should I be...

[takenbytatted]

Was wondering if I should be paying more attention to my fitbit and what it's calculating than what I am? I don't make sure it's all adding up. I just assume it knows what it's doing. What are key things I should be making sure about.
Thank you

[Telle]

Well, what things are you wanting to pay attention to?  Personally, all I care about right now is steps.  I work hard to make sure I make my minimum number of steps each day (I'm just starting out, so I'm only at 5000 steps daily.. but I hope to increase that as my legs get used to moving more).  So for me, the rest of the data is just fluff.

If you want to focus on calories, just remember that you are not a bunsen burner.  Any calculation of calories burned is going to be an estimate at best.  There is no way to accurately count the number of calories your particular body burns in a specific day (and it's going to change day to day as your body reacts to its environment).  So I'm just saying, don't fret over exact numbers.

[sarahl]

When I first got the FitBit, I wal on it constantly. I was looking at all of it all the time. That has calmed down some. I'm pretty confident it records activity and steps pretty accurately.

When I run I use the Nike running app. With it's GPS, I feel it is more accurate that my One so I will use Nike's calorie count which is also higher by about 70 calories burned.

When I walk, MapMyWalk app and the FitBit are within 5 calories of each other. 

In my opinion, that is as close as I can hope for.

[Heybales]

There's not much you could do to confirm it "adds up".

Rather, it would be watching for things like high step counts when driving. Or no steps when you know you clearly were walking to/from parking say.

Also as mentioned above, but this doesn't have anything to do with confirming the Fitbit, but rather confirming it is given good info - logging any non-step based exercise it's going to under-estimate badly.

[Mary]

If you're logging your food accurately and using the Fitbit calorie burn estimates and not losing weight at the rate it would predict (over a longer term, like a month or more) then you might begin to suspect it's either over or underestimating your calorie burn.