fitbit inspire HR accuracy

[Samiam05]

does anyone know how accurate fitbit inspire is in calculating calorie count. I have read somewhere it has a margin of error of 25%.  Which seems pretty substantial, also I am assuming its overshooting by 25% rather then undershooting.  So if its telling me my usual calorie burn rate for a day is around 4000, I assume the number is more like 3000.

[Dominique]

Estimating energy expenditure ("calories burned") with an activity tracker is not exact science: there’s a margin of error and it wouldn’t be unusual for the estimate to be 25% on the high side.

You can get a "second opinion" by entering your personal data in an online calculator such as this one. Based on your average step count of 15k per day (as per your profile), I would put your activity level somewhere between "moderate" and "high".

[JimC_99]

I average about 5000 - 7000 steps per day and am 6' 3" at 255lbs.  My Charge 2 is off by 350 calories  per day and I eat between 2500 and 2900 per day, so about 15% over estimated for me but once you know the levels it is manageable.

[Refuserefuse]

Not.

Every study finds that any device is wildly inaccurate for calorie counting.  Nothing on the market that isn't. Error rates will routinely over or under estimate by ~40%-90%. This depends on 1. the type of exercise being done (over-estimating say cycling and failing to recognize yoga at all) 2. the intensity the exercise is being done at (made even more useless by studies failing to provide any definition of exercise intensity that users can apply) and 3. the individuals myriad  particulars (time of day, last meal, age, resting MET, medications including coffee 🙂 regularity of exercise and others)

Stanford developed a multi-sensor leg devise that was revolutionary for *only* being 13% off on *average* (meaning sometimes less, sometimes more) when measured against the empirical standard. For all ambulatory activity this makes sense as how high you lift your leg and and how large your step make all the difference for calories burned, and wrist trackers can't provide much help here. You can build your own, which I did, but this cumbersome so I only used it for trying to baseline my fit bit. 

Very specifically for the Inspire HR 2, since that is what I have, when compared to Stanford tracker, which again is only so accurate, it overestimates walking by 35%-47% but is within -6% to +2% for running on level surfaces. It becomes hopeless if you are doing hills. For example, becoming either less or more accurate when going up hills based on no particulars that I can identify.