is how I figure out various results from the numbers.

calculate after 12AM. Use another app like Livestrong Myplate to compare!

exercise calories: Total Steps/calories x minutes= exercise calories

steps/miles= how many steps per mile or Km.

cals/minutes= how many steps to burn off one calorie 

minutes/miles =how many minutes per mile or km.

Steps/minutes= how many steps per minute

Be sure to calculate after 12 AM(0 hours). 

This is approximately in line with myplate from Livestrong.

Fitbit factors in “exercise calories” as regular exercise, and general walking around.

Myplate “light activity” is approximately in line with Fitbit as far as calories needed.  Even though I am a moderate exerciser, Myplate, catergorizes the number of calories I need as “light activity”. The calories expended are in line with Fitbit.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Welcome to the Forums @Dgnokids. Hello @brucesharon.

Thanks for sharing your experience on the matter. 

@Dgnokids In addition you could see your BMR by going back to a day before you had your Fitbit. The Dashboard will auto-populate all previous days with what it calculates to be your BMR. 

Hope this helps out! Let me know if you have any further questions.

[Dgnokids]

That method is ok for a new account. If I were to lose 50 pounds I assume my BMR would change. How would I see my new BMR? My original point was why can’t Fitbit simply show us what BMR it is using for its calculations.
Best Regards
Dave

[brucesharon]

Hi Dave,

I’m not sure where to to find it on the Fitbit account.The app factors it in with weight loss or gain.

However https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html is an excellent site. Use the down arrow to scroll up to Basal Metabolic Rate. It’s quite accurate.

How many calories to maintain your weight on this site, like other sites, takes a bit juggling. Try to find the exercise rate that matches your Fitbit calorie rate.

If you choose maintain on Fitbit, then see how it matches with exercise rates on this site.

Best,

Bruce

[brucesharon]

Dave,

I found this older post from our current moderator Lanuza , that FItbit does not post the BMR. https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Fitbit-com-Dashboard/How-do-you-find-your-BMR/td-p/1657470

If you go to Log/activities on the fitbit site on a browser, https://www.fitbit.com/activities, click on the week/ calories burned tab. Divide your total calories by your BMR and you will find your activity level.

My level is moderate- even though I exercise every day by walking.

So- if you know your BMR- you will have a good idea of your daily activity level.

Best,

Bruce

[brucesharon]

Hi Lanuza,
How does one do this?
Best,
Bruce

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @brucesharon.

I'll be happy to help you.

You can do so by going to the main Dashboard and then going to a previous day. You should be able to see an option to navigate to other days on the top section of the web Dashboard. Check the picture below for reference.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[cmookbridgman]

Or just list the calories burned from exercise separately, especially on workouts. That's why I bought a Fitbit in the first place; I thought it would give me an actual calorie count rather than an estimate, like MyFitnessPal, which knows I did x minutes of x generally defined exercise, but not exactly how fast or how long or whether I was going uphill, etc. Why should I have to include metabolic calories burned, go a day without syncing, and subtract? That's idiotic. Fitbit knows my weight, height, and gender; it knows my pulse rate and what I'm doing; just tell me how many @#$#@$ calories I burned doing it!

[brucesharon]

I think that MyPlate from Livestrong accurately counts the calories. So I use the app as a basis for figuring out how many calories I burn daily.

The app only works when you have your phone, it doesn’t have any external hardware or tracker which is supposedly  good.  Not sure on this.

This is what I do. I carry my phone and check the calories from myplate. Then I look at the Fitbit steps. For example, if I walked 10000 steps and the calories were 400, then I am burning 1 calorie with 25 steps. This works with walking.Does it work with running and biking, maybe not. 

Both myplate and Fitbit use the health app in IOS. So my figures are  good estimate.

Issues: Fitbit’s final calorie count doesn’t include exercise calories. I figured out that their calorie estimate is BMR and other calories. I generally maintain with 300-400 calories more than the app states I need to maintain. So one needs another app to calculate calories burned. Fitbit is excellent for steps and distance,