Fitbit Ionic vs. Samsung Galaxy Active Watch

[jens_tahoe]

Hello!

I'm hoping someone can help me. I just bought the Galaxy Active watch yesterday. As a Fitbit enthusiast , fitness tracking is wildly important to me. However I have done 2 workouts and this watch is completely unreliable. The total calorie count is about 40% off from my other devices - Fitbit and Polar. Let's take today as an example: did a 6 mile cross country ski this morning. My chest strap (polar) and Ionic were pretty close to each other. The Galaxy was almost 200 calories lower. Went on about life, then did a strenghs training session in the evening. Ionic was about 400 calories, Galaxy was about 120 calories lower. As I'm laying here resting, my total burn is WAY off. Ionic says 3,009; Galaxy shows 2,331. My steps are about 2,000 off as well. Both devices have rhe same data ( height, weight, age). With such huge discrepancies, I'm struggling to trust what device is accurate. Advice? 

Thanks so much! 

[YojanaFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hi @jens_tahoe! Nice to see you here, thanks for sharing your thoughts about Fitbit products.

We're not sure how other devices tracks but we'd like to give you more details about Fitbit devices. Fitbit is dedicated to developing the most accurate fitness devices on the market. The algorithm is designed to look for intensity and motion patterns that are most indicative of people walking and running. 

About steps, Fitbit devices use a 3-axis accelerometer to understand your motions. An accelerometer is a device that turns movement (acceleration) into digital measurements (data) when attached to the body. By analyzing acceleration data, our devices provide detailed information about frequency, duration, intensity, and patterns of movement to determine your steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, and sleep quality. The 3-axis implementation allows the accelerometer to measure your motion in any way that you move, making its activity measurements more precise than older, single-axis pedometers.

Fitbit devices have a finely tuned algorithm for step counting. The algorithm is designed to look for motion patterns that are most indicative of people walking. The algorithm determines whether a motion's size is large enough by setting a threshold. If the motion and its subsequent acceleration measurement meet the threshold, the motion will be counted as a step. If the threshold is not met, the motion won’t be counted as a step.

About calories burned, Fitbit devices estimate your calorie burn based on your age, sex, height, and weight. If your device measures heart rate, the calorie burn estimate also takes heart rate into account. Note that the value you see on your Fitbit device when you wake up in the morning is your estimated calorie burn for the day so far. You still burn calories even if you are sedentary or sleeping.

About heart rate data, Fitbit tracks your heart rate continuously and automatically with your Fitbit device.When your heart beats, your capillaries expand and contract based on blood volume changes. PurePulse LEDs (light-emitting diodes) on your Fitbit device reflect onto the skin to detect blood volume changes, and finely-tuned algorithms are applied to measure heart rate automatically and continuously. The heart-rate icon you see on the display tells you if you're in 1 of 3 heart-rate zones.

We can assure that we have done a lot of research on finding the best way to track your stats, in case that you have specific questions about Fitbit devices I can keep assisting you. Now, about other products we don't have details on how they track data but feel free to keep comparing stats. The most important here is that you feel confident about your product.

I'll be around.