Fitbit vs lifesum

[Tina19]

Hello. Not sure if I should ask here or lifesum, but here we go. 

My lifesum and fitbit do not match in burned calories. I know that lifesum don't include BMR but it is still of. 

Today lifesum says I have burned 918 calories while fitbit says 2611 calories. My BMR are around 1250-1350 calories a day. That means it's still off with around 350 calories. Anybody know why? 

AND calories do not sync from my lifesum app to fitbit dashboard at all. I think I have all the settings right. Maybe because I use a Norwegian food database in lifesum?

Tina

[Dominique]

How does Lifesum estimate your energy expenditure? Track calories with both Lifesum and Fitbit for a while and use your change in body weight to determine which is most accurate.

[Baltoscott]

I don't use lifesum, but I from what I can gather on-line, you set your food budget and enter food in that app, and sync non-BMR activity credits from your fitbit records.  I would just focus on the energy balance you get in lifesum, and make adjustments based on whether you gain or lose weight from week to week.

I suspect the two programs will be a bit different in total calorie burn no matter what, but for the most accurate comparisons, look at fully completed days (i.e, yesterday or before) rather than the current day, as partial days will credit only partial BMR depending on the time of the reading (which might be different in the two programs at a given time during the current day).  Also, you probably should not enter any activities in lifesum, as it might duplicate something coming over from fitbit, or at the very least, overwrite part of the activity coming from fitbit.

[Daves_Not_Here]

Hi @Tina19 - as I read between the lines of your question, I sense that you may operating under the expectation that this technology should work and be consistent.  Me, on the other hand, I'm amazed when it works at all.

First of all, I don't think that Lifesum is one of Fitbit's officially supported integrations so it's a science project to get the synchronization to work.  Science projects are great, but they often involve explosions.  

As to the accuracy of the calorie burn estimates, there is an inconsistency between the two algorithms:  the Fitbit algorithm is smoking crack, while the Lifesum algorithm is smoking PCP.

Seriously, there are so many uncontrollable variables and sources of error that a 350 calorie discrepancy is within the margin of error.  And the Lifesum support folks are probably better positioned to solve the sync issue.