How does this make sense?

[SBuck123]

 

I am brand new to fitbit

today I was much more active than any day recorded so far (139 zone minutes) but the app says I burned fewer calories than yesterday (85 zone minutes) or Monday (35 z mins).

Can someone please explain this to me? 

[JohnnyRow]

One possibility: You show "Today's" screen shots, but I don't know what time of "Today" that was.  It obviously was not after midnight or it would not have been "Today" so I don't know how much of 'Today' was left to still burn calories.

The other issue is possibility is that, while zone minutes might usually reflect total calorie burn, not necessarily.  One day you might be laying in bed all the time you are not getting zone minutes;  another day, you might be active most of the time but below the zone minutes cutoff but still burning plenty of calories.

[SBuck123]

Thanks for your reply, Johnny. You’re right that the day was not over, it was about 7:30 pm (you can see in the upper left corner) - and now its the next morning and I can see that my basal metabolic rate did push yesterday’s calorie count over that line and earn a star. But still shows less than the previous less-active day.

I would still like to understand why more “fat burn” or yellow minutes combined with “cardio” orange minutes AND red “peak”s burned fewer calories than the previous day with fewer “fat burn” and almost no “cardio” minutes. 

Is this thing over-estimating the burn on moderate activity and underestimating vigorous activity? 

[JohnnyRow]

You are right.  It does show time of day.  I should have noticed that but I just didn't.

Honestly, I never thought of trying to judge day's calories from zone minutes.  You can see exactly when you are burning how many calories each day by tapping the calories circle of Today screen of phone app. This shows all day calorie burn in 15 minute intervals.  Consider even when you got 139 zone minutes, That still leaves probably close to 14 hours of awake time.  There's sometime the misconception that if you are not actively exercising, then you basically at your BMR, but not so.  Over the course of a day, there's a lot of variation in the calories you might burn in the time when you are not in one of the heart rate zones.  And you can see this by looking at the calories burned graph for the day to see where you are burning calories.  For instance, there will be a decent difference in the calories burned in half sitting watching TV vs. doing some light house cleaning or washing dishes, even without getting anywhere near a workout zone. And if you multiply that by several hours a day, it adds up.