Charge 4 is tracking my calories burned too low

[Mlpo]

Hi,

I have had my Charge 4 over a year with various success. The past week it has calculated daily calorie burn as whole fairly consistently but on individual recordings of exercise sessions it is reading very low. For example yesterday I burned a total of just over 2000 calories according to the device but on the exercise tracker it said I burned 43 calories on a fell walk of over an hour!

The past week has no data at all regarding exercise just a daily recording as a whole.

I have updated app, restarted, reinstalled and checked my personal data input.

Frustrating, any ideas please,

many thanks

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Mlpo , did your Fitbit actually detect your fell walk and record it for the full hour plus?  Did you rely on “smart track” to automatically detect it or did you manually start and stop using the exercise app on your Charge 4?

For best results I would recommend tracking your activities using the app on your Fitbit tracker.   Also do make sure that your tracker has not accidentally stopped/ paused recording part way through an activity.  

If your overall calorie burn for the day seems to be correct, then the most likely explanation for an individual activity’s contribution to the total being much too low is that only part of your activity was tracked.

It is also worth noting that your overall calorie burn for the day is calculated using your BMR calorie burn (based on your height, weight, sex and age) added to any calories detected during exercise activites.  Correctly calculating exercise calories depends on consistently detecting your heart rate, so it is worth checking to see whether that looks accurate for your activity.  For best results during exercise you may need to wear your Fitbit a little tighter on your wrist and higher up.  If your fell walk involved scrambling on rocks etc, using your hands, it is possible that this could effect readings - some activities especially involving significant flexing of the wrist can interrupt the HR reading leading to lower than expected calorie burn.

It may be best to focus on overall daily calorie burn rather than burn for any individual exercise.  

[Mlpo]

Hi Julia G,
It did track the whole hour as 47 calories, and hasn't tracked anything as an exercise for a week, just as a days calorie usage despite me walking everyday. It has always tracked each walk individually previously.
Im thinking it has broken which is disappointing for 18 months of use

Sent from my iPhone

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Mlpo , it does not sound “broken” to me.  As I mentioned above, if tracking an exercise is of high importance to you then it is probably best to start and stop your activities manually using the exercise app on your Charge 4.  Relying on “smart track” is fine, but there are all kinds of factors that could effect auto tracking, so it can be a bit hit and miss.

I would recommend using your exercise app for a week or two to see if that works better for you.  I am pretty sure that you will get more consistent results that way.