Separate BMR from Activity Calories Burned

[knelson2]

I will admit to being someone who quite recently learned what BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is and that we burn a certain amount of those calories just to live based on our gender, weight and height.  

Currently Fit Bit combines BMR and activity calories together.  While I think it's very valuable for people to be aware of BMR, it's also nice to see (and reward yourself) for activity based calories. 

It would be really nice to have a clear seperation of the two in a real-time tally on the Dashboard and even on the Fit Bit device.

Ex. Today:

BMR - 790

Activity - 560

Active Minutes - 200

Total - 1350

Frankly, throughout my day, all I care about is activity calories.  Right now as a user I have to do a calculation at end of day (total calories minus my avg BMR) to see how hard I worked that day, sweating my butt off, not just blinking and breathing.

Thanks! I'd love to hear whether or not i'm just missing something and this is available, or if it's something you'd consider for an enhancement. 

Kristi

Moderator Edit: Labels / Updated subject for clarity.

[JohnnyRow]

I agree. Besides current heart rate during a workout, the only cumulative number I care about is calories.  But it is hard to evaluate during the day.  For instance for me my BMR is about 2050 calories and my daily goal is 3172.  So now I look at my Charge HR and see I have burned 1569 cal today.  But to see how I am doing, I have to figure in I'm going to burn 84 cal/hur the rest of the day so I multiply 84 times the number of hours left, add that to my cal burn so far today, then subtract that from my goal to see how much active exercise I need the rest of the day.  If the display just showed active calories rather than total, I could much more easily see how I am doing.

[knelson2]

Amen.

It's called a FITbit, not a BASALbit.

It's good to be informed on BMR but I purchased the Fit Bit to understand how much I need to work my ass off during the day to reach my goals.  

[Tooraj]

You might wnat to see and vote for this feature request:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Requests/Customizable-BMR-or-resting-calorie-burn/idc-p/9537...

[JohnnyRow]

Tooraj, that's not quite what I want but I did vote on another.  There seem to be several suggestions on this topic that vary slightly but get to the same point.  A simple solution that would make me happy would be just to have an option on the wrist displayaible options to show active calories.  If they didn't want to confuse previous users, they could turn that off by default and let us select to display it like the other displays.  But I won't bother to add that as a suggestion since there are already multiple suggestions around the topic.

[knelson2]

Agreed JohnnyRow.  FitBit does a great job of allowing you to customize your device settings. All they need to do is add another option in there for active calories.  And even allow you to remove BMR.  

[TacoTony]

I am also advocating to have a feature to separate or disable BMR calorie calculations. BMR is an easy number to determine - it is laborious to deduct them every night from total calories to see what you actually burned in activity, especially when the number continues to adjust after you go to sleep. A lot of users are not interested in logging food every day, myself included - for this reason this the BMR should not be mandatory. Most people are familiar with counting calories throughout their day and simply eating less than that number. What we need to know is calories burned over and above - or separate from the BMR breathing, thinking and urinating calories. 

please seperate total/BMR included calories and activity/exercise calories - or please someone help me understand how I can set a calorie target to burn each day that does not include BMR calcs.

Thank you!

Tony

[SunsetRunner]

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@knelson2 wrote:

I will admit to being someone who quite recently learned what BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is and that we burn a certain amount of those calories just to live based on our gender, weight and height.  

Kristi

---

Dear Kristi,

Good on ya to learn a bit more!

Unfortunately, your perception of BMR is incorrect. Fitbit displays calories burned that are actually epidemiological averages that are correlated to your sex, weight, and height. This is a negligent use of averages, and Fitbit should be slapped on the wrist and pressured to change to reflect reality.
BMR must be measured, and it is currently most feasible to do so when Resting (RMR), and to measure your Oxygen consumption (thus, it's a breath-based measurement).

I made an analogy on another post (similar to this post). Here it is copy-pasted:
Analogy of this stupid error by Fitbit:
A 44 year old woman is about to turn 45. She goes online, and looks up the epidemiological data for women in her region of the world, and finds that on average, a woman of 45  from her region is 5' 4" tall.
However, this 44 year old woman is 5' 8" tall.
Given the average and what you know about her: Please predict if she will be 5' 8" in or 5' 4" on her 45th birthday.

It would be Professional negligent for Fitbit to change your height from 5' 8" down to 5' 4" automatically based on epidemiological data. But forget height -- they do it for a FAR MORE IMPORTANT VALUE: your calories burned 😞

The reason height is not estimated based on averages is because it's so cheap and easy to measure! (same with weight)... However, oxygen consumption is difficult and expensive, roughly $100 per measurement in a clinic.

Lastly, and rather unfortunately, Fitbit will use population averages to calibrate your daily Activity Energy Expenditure (AEE), so the error is even greater. Nevertheless, you're right! Fitbit should split these up. (Apple Health encourages the same, using two categories: Resting Calories and Active Calories).
Best!!

[SunsetRunner]

That is a very nice proposition. I will personally also like to know how much calories I burn out by doing activities. It would be interesting to know. For the moment I know my BMR is around 2000 calories.so the rest of the day is what I burned Activities wise.

[SunsetRunner]

@SunsetRunner Great to e-hear that you know your BMR. How did you measure it?

[SunsetRunner]

@knelson2 Upon which metrics do you depend when setting your goals?

