calories burned accurate?

[GetFitFargo]

How accurate are the estimated calories burned?  I'm killing myself with T25 workouts and I feel like I burn more calories than it's telling me.  I thought fitbit flex would estimate properly - but it doesn't seem right?  Feel I bought the wrong type of monitor.  Any suggestions?

[msalcido]

Thanks for posting this question.  I've wondered the same thing.  Yesterday my fitbit logged that I burned 2, 905 calories for the day.  Which seems like an awful lot of calories.  I did run 5 miles but my Runmeter said I burned 644 calories, I doubt I burned an additional 2261 calories just by walking throughout the day.

Looks like a HRM is the best answer.

[Heybales]

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@msalcido wrote:

Thanks for posting this question.  I've wondered the same thing.  Yesterday my fitbit logged that I burned 2, 905 calories for the day.  Which seems like an awful lot of calories.  I did run 5 miles but my Runmeter said I burned 644 calories, I doubt I burned an additional 2261 calories just by walking throughout the day.

Looks like a HRM is the best answer.

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It sounds like you are not adding on the base calories your body burns even if you slept all day.

That is actually your biggest calorie burn, - called your BMR. 

Look at your calorie burn rate for non-movement during sleep or other time for the 5 min block. Divide those calories by 5, x 1440 = BMR.

Start moving on top of it, burn energy digesting food, ect, and ya, you burn more than you think.

You easily burned 2261 in normal daily activity outside the run.

[msalcido]

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@Heybales wrote:

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It sounds like you are not adding on the base calories your body burns even if you slept all day.

That is actually your biggest calorie burn, - called your BMR. 

Look at your calorie burn rate for non-movement during sleep or other time for the 5 min block. Divide those calories by 5, x 1440 = BMR.

Start moving on top of it, burn energy digesting food, ect, and ya, you burn more than you think.

You easily burned 2261 in normal daily activity outside the run.

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So should I add the BMR to the chart in My Fitness Pal?  If I did that, then I overburned calories and didn't take in enough food. 

[slysam]

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@msalcido wrote:

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So should I add the BMR to the chart in My Fitness Pal?  If I did that, then I overburned calories and didn't take in enough food. 

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No, MFP already has factored in your BMR plus some general activity (depending on the activity level you selected on MFP). So MFPs estimation of your total calorie burn does include BMR, some general non-exercise activity, any exercise you logged on MFP, and if fitbit and mfp are linked any additional unaccounted for activity calories from Fitbit. (That is what the Fitbit adjustment is on the MFP site). You can see what MFP estimates as your daily total if you look in your MFP exercise log and click on the little "i" next to Fitbit adjustment. This is most accurate if you look at a previous completed day. MFP actually deducts your deficit (if set for loss) from your BMR and general activity calories, before you log any exercise or the fitbit adjustment is factored in. So if you are eating your adjustments, you should be right within your MFP plan.

[Heybales]

As Slysam pointed out, just follow the plan.

I was just pointing out that your thought that 2200 was way more calories than you could possibly burn for rest of the day was including some calorie burn you are not aware of.

And just how totally realistic it is.

When the only amount of eating calories people see are these 1200 calorie diet goals - they get totally misconceived ideas of how much they really could eat and maintain. Especially after exercise is thrown in to the mix.

Rarely does anyone log what they used to eat without the exercise to discover what normal level was prior to paying attention.

[msalcido]

Thank you - makes sense.  Part of the problem was I didn't have my FitBit synced with MFP.  Have done that and now it all makes sense!

Thanks again!

[honeyland]

Im doing well in all  of the areas on my dash board ...at least 15000 steps 81 steps etc... but can rarely burn enough calories to score a champ?  Am I doing something wrong?  Or do I need to work harder?

[honeyland]

81 stairs 

[Jillo]

what about when you walk 4 miles and it tell me I burned 45 calories? Thats way off....i can manually put that in but I thought that was the whole idea of this fitbit?

