Calories/steps from one day don't match the next day

[annetteoc]

Hi,

I use my FitBit daily and had a question. Yesterday I logged over 15,000 steps and burned approx 2,400 calories. Today I have logged over 21,000 steps yet my calories burned are only 1,800. Any idea why?

Today I added in an extra jog which should have made my calories go up. Today I have had far more vigorus activity.

Any help is appreciated,

Annette

[Heybales]

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@annetteoc wrote:

Hi,

I use my FitBit daily and had a question. Yesterday I logged over 15,000 steps and burned approx 2,400 calories. Today I have logged over 21,000 steps yet my calories burned are only 1,800. Any idea why?

Today I added in an extra jog which should have made my calories go up. Today I have had far more vigorus activity.

Any help is appreciated,

Annette

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All steps are not created equal.

Neither do the cause the same distance to be moved, which means neither do they get the same calorie burn per step.

On non-HR models calorie burn is based on distance, time, and mass. Steps is merely the way to get distance known.

On HR models exercise calorie burn is based on HR, daily activity on above.

You ever done treadmill test to confirm the distance the Fitbit reports is within 5% of what the treadmill says?

Walking average daily pace and running average pace.

Also, your jog may have taken away from what would have been normally active time - so it didn't actually increase your daily burn as much. Or after the jog you took smaller steps and burned less because of being tired.

[annetteoc]

Thanks for the info, that helps explain things. 

I did jog a distance I had measured.....my car said it was 2.4 miles, my FitBit Flex only registered 1.9 miles. So I guess I should use it as an approximation.

Thanks for responding.

Annette

[josephz2va]

It depends on what you do with those Calories Burned in a long length of time. Far more vigorous activity time is fine, but it depends on the length of an aggression. Most of my days are like this with 3,900 calories burned and not greened. A few other days including this one I pushed harder and longer in one go and most of my days have been on my feet performing work but I also have a cardiovascular workout at home for 30 minutes a night and isn't isolated on a machine. But it depends on how aggressive for that length of time to burn enough calories to get a green mark.