Calories burned accuracy

[ITGuy1024]

Hey all,

No stranger to weight loss. Eight years ago I was at my lowest weight and most fit. I lost 60 pounds over 12 months. 
Life has caught up and I put on some pounds. I've been trying to lose them with exercise and calorie deficits. 
For the last 2 months I have been in a 200-800 (500 average) deficit each day. According to Fitbit that would equal a 1 pound per week loss. However so far I have only seen a loss of 1 pound in 2 months.
A lot of factors go into how we lose weight. But I am just wondering the accuracy of the calories burned that fitbit shows. Has anyone found it to be inaccurate? For activities I do that are logged in Strava and Fitbit the calories burned varies greatly between them with each using GPS and a HR sensor. 

[Baltoscott]

Hello @ITGuy1024 -- I had a similar experience when I lost about 40 lbs a couple of years ago. According to the 1000 cal daily deficit fitbit calculated I should have lost about 2 pounds a week, but it was closer to 1 pound a week.  And for some reason there wasn't much movement the first couple of weeks at all.  On average, fitbit thought I was burning more than I was OR, I was eating/drinking more calories than I recorded OR, my body was adapting to the reduced food by down regulating my metabolism OR some or all of the above and some things we don't fully understand about weight regulation. I don't know why the math wasn't quite as predicted, but keeping good records helped me adapt my eating and activity to keep losing anyway.

Keep at it.  Make some adjustments every couple of weeks if the weight isn't coming off, focus on your eating habits, and keep up with the daily movement by doing activity you enjoy.

[Glenda]

Scott and Itguy, you both are right about the accuracy of calories eaten or burned is difficult if not impossible.  But without counting anything I know which things I eat that are not helping me toward my goal  of maintaining or losing weight.   M&M peanuts don't help.  Pizza is a diet disaster..  Why do I ever have that stuff in my house.?   I need to diet more in the grocery store and make better choices.  I need to figure out more things I like that are good for me.  After all, there is lots of food I like in that category.  

[emili]

I think there is some inaccuracy, but I have found that the inaccuracy is consistent. So from there you can adjust to the inaccuracy if that makes sense. You can assume maybe that it overestimates by 500 calories burned Factor that into your intake and see if there is scale movement. I have found that weight loss is a constant recalculation, try try again scenario. But eventually you hit a sweet spot that allows for pretty consistent weight loss until you get to the next recalc hurdle. Good luck in your journey and wishing you loads of success.