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Charge 3 calories information inaccurate

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I just compared a Fitbit Blaze to my Charge 3, wearing them at the same time doing a treadmill exercise, for 30 minutes.

 

Blaze and Charge 3 showed same steps, same avg and max heart rates, but the Charge 3 showed 410 calories burned, Blaze said 240 calories. 240 calories is the correct number, based on all evidence i can find of a 30 minute walk.

 

Why is my Charge 3 giving results 70% too high? I have gotten nothing but canned copy-and-paste responses from Fitbit, and getting annoyed that this device doesn't work properly.

 

How do I get it to calculate properly? I have restarted, and installed most recent firmware, everything.

 

 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

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Check that you have your weight logged the same for each device.  If you have different accounts for each device, compare your weight in the 2 accounts.

Before posting, re-read to see if it would make sense to someone else not looking at your Fitbit or phone.

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Welcome to the Community, @MackClews and @JohnnyRow, thanks for the input.

 

Fitbit devices combine your basal metabolic rate (BMR) the rate at which you burn calories at rest to maintain vital body functions (including breathing, blood circulation, and heartbeat) and your activity data to estimate your calories burned. If your device tracks heart rate, your heart-rate data is also included, especially to estimate calories burned during exercise. The number you see on your Fitbit device is your total calories burned for the day.

 

Your BMR is based on the physical data you entered in to your Fitbit account (height, weight, sex, and age) and accounts for at least half the calories you burn in a day. Because your body burns calories even if you’re asleep or not moving, you see calories burned on your device when you wake up and will notice this number increase throughout the day.

 

Let me know if you need anything else.

Alejandra | Community Moderator, Fitbit

If you like something I recommended, I encourage you to mark that reply as "Best Answer". 🙂

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Yes, I need you to answer the question.I understand HOW it is SUPPOSED to work, but it very clearly is not working that way, and is calculating far too high of a calorie burned value. I want to know why it is so high, and how to fix it -Mackenzie Clews
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@MackClews wrote:
Yes, I need you to answer the question.I understand HOW it is SUPPOSED to work, but it very clearly is not working that way, and is calculating far too high of a calorie burned value. I want to know why it is so high, and how to fix it -Mackenzie Clews

@MackClews  I assume you are replying to @AlejandraFitbit , and ignored my suggestion.

Before posting, re-read to see if it would make sense to someone else not looking at your Fitbit or phone.

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Because the weight difference between my girlfriend and I would not be enough to warrant 70% high caloric burn from her device to mine.-Mackenzie Clews
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@MackClews wrote:
Because the weight difference between my girlfriend and I would not be enough to warrant 70% high caloric burn from her device to mine.-Mackenzie Clews

Aha ! This is important new information.  So the Blaze you were wearing was attached to your girlfriend's account.  That makes a big difference.  Different people exercising at the same heart rate will burn different calorie amounts.  I'm not sure exactly what Fitbit uses, but looking at this Calories Burned and Activity Calculator , it includes input of age, gender, weight, height in its calorie burn estimate.  I'm not sure how you know how much difference in calorie burn rate varies by weight, but I expect there are other differences in the physical stats of you and your girlfriend.

  The way to test your conclusion would be to have you and your girlfriend switch the trackers attached to your accounts; then do a similar workout wearing both.  I expect you would find whichever tracker is attached to your account will show the greater calorie burn because of the physical characteristics attributed to your account.

 

I would say your test actually is good evidence of Fitbit's accuracy, that both trackers showed the same steps, avg and max heart rate.

Before posting, re-read to see if it would make sense to someone else not looking at your Fitbit or phone.

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Its going to take a whole lot of changes from male to female, add 40 lbs, and 6" in height to account for almost DOUBLE the calorie burn.This is also taking into account that I have used multiple caloric burn calculators online and input my variables and exercise times and they were nowhere close to what the Charge 3 was giving me.I KNOW that my Charge 3 is measuring wrong, I have witnessed it multiple times across multiple exercises, and this is an ongoing issue that would over calculate caloric burn over any given day at work.It would routinely show over 4000 calories burned in a day of working in a shop. This is not even remotely accurate.Under no circumstances is it humanly possible for a person to burn 410 calories on a alight incline treadmill at 2.8 mph. The only way I could find that to be possible is if I altered the variables on the online calculators to be a 7' tall, 600lbs male. This tracker is far more inaccurate than just changing weight and height variables (which are correct in the Charge 3)-Mackenzie Clews
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