High Calorie Burn on Versa

[brianatca]

Hello all,

My fitbit versa is about 2 weeks old now and I am starting to think that some days the calorie burn is WAY too high.  I have had 3 or 4 days like this now, but yesterday was the highest so far.  Here is the example from yesterday:

Some quick background info....  I am male, 6'3", 240 pounds and my BMR was scientifically measured at my gym at 2095 on a machine that you stand on and it measures bodyfat, bmr, etc. 

Yesterday I lifted weights for about an hour.  I did a 5 minute elliptical warmup, 6 strength training exercises, 3 sets of 10 for the most part, a couple of sets went to fail between 6 and 8.  After that I did 20 minutes of HIIT.  10 minutes was on the elliptical and 10 minutes on the stair machine.

My fitbit told me I burned 976 calories during that workout!  That seems way too high imo.  I think a more accurate number would most likely be around 600 (250 cardio and 350 during strength training).

Anyway after that I did 12 minutes in the sauna, then went home (I did not wear the watch in the sauna).  When I got home I was somewhat active but nothing strenuous.  It was a typical Sunday...laundry, cleaning, making dinner, played video games with the daughter.  Nothing too crazy.  My final calorie count for the day was 4215!!!  This seems insanely high to me.  To put it in perspective on days when I just get up, go to work, sit on my butt at work, go home, sit on my butt at home, then go to bed, it says I burn around 2550-2750.

Is anyone else experiencing this high calorie burn on days when they workout?  Was something wrong with my watch yesterday?  I know I worked out hard but almost 1K calories seems crazy.  Any input would be appreciated.  

[WavyDavey]

Hi @brianatca ,

It's a little difficult to tell based on your post. You didn't mention how long the strength training was, nor how intense the hiit session was. For my workouts, calories burned for strength training can be around 500, HIIT can be about 250, and I weight 20 pounds less than you. So at first glance, the numbers sound reasonable.

But without guessing, if you are gaining or losing weight would be an indicator if the calories burned is accurate for you.

Regardless, a good place to start is checking that your profile information is correct. Then I would try a restart of the Versa.

[brianatca]

Thanks I will try to restart it.

The strength training session was about 75 minutes.  The HIIT was about 90% effort during the intense part and 20% effort during the rest part.

I will try to do the same workout tonight and reboot prior so we have a comparison.

[WavyDavey]

It's really hard to say much about intensity. You'll have to gauge that yourself. If it's up there in intensity (which it sounds like you are), then those numbers don't sound too out of line.  If you start putting weight on madly, then you'll know the numbers are off.

BTW, I often do a sauna after cardio, and was amazed how many calories I burned in 15 minutes (HR stayed in cardio zone the entire time).