Versa Treadmill vs. Walking Calories

[PClark82]

Hello! 

I am confused about how calories are calculated. I thought it was based on heart rate, but this seems not to be the case. I manually logged my treadmill walk today but realized it wouldn’t let me change the distance walked, so I deleted it and logged the activity as a “walk” instead. Much to my surprise, the “walk” registered fewer calories even though it was during the same time period. Any ideas? Please see attached pics.

Activity logged as “treadmill” (incorrectly registers as .84 miles but shows way more cals burned)

Activity logged as “walk” - correct distance, same time period, but fewer calories burned

[Marrrmaduke]

@PClark82 It's based on average calorie burn for the population and not personalized heart rate data if you log it manually in the app. Next time start the exercise manually on your Versa. This way you will obtain accurate calorie burn based on your heart rate. Alternatively, if you know your calorie burn you can always log past exercise and change the calorie number. I recommend manually starting the exercise tho.

[PClark82]

---

@Marrrmaduke wrote:

@PClark82 It's based on average calorie burn for the population and not personalized heart rate data if you log it manually in the app. Next time start the exercise manually on your Versa. This way you will obtain accurate calorie burn based on your heart rate. Alternatively, if you know your calorie burn you can always log past exercise and change the calorie number. I recommend manually starting the exercise tho.

---

Thanks for taking the time to respond, but as these are both manually logged activities, I’m still confused about the 149 calorie discrepancy between the two...why would treadmill waking burn nearly 3 times as many calories as regular walking? 

[Marrrmaduke · Accepted solution]

@PClark82 I think none of these estimates are really that accurate as they do not take into consideration heart rate. Treadmill is even worse I guess as you cannot modify pace or distance from what I see. So my assumption is that this is some average number. That's not the case with walking as at least you can modify pace and distance. No heart rate though.

[PClark82]

Ah, interesting! I’ll have to experiment a bit, methinks! Thanks again for your input 🙂 

[Marrrmaduke]

@PClark82 You're welcome! 😄 

[Rich_Laue]

When a user manually logs an activity through the app,  Fitbit assumes that the tracker was not worn or it was an activity that the tracker is not able to track and ignores data from the tracker. It then bases its calculation on the accuracy of the manually logged event.

[PClark82]

---

@Rich_Laue wrote:

When a user manually logs an activity through the app,  Fitbit assumes that the tracker was not worn or it was an activity that the tracker is not able to track and ignores data from the tracker. It then bases its calculation on the accuracy of the manually logged event.

---

Hi Rich, thanks for your reply - I do understand that, but there seems to be a major problem if treadmill walking and regular walking are registering such a huge discrepancy in calories. Even if just an estimate, considering the duration and pace, they should be quite similar - one should not register 3 times more calories burned than the other.  I'll report it anyway 🙂

[Marrrmaduke]

@PClark82 but that's the thing - there is no pace for treadmill - so perhaps the calories are simply an average calories that average person burn walking on treadmill at average speed (who knows what that is...). Walking is slightly more accurate as you can input more data e.g. pace, duration, distance not only duration. In both cases you can probably manually correct the calories number. Again, I am advising against manual inputs. 😄

[PClark82]

---

@Marrrmaduke wrote:

@PClark82 but that's the thing - there is no pace for treadmill - so perhaps the calories are simply an average calories that average person burn walking on treadmill at average speed (who knows what that is...). Walking is slightly more accurate as you can input more data e.g. pace, duration, distance not only duration. In both cases you can probably manually correct the calories number. Again, I am advising against manual inputs. 😄

---

Noted! No more manual inputs 🙂 .

On a separate note, does anyone know if the way active minutes are calculated has changed? I was regularly getting active minutes for moderate intensity activities like cleaning the house, but starting yesterday, this changed. I spent an hour at the gym doing strength training - was really huffing and puffing the whole time, and I got ZERO active minutes. The leisurely walk back, however, got me 15!

[Marrrmaduke]

@PClark82 We would have to take a look at the heart rate recording for these activities. Active minutes are totally dependent on it. Can you post some screenshots? 😄 Always make sure the heart rate is being recorded. 😄