Fitbit with treadmill

[PFJRF]

Calories different on versa and treadmill

[LZeeW]

Hello @PFJRF and welcome to the Help forums.  Your Fitbit and your treadmill use different methods for calculating calorie burn.  Your Versa uses heart rate based algorithms to calculate calorie burn.  If your treadmill asks for your sex, age, height and weight, it might be using algorithms that convert your activity to METs (metabolic equivalents).  Those METs use a different set of rules to calculate calorie burn.

Does this make sense?

[PFJRF]

Yes it makes sense but which one do I rely on?

Sent from my iPhone

[Rich_Laue]

Does your treadmill read your heart rate? 

Note that holding on to the rails can decrease your calories up to 40% 

Does the treadmill know if you are holding on or not holding on? 

Also many exercise equipment add a "feel good" calorie count. 

[MrMarv]

@PFJRF -

Both @LZeeW and @Rich_Laue have valid points.

In addition to those, I have noticed that my treadmill reports calorie burns that are very close to total calories calculated by my fitness device minus my BMR, or "active calories". Or in the case of the device I am currently using, "Active Calories". We are talking a difference of less than 10 percent between the treadmill and my fitness device.

That could very well explain the difference.

You can get a pretty good estimation of your BMR by looking at your calorie burn during sleep. My calorie burn during sleep or during periods of rest is reported as approximately 65 calories per hour or 1.08 calories a minute.

Then see if the calories reported by your Versa minus your BMR is close to the treadmill numbers.

Good luck and welcome to the boards.

[LZeeW]

@PFJRF   Both of the calorie burns are estimates.  A study that was published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine concluded that all wrist worn trackers have significant error when estimating calorie burn.

The Fitbit calorie burn is the one that will be added to you daily total.  You have to look at your data and follow the trends.  If your goal is to lose weight, then rely on the lower one.  Don't treat yourself to that doughnut based on the higher number.  😉