Inaccurate calories when swimming

[Drakermom]

Have just added the Flex2 to my collection of Fitbits. Was so excited finally to have a tracker for my swim workouts. I find the time and distance swum to be 99.9% accurate. But calories burned is a farce. It estimates 1 cal per minute. I.e. 40 calories for a 40 minute swim. I'm 67, 140 lbs, 5'6" and very active. So what's going on? (I also own an Alta, charge HR and Charge 2). 

Moderator edit: subject updated for clarity

[stinaldi]

I'm guessing you are using a 25yd pool. I found that when I changed it to
50yd pool it calculated the calories and laps correctly. Hope that helps.

[stinaldi]

My guess is that you are swimming in a 25yd pool. Change the pool settings to 50yd, and now you will get laps and calories correct. Then you can just figure ttl yards.  Also, make sure your activity is listed as swim, not sport. .

[Archswim]

Tried that long ago. It didn't work.
FitBit engineering was supposed to have addressed the problem a number of
us reported. No news after a year has almost passed.

[Archswim]

Good luck!
Nothing has worked. I plan to replace the product with another brand that
works. The device also misreads the rest of my exercise program,
registering nothing for treadmill work and classifying my swim sessions as
steps. Customer service is friendly, but less than helpful. I am convinced
that a number of faulty units was produced. My wife's unit works fine for
swimming, but we have noted numerous inaccuracies with step and calorie
accounts.

[JustinSG]

I too tried every suggestion given to no avail. I asked for a refund, but
they said it didn't qualify for a refund because I bought it from a third
party retailer... so I just ate the cost, and it sits unused in my
drawer... let me know if you find a solution...

[scrane]

It counted the laps and distance correctly.  That's much more important to me than the estimate of calories.  Hopefully they'll fix the calories.  Sounds like a minor software glitch.

[Archswim]

Mine doesn't record anything in swim mode accurately. No distance, laps, or
calories. It counts my swim time as steps. More than a software glitch.

[Archswim]

Same here. Mine was a gift bought off of Amazon.com. They have replaced two
of the "pebbles" with no change. I am using it for other exercise, but the
device is not good. As I wrote earlier, research is on for a device
that works. . . . .not from FitBit.

Moderator edit: Word choice 

[HeydyF]

Hey guys! Let me give you a warm welcome to the Community! 

Keep in mind to enter your correct demographics, height and weight, in order for you to get more accurate calorie results from swimming and all of your activities. You can also change the pool length for your Flex 2, on your Fitbit account, as one of the users mentioned, and then, please restart your Flex 2. As an additional troubleshooting, you can try to set up your tracker as a new device. 

Wear it for a few days and let me know how it goes! 

[scrane]

I don't have a flex. I have a Charge 3.

[NellyG]

@scrane you are posting in a thread in the Flex 2 Forum. It might be better to post your query in Charge 3.

[Everuby]

You will still get the same reply whichever thread you post on, all cut and past answers and mostly of very little help.

[AlvaroFitbit]

Hi everyone. Since the heart rate data isn't available while swimming (the Flex 2 doesn't have a heart rate monitor and the other devices disable this feature while swimming) the calories are more of an estimation based on the activity detected and the amount of movement recorded. Still if you feel the calories are incorrect you can manually log the activity and enter the amount you feel is more accurate.

Let me know how it goes!

[RRainman]

I have a Charge 3 and bought it specifically for the swimming feature.  This totally defeats the purpose of my purchase!  I have called the Help desk multiple times and get the standard "set your pool length and restart." 

Fitbit folks!!!!!!!!!!!!  This has been a problem for a long time.  I am not buying into the HR being disabled as the excuse for the calorie burn being grossly inaccurate.  There are numerous online swimming calorie calculators that use weight, time swam, lengths swam and stroke to give you an estimate of calories burned.  Guess what... Fitbit has all this information except for stroke.  Come up with an average so you don't need the stroke type!  Put the algorithm behind the scenes on the website and calculate something accurate to the Fitbit dashboard!!  In the mean time, include the minutes in the active minutes total.  With the right coder, I bet you could have this done in an afternoon!!!

The solution is EASY for Fitbit if they were truly interested in supporting the community!!

And yes....I'm pissed.

[Archswim]

Pissed is an understatement.  

I am right with you RRainman!

I still have the Flex2 and enjoy watching it screw up steps between swimming and the exercise log. It rarely gets it straight.

fitbit doesn't give a flip if the stuff works. It cracks me up when they try to get me to purchase another product.

I'm still looking at some of the other options out there . . . .

[Archswim]

AND

repeat this worthless suggestion over and over and over again. It does not work. The Flex2 and it sounds like newer models are not any better. When is fitbit going to solve the problem?  Perhaps losing customers will help?

[scrane]

This post makes sense.  Fitbit people, please read.  All you need to do is talk to your swimmer customers and come up with some simple software adjustments that allow swimmers to more accurately track their calories in a swim session.  WE UNDERSTAND that tracking heart rate under water is never going to be accurate.  But there are so many other ways that you can provide swimmers with a useful interface.

[scrane]

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Dear Alvaro,

This response is not good enough.  Have you read all of the comments?  To suggest manual logging - quite frankly - is an insult to your customers, because, as your customers keep telling you, there are plenty of simple coding fixes which could address the problem.  Why should we have to manually log data each time we swim?  You don't need a fitbit to manually enter data.  You can do that with a piece of paper and a pencil.  You just need to provide a simple manual calorie "offset" adjustment for swim sessions.  That way we only have to manually enter once, rather than every time we swim.

Please create a forum for swimmers so you can work with us to create a common sense fix.  It will literally cost your company next to nothing.  Otherwise you will lose all of your swimmers to the next fitness tracker brand which has a more intelligent swimming calculation system.  And that will cost you a significant amount.

Thanks

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[Everuby]

Well said and I hope they dont delete your post as they keep doing with me. Challenging their moderators seems to be a crime in their eyes. I've never read a firum with so many complaints and poor excuses. The swim data has been an isdue for at least 2 years. Unfort for them I'm not shutting up and going away and I am in the process of trying to get a legal third party involved. 

[JustinSG]

Good to know. Thanks.