Is Fitbit trustworthy for weight loss?

[Daisychain96]

My mum has made me a little paranoid by suggesting that the way Fitbit calculates remaining calories could make me eat more. I currently have a goal to lose 1 pound a week with a 500 calorie deficit- she seems to suggest that I should set a daily amount and stick strictly to it, rather than the amount varying day to day- but surely if I've done a lot of exercise I need more calories right?
For example today I burned 2506 and ate 1627- this can't possibly result in weight gain can it? (I've also been largely sticking to unprocessed, protein rich foods excluding the couple of digestive biscuits this evening!)

So bottom line- can I blindly trust fitbit's calculations to help me lose weight?

[shipo]

Here's a strange one; this morning my RHR was 43 (for like the 8th day in a row), by 11:30 it was being reported as 42, and when I checked at the end of my work day it was being reported as 41.  After work I went for a fairly quick 8-mile run, came home, had dinner and watched a little TV, now my RHR is back up to 42.

So, at least in the case of my tracker, my RHR is being recalculated all day long.

[SunsetRunner]

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@shipo wrote:

When I got up this morning at exactly 5:00 my calorie burn since midnight was 390; sounds about right to me.

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Yep, mine is around that number too

[USAF-Larry]

I haven't worn my tracker for 3 days, while waiting for the replacement to arrive and get installed on my account. But, when I opened the Dashboard just now, I found that I burned 507 calories.....

[shipo]

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@USAF-Larry wrote:

I haven't worn my tracker for 3 days, while waiting for the replacement to arrive and get installed on my account. But, when I opened the Dashboard just now, I found that I burned 507 calories.....

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Unless you died sometime before you opened the Dashboard, then it did exactly as it should.  🙂