Versa recording steps and calories burned inaccurately.

[Courtney84]

Hi,

My Fitbit Versa is incorrectly tracking my steps and calories burned.

I woke up this morning having lost 524 calories just sleeping and walked 953 steps to the bathroom.

Please can any one give advice or suggestions. My personal details are loaded correctly.

This is day 2 with the watch.

Thanks in advance

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[MarcoGFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hello @Courtney84, I hope you're doing well, thanks for joining the Fitbit Community. 

Thanks for bringing this situation to my attention. Please note that Fitbit trackers and watches count BMR calories additionally to the calories from your exercises. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the rate at which you burn calories at rest just to maintain vital body functions like breathing, heartbeat, and brain activity. Your BMR usually accounts for at least half of the calories you burn in a day and is estimated based on the physical data you entered when you set up your account: gender, age, height, and weight.

The calorie burn estimate that Fitbit provides takes into account your BMR, the activity recorded by your tracker, and any activities you log manually. Your watch's calorie count will reset each night at midnight and begin counting immediately thereafter. BMR is the reason your tracker starts the day with calories already burned—you've still burned calories even if you haven't gotten out of bed yet.

Now, when it comes to the steps, it is possible your watch counted your arm movements while you were sleeping as steps. Please go to your device Settings in the online Dashboard and check that your Sleep Sensitivity has been set to Normal instead of Sensitive. If it is already in Normal, reset the Versa by pressing and holding the Back and Select buttons (left and bottom right) until you see the Fitbit logo on the screen. If your Versa is still counting steps, try using your Versa on your other wrist and monitor your sleep for the next night.

I hope this can be helpful, give it a try and keep me posted in case you need anything else. 

[xiaxia]

Hi 

I would completely agree with you. I'm having huge inaccuracies in calorie and step counting. 

By the time I'm awake I have already burned over 500 calories. 

Over last week my average step count is 4-5k and my calories burned are up to 3k without any active minutes, which is unexplainable. 

I have checked my weight and height and stride. My heart rate at rest is as expected. Im  not sure this is a BMR issue. I had Apple watch until fortnight ago and my average calories burned were bw 300-500 total. 

I have tried resetting, adding it as new device , restarting the watching. My issue is still persisting. I can see many of Fitbit community have raised this issue. I wish there is a fix

[ATKS]

I am also facing same issue even I am not wearing it in the night but I can see some numbers against my burned calorie in the morning.

this morning i walked around 2000 steps and it is showing 888 calories burned which is wrong. Please advise to fix this issue.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @ATKS and @xiaxia, have a warm welcome to the Fitbit Community, thanks for joining the conversation. 

I appreciate you have taken the time to provide your input about this situation. @xiaxia, please note that, as mentioned before, almost half of your calories burned are the result of your BMR, your BMR is measured based on your height, weight and gender and these calories burned are not bound by active minutes, meaning that you can have many calories burned without any active minutes counted during the day. Additionally, the calories burned through your BMR start counting at midnight, after the reset, which is why you're able to see 500 when you wake up. 

@ATKS, please take in consideration that your calories burned through BMR are calculated by Fitbit, not the tracker itself, which means you will be able to see them when you wake up even if you haven't worn your tracker during the night. 

I hope this clarifies this subject, if there's anything else we can do for you, please feel free to reply. 

[Seth_T]

I've had a Versa for nearly a year, now. I have learnt to completely disregard the calorie counter. I'm thinking of trying another fitness device after I'm through with this one. I've been adhering to keeping 750 calories (or more!) below what the tracker reports, and I've not lost a pound since I began. It's pretty rubbish at producing numbers that are anywhere near accurate. It does feel that Fitbit does this deliberately after reading about it on the Internet. I rather like the device itself, otherwise.

[Lejla1984]

That has to be incorrect.  Last night I left my Fitbit on the nightstand and put it on this morning, walked to the bathroom and it said I burned 603 calories! I honestly feel like I wasted my money. 

[MarreFitbit]

Welcome on board @Lejla1984! Besides the 603 calories you saw upon waking up, did you also see extra steps? If so, please keep in mind what @MarcoGFitbit mentioned here.

Sometimes I get steps when waking up but is due to Fitbit trackers may register movements or restlessness as steps when you're wearing it while you sleep. The number of steps typically measured during these periods is minimal, and should not offset your overall fitness progress. Any steps taken to and from other rooms during the night will also be tracked.

