Activity calories + BMR is way higher than reported total calories

[d42]

According to multiple sources, including MyFitnessPal, my BMR is about 2400 calories / day (6'6", male, 300+ pounds).

I have a fitness plan whereby I try to get 1800 activity calories a day.  This would give me a total calories per day of about 4200 calories.  Last week I averaged about 2000 activity calories, this week around 1500 activity calories.

My problem is this -- my daily activity calories + bmr don't add up to the reported total daily calorie burn.  For example

Date   BMR + Activity            Reported Total (Log->Activities->Week)

1/17   2400 + 1759=4159              3588

1/18   2400 + 1332=3732              3225

1/19   2400 + 1543=3943              3550

As you can see, either the reported total calorie burn is low, or the reported activity calories is high, or fitbit's bmr calculation is WAY off.   Or maybe I don't get it....

Any help is appreciated!

[Colinm39 · Accepted solution]

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@d42 wrote:

According to multiple sources, including MyFitnessPal, my BMR is about 2400 calories / day (6'6", male, 300+ pounds).

I have a fitness plan whereby I try to get 1800 activity calories a day.  This would give me a total calories per day of about 4200 calories.  Last week I averaged about 2000 activity calories, this week around 1500 activity calories.

My problem is this -- my daily activity calories + bmr don't add up to the reported total daily calorie burn.  For example

Date   BMR + Activity            Reported Total (Log->Activities->Week)

1/17   2400 + 1759=4159              3588

1/18   2400 + 1332=3732              3225

1/19   2400 + 1543=3943              3550

As you can see, either the reported total calorie burn is low, or the reported activity calories is high, or fitbit's bmr calculation is WAY off.   Or maybe I don't get it....

Any help is appreciated!

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@d42 I have been a Premium user for over 4 years and activity calories do over report. But before I  explain that I use the MFP BMR Calculator for my BMR and I don't use MFP. Because it uses the Mifflin St-Jeor equations as Fitbit does I'm happy about that ( confirmed by Support). The result is within 5 calories of my Fitbit BMR.

Here is the calculator in case others wan't to check their BMR

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator

To check what premium has your BMR just subtract your Active Cals goal from the Calories Burned goal. Fitbit have adjusted mine downwards by 32 calories.

Now the over reporting........ There is some BMR going into Activity Calories which I have documented and reported to Fitbit and still awaiting an answer. In my case it is about 17% high. I proved that by exporting all of the activities and sleep data and subtracted the BMR from every type of active minute.

[d42]

So its a bug in there system!? I am assuming here that the total calories is correct, and that the reported activity calories is simply wrong. I guess I can live with that as long as the total is right on. Thanks for your help.

[Colinm39]

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@d42 wrote:
So its a bug in there system!? I am assuming here that the total calories is correct, and that the reported activity calories is simply wrong. I guess I can live with that as long as the total is right on. Thanks for your help.

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@d42 What you actually burn is as correct that any system will give you. I'm getting inflated calorie burns with the Charge HR and Surge because my Fat Burn zone starts at 72... 220-age*50% = 72 bpm.. Even when asleep if it's a hot night and I'm restless I get Fat Burn HR calories....

But the Activity Cals are fairly constant for me and I allow  f or the over calories. Finally had a Support ticket define Activity calories which I always had difficulty getting from them.  It should be as we expect "those calories over BMR/resting".

Fitbit claim they will be putting effort into Premium to  double itsRevenue.

[d42]

What's interesting to me is that I believe that the total calories burned number is fairly accurate.  I've been doing some basic hand calculations and while it might be a bit high (10%) its fine.

I would have thought the programming for "Activity Calories" would have simple been = Total - BMR, but apparently they are trying to use tracker data to estimate that independent of the other variables.  I like this approach because it's like a sanity check, but since their own numbers don't balance, clearly they have significant (> 30% in my case) limitations!!

Is there available online a list of bugs/features that fitbit is working on?  Like a JIRA or something?

[Colinm39]

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@d42 wrote:

What's interesting to me is that I believe that the total calories burned number is fairly accurate.  I've been doing some basic hand calculations and while it might be a bit high (10%) its fine.

I would have thought the programming for "Activity Calories" would have simple been = Total - BMR, but apparently they are trying to use tracker data to estimate that independent of the other variables.  I like this approach because it's like a sanity check, but since their own numbers don't balance, clearly they have significant (> 30% in my case) limitations!!

Is there available online a list of bugs/features that fitbit is working on?  Like a JIRA or something?

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@d42 I have found the actuals fairly close from the Fitbit tracked data. I noticed the error when I was testing "why I could not meet my Activity Cals Goal" and I created some manual activities and my Activity Calories went up by the exact amount of calories and no BMR was subtracted.

I then started exported the activity and sleep data into a spreadsheet and that confirmed I have had the problem for years.

That is the data I submitted to Support a few weeks ago

I haven't used manual activities for months since my water walking hydrotherapy and the problem is still with us.

To my knowledge there is no list of programming errors made public.