Severely less calories because I'm using a treadmill?

[JasmineMeyers]

Hi there!

I recently upgraded from a Fitbit Zip to a One. Whilst I've noticed that the calorie burn is usually slightly less than what my Zip would say, largely it was comparable (ex. I'm 33, female, weigh around 120 ibs range and am 5'6. My steps are anything from 20,000 - 27,000 a day depending on work and whilst my Zip would estimate between 750-1000 cals burned, my One will estimate between 600-800).

Part of this is probably as the One gets used to me (or the other way round I suppose), but also I thought the Zip was perhaps a tad too generous given the fact I'm smaller.

My problem is in the last couple of days. As temperatures plummted and my gym's closed for refurbishment, I have dug out my old treadmill and am using that for now. So far today I've done around 18,000 steps on my treadmill (no incline as it's fairly basic) at 5 mph. From that MFP is telling me I've burned a grand total of 438 cals thus far.

Now, not that this is the biggest deal as I feel better and less stressed from walking, but this is probably around 2/3 of what I'd expect to be burning, especially given the fact I'm walking at a brisk pace. What I imagine is that as I live in a bungalow with no steps climbed (usually I get a good 40-80 a day) that this is to blame. 

Any thoughts on this? I don't really want to undereat (also this might be why I'm not too keen on treadmills lol).

[JasmineMeyers · Accepted solution]

Not sure anyone will read this lol, but finished yesterday with the One estimating 500 odd calories burned with 24,000 odd steps walked. Bizzare! Ate normally, logged and think I'll just take it as a learning experience. As said I really don't like treadmills anyway - I find them boring and unnecessary as where I live is very hilly. At the gym I tend to stick with a mix of rowing/ spinning/ elliptical for my cardio (plus weights and classes), and as my gym re-opens next Tuesday I'll be fine :).

Out of interest I took a long walk outside first thing this morning (sunrise + walking uphill + a good audio book on my phone is my idea of heaven as sad as that sounds), and logged 21,000 ish steps and MFP estimates a 700ish burn from that. As said it doesn't bother me too much as I'm done losing weight and maintaining (but I don't wish to over/ under eat of course), but I find it hard to believe a mere incline is worth 200 ish cals/ day seeing as I walk very fast on my treadmill. I would run, but the spare room is very cramped with Xmas stuff right now and I dont' trust myself not to shoot off the back!.

Also logged an apparent 55 floors from my walk this morning. I guess I don't really need an answer to this, and as this clearly isn't my personal blog I'll leave things alone now :). Happy New Year everyone! Hoping for less beautiful and talented people passing away in 2017.

[RobertoME]

Hi there @JasmineMeyers, it was nice to read your posts and I think the calories burn rate will depend on different factors regardless of the type of tracker you are using. One of these factors I'm mentioning, is the type of exercise and the speed and intensity you invest on each session.

Since you are logging your activity through MFP and doesn't show a large amount of calories on your tracker and on MFP, I would recommend to use the calories calculator of this link to have an average and point of comparison for your calories burned.

Usually when I go to the gym, I ended my routine with 30 minutes of running on a treadmill. When I started doing this, I held my hands still on the side bars of the treadmill, causing accuracy issues on my calories readings. So now when I run, I make sure my tracker is properly worn and I do not hold the side bars of the treadmill. Bottom line, it will depend also on how you wear your tracker, in your case since is a One you can wear it close to your chest in order your tracker detects your motion pattern correctly.

Hope this information helps and happy holidays!