Is the versa really bad at calculating burned calories?

[str85]

I'm a pretty avarage (un?)fit guy, 33y.o. I have as far as i know added all data I can to fitbit when it comes to measurements/weight/age and so on. I have a sort of warehouse job with a bit heavy products so a decently active job, i take the bike to work which is about 2x 25min/10km(~6miles) rides. the stepcount is just above 20k per day.
so far my fitbit says i burn about 4500cal/day, no way that can be correct, i'd have to eat a lesser rhino every day to not starve to death.

also, does the fitbit take the stairs climb into account? because that function seems really faulty as well? i perhaps climb 6-8 stairs per day but the fitbit says 40?!

[SteveH]

Are you taking into account your BMR calories? These are the calories you burn just keeping your body alive (even when asleep). They are calculated from your profile settings for age, height, weight etc so you needn't be wearing your fitbit to get them. What you are seeing includes the total BMR calories burned since midnight. 

As it explains in the following help file these BMR calories are usually more than half your total calories burned.

http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1381

You might want to try an online BMR calculator to see how that stacks up to your fitbit results. You might also want to double check your profile settings for age, height, weight etc as these directly affect the calorie calculations: https://www.fitbit.com/settings/profile

Fitbit doesn't take into account stairs climbed so this shouldn't be the problem. Do you walk up any sloped in addition to the stairs you do climb? You get a floor tracked if you rise 10 feet while walking - it doesn't have to be up stairs.

[Redliana]

The Fitbit Versa is extremely inaccurate in its calories burned.  I have owned a Fitbit One for years (originally the Fitbit, then Fitbit Ultra) and it has accurately calculated my calories burned since 2010.  On average I burn 1800 calories per day (female, 5'5" 136 lbs); I log every piece of food & drink that I consume, and have for the last 9 years.  When I gain or lose weight the original Fitbits (Ultra and One) also show that I should be gaining or losing weight.  I purchased the Versa a week ago and suddenly my average daily calorie burn increased to 2100 calories, with no change in overall activity or movement.  

I am deeply disappointed as the primary purpose of owning a wearable fitness tracker for me is to calculate my calories burned.  I am switching back to my Fitbit One until it dies (Fitbit discontinued this model even though it was much more accurate than wrist worn versions).

[aux]

It's just making an educated guess, since it can't actually measure calories. Same with stairs.

[Redliana]

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@aux wrote:

It's just making an educated guess, since it can't actually measure calories. Same with stairs.

The "guess" should be very similar to what the Fitbit One calculates since the algorithm is the same (believe they use the Harris-Benedict formula), but it isn't.  I think the wrist worn trackers overestimate because they erroneously count random arm movements as major body motion.  My husband has a Fitbit Ionic and it over calculates by about 750 calories/day.