Calorie Accuracy on Ionic

[alexian]

Just how accurate is the calorie tracker on the fitbit ionic? I had the charge hr before I got the ionic and I always felt like that had overcounted how many calories I burned. Were there any major or minor changes to the hardware on the ionic that increased its accuracy in this area?

[WavyDavey · Accepted solution]

Hi @alexian,

Just "how accurate", is difficult to say and may vary somewhat from person to person. Certainly the hardware and software of fitbit trackers has undergone a lot of work since the Charge HR was released.

A lot of the calories burned comes down to information from the heart rate monitoring. If the monitoring is consistently high, it may overestimate calories burned. Also, some sorts of activities are more difficult to track calorie-wise than others.

In general, I find the Ionic calorie burn information to be accurate enough, and probably more accurate than the Charge 2 it replaced.

Tracking this information over time, it's not difficult to make slight adjustments in calorie intake to compensate for any difference. I seem to burn about 250 calories more daily than fitbit reports.

[gailyrn826]

My Ionic was on the dresser for the night and when I looked at it before putting on, i had already burned 603 calories!!! 

[SunsetRunner]

In this case, it is fine because even if you don't wear the watch, it still will count as you burn the basic calories for stay alive based in your profile!

[andrewoluwaseyi]

I had the same problem. Please have you resolved the issue

[chappy88]

I hope so! Because if it did not count any calories while you were asleep then you were dead! Our bodies are always burning calories at our basic metabolism rate. I have determined mine to be in the 2100 calorie range so that is a little less than 100 calories per hour I burn while sleeping or watching TV, etc. So yes, in 8 hours sleep I should burn about 700 calories.

[chappy88]

I definitely think the Ionic over reports calories. I did a test with my old One (which I hate that they discontinued) for a month where I counted my calories in with great care, compared that to what the One said I burned and then to my weight change and it was very close. I have had the Ionic for 6 weeks, doing the same thing and I have a total calorie positive of 8131 so I should have lost about 2 pounds. I have GAINED 1 pound so I should be at a calories negative of 3500-4000. We use a Fitbit Aria scale that I fully trust so I think these numbers are good. So, from what I see, the Ionic is over-reporting calories by about 260. 46 days and about 12000 calories (the 8131 positive and the 4000 negative) too much. I am adjusting my tracking by 250 calories per day so that I have true feedback as to where I am. Fitbit needs to have a method for adjusting the caloric burn.

[SunsetRunner]

@gailyrn826 because of your BMR. There is a certain amount of calories that you burn regardless of your level of activity, just because you are simply alive. Fitbit trackers take BMR into account, which is a good thing of course.

@chappy88 overestimating seems to be largely common but in my case, it's an opposite issue. Ionic is underestimating my burned calories. The same I experienced with Charge 2. I think it may be related to your current weight, height etc. When I was obese it seemed like pretty accurate ( back then I was using Charge 2 ) estimate but now when I weight mere 51kg the numbers don't add up anymore. Partially, due to messed up HR monitoring but I noticed that if I followed what I see on the tracker and just stick with maintenance I kept losing weight. Empirically, I figured out that daily, I need to consume 300-500kcal more than the tracker shows me just to maintain my weight.

[LachyHK]

My Ionic definitely over estimates calories for a given exercise. I did a 1 hour walk of 6.55km and it said i burned a whopping 750 calories. My road bike has a power meter fitted to the hub and accurately measures power output (which can be directly related to calories burned) with a +/-1% error rate. For a very strenuous 1 hour ride I burn 900 calories. There is no chance a gentle walk over the same time burned nearly the same amount!

[DrJudithC]

I agree, it way over reports calories.   On a usual day I burn about 2000 calories.  I had a girl friend over for lunch and had the arduous task of setting the table and pouring wine and serving a light and easy prepared lunch.  It gave me an extra 500 calories for lifting my wine glass!  

[AVic82]

Just posting my experience. I have used an Ionic for 2 years and thought the calories where fairly accurate until recently when I started very strictly recording my calories consumed. Over 6 weeks, I monitored the calories consumed versus calories burnt. Every week, I was in deficit of at least 14,000 calories which should equate to 2kg (4.4 pounds) lost per week. On average I did not lose 2kg per week, only 1-1.5kg per week. I have now just changed over to a Versa because I prefer the look and the calories burned for the exact same activities are much lower. My deficit is now around 9-10,000 per week which is more inline with the 1-1.5 kg lose per week.

[A9RWP]

I ride Mtb on and off road using heartstrap connected to Polar beat. 

Normally Ionic shows 400cals short of polar max hr 160bpm

I have just walked 4 k 480 cals

183 max bpm a joke😣

[Musicman]

You really shouldn't go over a 1,000 calorie/day deficit unless you are incredibly overweight. When you eat that fewer calories than you burn, your body can go into "starvation mode" and actually prevent you from losing weight simply because it thinks it's starving. The best way to lose weight is slowly over a long period of time.

[Boomerang2020]

I find with my iconic I burn 100 cal every 10 minutes doesn’t matter what exercise I do, bike riding, swimming or the gym.

my heart rate can be at 100 for 10 minutes and I’ll burn 100 cal.

my heart rate can be at 150 for 10 minutes and I still only burn 100 cal that’s why I’m asking how accurate can it be if that’s the case ???