Calories burnout

[kvn0410]

Today I burnt much more calories during morning walk. In one hours walk, on an average 300 Calories get burnt. Today I burnt about 500 Calories with the same amount of activity. Why this abnormally high burnout.

[Dominique]

Here is my advice: don’t overthink such minutia. Ask yourself this: is this one "abnormally" high value going to prevent you from achieving your goals, whether it’s to lose weight, improve your fitness etc.? I personally don’t think so.

As to the reason(s) why your Fitbit reported an unsually high energy expenditure, your guess is as good as mine. It could be you wore your Fitbit tighter than usual, or that it detected a higher HR with no good reason, or just that s*it happens.

In the grand scheme of things, calories burned during a one-hour walk don’t matter much. If they were overestimated during one particular time of the day, they may be underestimated at another time, so things will tend to even out. 

[Hagerdi]

I was wondering about the calorie counting part, too. I rode my new bike home from the store and estimated the miles I rode to be 2 miles. The zip calculated 81 calories. Then I googled the route and found out I estimated wrong - it was actually 4 miles. So I redid the activity log (because the zip only counted 200 steps for the ride) and 4 miles supposedly burned the exact same calories as a 2 mile ride.  WHAT?  certainly not a huge deal, but how does it calculate calories burned? Will 5 miles be calculated the same as 10?  10 the same as 20?  just doesn't seem right.

[emili]

it also depends on the tracker you have. the zip does not have an HR function and biking is not a step activity. So it is giving you an estimated calorie burn based on the number of steps it thinks you took.

As for the walk- was it colder, was it snowy and you were walking with more oomph, or was it really just a one off instance that in the grand scheme of things won't matter. the calories in and out are all estimates some days closer to reality some days farther. But in the end, it all evens out- especially if your fitness level improves or your weight goal is achieved.