Are calories being burned double-counted?

[ninaska]

So from my understanding, the FitBit tracks the number of calories burnt in a day through monitoring of the heart rate. When I log an exercise, the calories increase for the activity logged. Is this double-counting the calories when calorie is measured by both the activity and the HR? 

[Baltoscott]

@ninaska -- No.  When you log an exercise, the logged exercise overwrites the calories that your tracker calculates based on movement and HR during the time period of the logged exercise.

Hope that answers your question.

[Dominique]

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@ninaska wrote:

So from my understanding, the FitBit tracks the number of calories burnt in a day through monitoring of the heart rate. 

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@Baltoscott already answered your question, but I’ll add HR is only one part of the algorithm used by Fitbit to gauge your activity and thereby estimate your energy expenditure. Nowadays almost all Fitbits feature HR monitoring, but earlier models (One, Flex, original Charge etc.) didn’t have that feature, yet were able to estimate calories burned. Fitbits also have accelerometers that detect movements, impacts and their intensity, of all which are also part of the algorithm.

[emili]

hey there @ninaska let me first welcome you to the community.. second if Scott or Dominique answered your question please consider marking either one as the solution so others can benefit from the right answer.. happy stepping 🙂

[Wolfeman17]

The numbers don'tseem accurate. I have a bad back and am only allowed to walk at this point. I walked 1.3 miles this morning and the fitbit said I burned 1250 calories. that's not possible. Any ideas on why that is? Thanks

[lavabelle]

@Wolfeman17 that's most likely your total calorie burn so far today, not just for the walk. You burn calories whether you are active or not, you body uses calories to do all of it's functions, and Fitbit estimates this daily for you if you have entered your age, gender and weight. 

[Wolfeman17]

Well I just started using the fitbit today so it still seems a bit hard to imagine that I've burned that many calories without a real workout. But your explanation makes sense. Thanks!