Keep in mind that it's possible to get different readings if the trackers are worn in different locations (dominant vs non-dominant wrist). I'd recommend reviewing the accuracy information provided in this post. 

Once you've reviewed it, please try this step accuracy test:

1. Put your wrist-based tracker on your wrist or put your clip-on tracker on your hip or torso.
2. Walk 100 steps, making sure to count a step each time one of your feet hits the ground.
3. Pause, then check your tracker to see your step count.

To get a detailed information about the accuracy of your Versa, see: How accurate are Fitbit devices?

Let me know how it goes! 

[Lejla1984]

Yeah, no steps. That part is being tracked correctly, but calories are not
😞

[NancyJ920]

I've had my versa for about 6 months and it's not recording calories or my heart rate property. I just though this was an issue that happen once but I started to pay attention to it and its inaccurate. Today my boyfriend asked me how many steps and calories I burned and it said 1500 calories and I walk 3,000step and I work an office job from 7-3 so i dont understand how it can be so high. And when i go to the gym i wear my versa tight to my wrist so it can calculate my heart rate and calories properly and when I'm running at a speed 7 on a treadmill it says my heart rate is at 100, I'm am 24yrs old and i know that is wrong and it should be in the high 150-180. I will be in search of a better fitness watch, I bought the versa due to the fact that Fitbit was mainly for fitness but I'm wrong and due to the fact I'm pass my return date I cant do anything with the watch but keep it...

[AB2]

I am having the complete opposite issue and wondering if anyone can help?  I had a Fitbit HR charge for a long time but now I just got the versa. I am very active and work out and from the time I wake up and get moving at 6 AM until the time I go to bed around 11 I am showing I am only burning 1700-1900 cal which is far lower than what my Fitbit HR charge would show. On days when I take my spin class I MAYBE get to 2200 calories.  I noticed in spin class when I would be at max capacity the heart rate was showing very low like 125 bpm when I know and manually calculated it to be 175 bpm and then when I would be cooling down the heart rate would show 175 bpm!! Just wondering if this thing is at all accurate and if there’s anything I can do? Thank you! 

[Phedd]

Next time you are on the treadmill run for 10 mins and stop.  As soon as you stop, take your radial pulse (wrist) for 30 secs.  Multiply that number by 2 and see how it compares to your Fitbit.  I have had mine for about 5 days now and it is pretty accurate.  I am constantly checking my radial pulse (opposite of my Fitbit wrist) and it is always within 2-3 beats.  Remember that this thing does have some +/- room for inaccuracies.  You can’t expect it to be 100% no doubt on point 24/7.

[alexiaaa]

Hi, 

I get the whole BMR calculations and everything, but I am still facing a problem. I have had my fitbit versa since February 2019 and I haven't had any problems until now. My versa does not track my calories burned correctly. I do a workout every morning and before the problem occurred I was burning 350 to 400 calories. Now it is only saying that I'm burning around 50 to 70 calories. I have not decreased the intensity of my workouts I am doing the same as before. I have restarted and rebooted my versa and still nothing. If you could help it would be much appreciated, thankyou 🙂 

[Ghay]

I looked at my dashboard and found that i had burned  427 calories  which is pretty amazing since my VERSA is broken and not even on!!!!!!!!!!!

[Phedd]

You do realize that the Versa takes your BMR in to account when calculating
your calorie? You burn calories all day to maintain life...the versa uses
those calories and then adds your estimated activity calories you dummy

[Phedd]

Do you know what BMR is?  Probably not...the versa is designed to use your estimated BMR to calculate calories burned throughout the day. Your versa doesn’t not need to be on to calculate the calories your body needs to stay alive.  Maybe next time you’ll do some research before blindly posting about something you apparently have no idea about. 

[Ghay]

IT is NOT ON so it can not be recording anything.   And for the record  DUMMY i never use over 320 calories while sleeping.

[Nirosh]

I still can’t find the sensitivity on 

please give the steps . 

My calorie burn or wrong for sure because it says about 2500 calories burn every day

which is not true for sure.

pls tell me how to correct this

[scouch01]

I have the same issue!  I don’t track sleep, I’ve check my data in the dashboard and I still burn calories while NOT wearing it over night.  I’ve had the Versa Lite less than a week and will likely return it!

[Lejla1984]

Yea, and no matter how many times I explain it to people that I am not
wearing it over night and as soon as I put it on my wrist and get up, it
shows that I have burned over 450 calories 😑😑, they just don't seem to
understand. Please return it and get your money back.