HELP!!! fit bit question about my burn

[jendawn]

hi there

I just bought my fit bit about a week ago. Today i did a 20 min hitt work out. sweating and giving my all . went to check my burn and it said 79 calories ..... WHAT ?? no so what am i doing wrong or is my fitbit broken??

jen

[kimny72]

The fitbit only measures steps, it is not a heart rate monitor. It doesn't know you were doing a HIIT workout! You can "log" workouts that aren't walking/jogging/running, but these figures will only be an estimate based on the stats you enter. You have to wear a heart rate monitor (like a chest strap) to get a better idea of actual calorie burn.

[Heybales · Accepted solution]

And sadly a HRM formula for calorie burn is only valid for steady-state aerobic where the HR is the same for 2-4 min.

And HIIT is totally opposite, if done correctly, anaerobic spikes and non-steady-state.

HRM formula will inflate the calorie burn. The more your HR jumps around with big gaps, the worse.

It actually doesn't burn that much as steady-state cardio during the workout time. If you had a HRM you might be surprised at how low the avgHR is for the whole session, despite the spikes.

Like lifting, which is what it's trying to mimic the benefits of for cardio-only non-lifting folks, the repair process takes more calories - and you don't get credit for that.

There are activities in the database that are similar.

[jendawn]

the lady at the store told me it would show me my calorie burn .. I told her I didnt want to spend 100$ on a stepper that I could pay 10$ for :(. so basically I wasted my money on something myfitnesspal does for free . wow . I guess I should habe looked more into it before buying.very disappointed now. 
thank you for your responce though 🙂
Sent from Samsung Mobile

[Heybales]

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@jendawn wrote:
the lady at the store told me it would show me my calorie burn .. I told her I didnt want to spend 100$ on a stepper that I could pay 10$ for :(. so basically I wasted my money on something myfitnesspal does for free . wow . I guess I should habe looked more into it before buying.very disappointed now. 
thank you for your responce though 🙂
Sent from Samsung Mobile

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Well, it is better than a $10 pedometer, which merely sees impact and gives a step count. If it does calories, then it also assumes each step count is the exact same distance, and exact same calorie burn for pace that is seen.

Fitbit can tell the difference between steps, walking or running, full stride or shuffle step, ect. And that changes distance, that changes pace, that changes calorie burn.

But it is still step based activities.

So true for anything not step-based, the public databases on exercise are going to be about the same.

How many hours out of your 168 weekly hours are you exercising non-step based? 3% perhaps?

$10 pedometers also don't sync info out, nor account for rest of the day.

Curious if you mentioned to the lady what your workouts were, and what type of store was it?

[jendawn]

yes I told her it was for my zumba classes, boot camp and strength training workouts at home. 
I feel like I was lied too just to make a sale :(. the store was sports check. 
so if I do a run it will do that calorie burn then?
sorry if im asking to many questions 
jen

Sent from Samsung Mobile

[slysam]

@jendown, I've worn a fitbit and a heart rate monitor together for years. There are a lot of activities where the two agree (or are close for me), some fitbit estimates higher, some my HRM higher, some vary by the workout which is higher (so not consistently one or the other). I think Fitbit should be fine for Zumba. It will underestimate for strength training--for that I suggest using the exercise database on Fitbit and log the most correct choice (weight lifting light-to-moderate effort, weight lifting vigorous effort, circuit training, calisthenics light-to-moderate effort, or calisthenics vigorous effort). If you log correctly, the database is likely more accurate than a heart rate monitor for strength training. About your hiit, it depends what the activity/movement was. If I do hiit with jumping rope, running, aerobic drills like fast feet and jumping jacks, "ply-os", etc then Fitbit does fine. It credits higher than my heart rate monitor since my average heart rate tends to be low compared to the exertion during hiit workouts (it will depend on how long your rests are and how fast you recover though). Heart rate monitors base calorie burn on "average heart rate". Fitbit bases it on movement. Where fitbit goes wrong is if the hiit involves non-step bodyweight calisthenics like burpies and mountain climbers. I would log that from my HRM (though inaccurate and it doesn't usually credit very active minutes even though I know it was highly vigorous) or I would log tis type of hiit as "vigorous calisthenics". They can't really make a category called "hiit" that would be accurate because hiit isn't an activity it is a structure and intensity of a workout (a lot of activities can be done as hiit).

[kimny72]

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@Heybales wrote:

And sadly a HRM formula for calorie burn is only valid for steady-state aerobic where the HR is the same for 2-4 min.

And HIIT is totally opposite, if done correctly, anaerobic spikes and non-steady-state.

HRM formula will inflate the calorie burn. The more your HR jumps around with big gaps, the worse.

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I didn't know that! It's too bad we don't all come out of the womb with a little "calories burned" gauge. Life would be so much easier 🙂

[Heybales]

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@kimny72 wrote:

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@Heybales wrote:

And sadly a HRM formula for calorie burn is only valid for steady-state aerobic where the HR is the same for 2-4 min.

And HIIT is totally opposite, if done correctly, anaerobic spikes and non-steady-state.

HRM formula will inflate the calorie burn. The more your HR jumps around with big gaps, the worse.

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I didn't know that! It's too bad we don't all come out of the womb with a little "calories burned" gauge. Life would be so much easier 🙂

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Sadly we do, the problem is it has about a 1 to 3 month delay for the guage to read correctly.

It's your belly and other areas with bodyfat adding up. By the time you notice, you could just see where you've been eating more, cut that out, and cut out about an equal amount more, to lose it again in 1-3 months.

But no one wants to wait that long, nor realize it was a small change that added up, only needed a small change to subtract it off.