[Jillo]

it does not even track steps for me....i have it set to calculate calories rather than steps but its not doing its job.

[Jillo]

it sounds like you have your fitbit set to calories burned. I also do...but is it normal for it to read I burned 45 calories after walking for an hour and doing 4 miles?

[Jillo]

do you mind me asking how its reading your workout? Mine does not seem to burn many calories after my work out?

[Mary]

honeyland- Change your 'calories burned' goal on your dashboard.  The default isn't too realistic of a goal.

Jillo- There is no way to 'set it to calories burned' vs. steps.  It always does both.  If you walk 100 steps with yours, how many does it track?  If not 95-100, open a support case to see if you can get it replaced.  

[slysam]

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@Jillo wrote:

it sounds like you have your fitbit set to calories burned. I also do...but is it normal for it to read I burned 45 calories after walking for an hour and doing 4 miles?

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Where are you seeing this? This really doesn't sound like anything I've seen on Fitbit in four years of use. Are you referring to something from another website such as Myfitnesspal? I am pretty familiar with teh fitbit settings, and it tracks both floors and calorie burn--I haven't see a setting to exclude one. You can choose to exclude any specific tile on the dashboard, but that doesn't effect how the fitbit device works. Did you by any chance delete your steps tile from the dashboard? 

Whether it is normal to see 45 calories for 4 miles of walking. It depends what you mean...

1--If you were using your fitbit activity timer and walked four miles, then stopped the timer and synched your fitbit. No, The time it takes to walk 4 miles, your BMR would probably be more than that (BMR is the calories you burn at rest keeping your organs running). My BMR for an hour is about 55 calories.  So this would make me think maybe your fitbit device is not actually linked to your fitbit.com account. How much you burn walking 4 miles will vary by your BMR, the route, and how fast you walked. A rough rule of thumb for an average is something like 100 calories per mile (for me it is lower so this will vary by stats). 

2--If you are referring to a 45 calorie fitbit adjustment on a linked nutrition site like Loseit or Myfitnesspal. Yes that is normal. Both of those sites assume you will burn a certain number of calories (beyond your BMR), and the fitbit adjustment is the difference between your fitbit burn and what is expected. I have used both of these--Loseit assumed quite a high actiity level (similar to lightly active or almost moderately active) so walking four miles probably would not have added much to my allowance *if* I was sedentary the rest of the day. With MFP, similar, just they let you choose among four activity levels and it will depend which level you chose. Usually when people ask this question, this is what they are confused about usually because they didn't realize how many calories their app already expected them to burn. There is usually a way to see, if this applies, if you say which app someone may be able to direct you to where you would find that information.

[Jillo]

I went through the set up process again and I think all this time it was not synced to my computer...I think I will be ok now...I will see how it works tomorrow..keeping fingers crossed. thanks for the help

[Jillo]

ok now I getting really mad....I woke with morning and noticed my fitbit has not synced since yesterday morning so it worked one night.

[Mary]

Is the synch dongle still in the usb slot in your computer?  And your Fitbit has been within 20' of it?  The Fitbit Connect software is running?  If you open that and choose Sync Now, does it sync?  

[Jillo]

YES YES YES...and I do not see a place where it say sync now


Jill Olbrys



Feel free to visit my shop on Etsy

https://www.etsy.com/shop/DarlingsDen?ref=si_shop

[honeyland]

Thanks Mary!  Simple solution ...how do i know what a realistic goal is?  

[Heybales]

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@Jillo wrote:
YES YES YES...and I do not see a place where it say sync now

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Down in the System Tray next to your time (if Windows computer) is the Fitbit icon - double click on it.

There is Sync now.

You should also right-click on that same icon and confirm no updates to software.

You can also look at your Dashboard screen, upper-right, it says "Last sync xxx minutes ago". Of course if you haven't updated the web page by refreshing that won't be correct either, so confirm you click on Dashboard icon again.