where can i find my fitbit calculated BMR

[rogerw]

hello,

can somebody tell me where on the dashboard i can find what BMR fitbit is using/calculated for me? i have entred my details (height, weight, age etc). in settings->profile

thanks

[PureEvil · Accepted solution]

Hello @rogerw,

One way which you may be able to figure this out is by:

1. Going to your activities page.
2. Click on "Calories Burned".
3. Look at the base burn rate (typically while you're sleeping).
4. Hover over one of these bars, you should see a figure (7 calories for me).

This figure represents five minutes (duration for each bar), so for an hourly burn rate you'd multiply by 12.

I hope this helps.

[rogerw]

Hello Mr. PureEvil,

This is how i thought of doing 

and also suggested by Collinm39 in "

Every activity includes your BMR. You can calculate a clo..." post

Each of my lines says 6 calories which by 288 is 1728 calories.

My BMR from calculator is 1897 - a good can of coke difference.

The only way i can attribute this (assuming fitbit is clever which i am starting to doubt) is that the graph rounds off.  ie, a 5 min calorie burn of 6.5 calories would get me closer to my REAL bmr of 1897.  This seems reaosnable i suppose (graphics wise) - is unfortunate that you have to be a detective to work all this out.  

Lets hope fitbit is really using the 1897. Anyway thanks it seems i was on the right track on trying to work out the BMR that firbit is using.  Now to try and understand all the other numbers !?!?!

[PureEvil]

Hello @rogerw,

Something else just occured to me, when you establish your account, Fitbit also backfills some of your history (before you join Fitbit) with your BMR.  If you happened to have gotten your Fitbit recently (like Christmas), then you can look at your calorie burn for Christmas Eve.

Naturally, this will only work if it's recent, since age (and weight) affects your BMR.

[rogerw]

Hi again

have found out that i should use the Mifflin - St. Jeor equations BMR calculator (fitbit does)

and this gives me a BMR of 1821 instead of 1897

the BMR on xmas eve is 1826 so that checks out

1826 divided by 288 5 in intervals = 6.34 BMR cal/5 min

now on to the "left to eat" mystery (will post another if i can;t work it out from what i read).

thanks again

[Victorious_One]

Hi Rogerw,

when I googled Mifflin St Jeor, I wound up on www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html, and on paging down this I found a table of calories expended at various weights for various activities. Hope this helps.

Onwards and upwards!

[brucesharon]

I was wondering how to calculate the percentage of calories the BMR is pre-exercise-according to Fitbit's calculation.

A BMR can be 60-75% of total calories before exercise. Even though this is age related, and determined by muscle mass, I am wondering what the FitBit formula is.

I am in my 60's so FitBit may calculate that my BMR is 75% of my total calories before exercise.

any thoughts on this?

[Pickle25]

Whenever I use any online BMR calculator, it comes out quite a lot higher than Fitbit says. (More than a can of coke. More like two 14 inch pizzas).
After losing weight I started eating more calories and tried to match what Fitbit was telling me I was burning. But I ended up putting a bit of weight back on. So I think even Fitbit is overestimating either my BMR or how much I burn during exercise. Although my personal trainer seemed to think the calories burned were a little low for the workouts I was doing.
When you enter all the details about height, age, activity level etc, it doesn't ask you how much muscle you have, because apparently, people with higher muscle density burn more calories at rest.
Anyhoo, that's it. Just saying.

[paquer]

Why is this marked as a solution?  I do not see the BMR anywhere in the Fitbit app at all

[brucesharon]

It’s not in the app which automatically calculates it according to your age and height which you give when first starting, you can find it here https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator scroll up  in the activity bar to find BMR. 

[tomtcom]

It's still not in the app. So I use Loftilla smart scale with bio-impedance to see what it is and the online calculators mostly match up, close enough for me that is.

[LZeeW]

Hello @tomtcom and welcome to the Help forums.  Your BMR calories aren't specifically broken out in the phone app or web dashboard.  But I can tell you that Fitbit uses the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation for estimating BMR.  There are other equations, so make sure you use this one for you personal calculations.

Fitbit used to breakdown your calorie burn into BMR and activity calories if you were a member of the original web based Premium program.  That feature doesn't exist anymore.

[tomtcom]

Thanks, good to know. Seems to me the app is a little light on data display. It wouldn't even be some premium feature, it would only show that calculation it is already doing. Since this topic is 5 years old I guess it will never be incorporated.

[Assasinklaus91]

Leave fit bit charged and off your wrist for a whole day. Take it off in morning, put it on when you are in bed for the night. Your sleeping calories should be same to daytime burning calories. Don’t accessories before bed. Your heart rate should be normal. Then you will have a base day showing what your current bmr is. Your bmr will be why your calories burned for that day was.