calories burn question

[lyorkk]

I'm sure this has been asked a million times before me.I just got a charge HR a few days ago...The other day I burned 1700 which was not surprising because I bum around on sundays and don't do much. 

Today I burned 1,600 and still have 7 more hours before it restarts, plus still have the gym later tonight to workout. I walk around alot during my job..probably walk 5-8 miles a shift. 

My question is are the calories burned under estimated when you workout that day? I do a lot of lifting compared to cardio because i'm more focused on gaining muscle.  Should I assume I'm losing more than it says because it sucks at knowing how many calories you burn while lifting. 

[DJC_63]

I always manually enter my workouts.  It has a category for weight-lifting but of course it has no idea how much weight you're pressing, but it can detect your heart rate and estimate calories burned based on that. Not a perfect solution but better than nothing. I'm sure someone else here will have an even more detailed method of estimating.

Fwiw, I do the elliptical at the gym and it always reports more calories burned than the fitbit. I always manually enter that as well, using the stats I get from the machine.  In the end what is important to me is the results that I get in being more toned and healthier.  My fitbit is just a motivator to get me to do what I need to do to get those results.

[Albertoelorduy]

The trackers are pretty accurate when it comes to running, cycling, walking... When it comes to weight lifting, it will take on account your bpm, of course, it won't be as accurate, but as long as you're not a powerlifter, or do hypertrophy exercises, it will still be pretty accurate. Anyway, the calorie burn estimate could be higher, but never lower than what the tracker says.

[Dominique]

How long does your weight lifting session last for? If it’s 45 to 60 minutes and you feel you are getting "short changed" by your Fitbit in terms of calories burned, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. For one thing, you don’t lift weight with burning calories as your primary goal: as you said, you want to gain muscle. If you think you burned more than what your Fitbit credited for, just view it as a bonus (your deficit will be slightly higher). Since there are 24 hours in a day, what happens in one hour won’t have a major impact on the whole day. And there is a margin of error in many other variables anyway.