[SunsetRunner]

@SunsetRunner I actually just looked for a day where I had not synced my tracker. The calories burned shown that day would by Fitbit's estimated BMR for me that day. But that is the lazy way. You can also calculate your own BMR as shown here: http://www.thecalculatorsite.com/health/bmr-calculator.php

[SunsetRunner]

@SunsetRunner Unfortunately, your statement is incorrect & reveals something about Fitbit, as a company.
One's basal metabolic rate can only be measured, not "calculated" as you were told and now make believe. The calculator you are referring to is called an Epidemiological Model, which simply spits out an AVERAGE value for people that are like you. (Just as Fitbit does, using the Mifflin St Jeor model.) Both ways are short-sighted, potentially dangerous to calorie counters, or "lazy" as you put it.

From my experience on these Fitbit forums & blogs, this concept appears to be difficult to comprehend. It's simple though, which begs some questions about the culture 'round here! My analogy even, about the simple averaging and predictions of height (see above) went right over your head, apparently, and I can imagine, the entire non-technical staff at Fitbit as well. Please re-read that correctly: I am claiming that the entire Fitbit staff is non-technical. 😉

Well, mud-slinging aside (I am actually not thinking about your feelings -- rather, I am deeply disappointed in my experience with Fitbit), please vote to have a review of the SIMPLE concept of permitting BMR to be editable. Good luck and maybe some skillz too 😛

[Siobhan1983]

HI, I would like to add my opinion here.

PLEASE listen to your users above. I don't care about the calories I burned by my beating hurt, or my digestion system. I want to know how many calories I burned via walking instead of driving, by dragging myself out of bed to go to kickboxing class.

It's disheartening when I see a RIDICULOUS number b/c my BMR is taken into consideration. Have it separate or the option to disable it completly. I know my BMR is always 1411, so I don't need to see if day in and day out. 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ACTION. 

[atrap]

We need an option that allows us to measure just calories burned through activity. Activities only and not to include BMR. 

BMR does not help much when Some of us are on a 1500 calorie diet, eat 2000 and want to burn off 500.... Hard to see that clearly when it says congrats we made up some numebrs for you and you burned 3000 calories today based on your parameters.

[honda_grom]

 +1

Please.

[honda_grom]

Can FitBit tell us why they can't make this happen?  It looks like it's been years that people want this and just nothing happens.  Do so few people want this that it doesn't warrant any response?  Is it hard?  Do you think it wont help people acheive their fitness goals?  Is it not possible?  Very frustrating to see this sit around for so long. 

[jesanto]

The way FitBit calculate calories is confusing and not helpful.  I don't doubt it is more scientifically accurate but based on the number of questions on the forum about this and the fact that a user had to write a "Demystifying" article just goes to show that it should be reviewed at a Product level. FitBit should decide whether the way they're doing this is really useful.  It somewhat makes sense to me to use the BMR and I'm sure part of the appeal for FitBit is getting to say they use the basal metabolic rate which sounds very scientific but let's be honest, only a tiny percentage of FitBit users know about this, and some percentage who do know about it know because they googled something about calories burned in FitBit.  If you choose to use it, why continuously burn it throughout the day instead of providing it all of that at the start of the day?  It is confusing to provide it as a moving target.  Again, I can see the argument that it is more accurate to do it that way, but people track calories for one primary reason: so they know what they can eat.  I have gone over my calorie limit multiple days because of the way the calories are adjusted.  I know there is information to learn how to manage this in FitBit, but I'm just going to continue to use MyFitnessPal (which doesn't require an extensive lesson in calorie burn rate) and disconnect my FitBit from it.  I don't mind using my FitBit only for exercise, but if FitBit can get this right, I imagine it would make a big difference. 

[Samsiam]

Did it/has it ever occurred to anyone at Fitbit that it is stupid and confusing when one pane of the Dashboard says you've eaten too much and the other says you can eat more?

Judging by the comments throughout the discussion boards, it is confusing to your customers.  It is also plain that you have decided to do nothing about it.  It would be easier if you just made a statement that your products are NOT ready for market and you don't really care.  I certainly won't be recommending them to anyone I like.

[coolhanduke]

That is only the estimates of your tracker from your BMR while you're not wearing it. Re

[coolhanduke]

Don't see how to edit a post but I wanted to add to my request above which I prematurely posted. I just got my Fitbit Charge HR. I had a Fitbit Flex and like this one for the more features it has. However, last night I took it off to charge only to check it in the morning to find all of the features zeroed out except the Calories. I had racked up over 400 calories by 5 a.m. As the fitbit layed on my coffee table I would periodically check it only to see it increasing in the calorie burning count. I asked Fitbit about it and they said it was an estimate of my BMR when I'm not wearing it. I don't like that feature. I would like to know my actual caloreies I burn while wearing the Fitbit and not some guestimate.

So the request would be to turn this feature off somehow.

[bobtail]

bump!

Would be nice to see how much more I burned than if I'd spent the day watching netflix. Or if I'm craving a burger I want see when I've earned it.

I look at my fitbit and see I've burned 900 calories so far but that doesn't really mean anything

[SunsetRunner]

Now that Stanford has shown the embarrassing lack of Energy Expenditure accuracy in Fitbit Surge (as well as Apple Watch, Samsung Gear S2, PulseOn, Mio Alpha 2, MS Band, & Intel's Basis Peak) surely management will do the right thing and empower Fitbit users to bypass the sloppy random calories generator! Right? 2017 Stanford HR OK but EE fails miserably

[MarkGeorge]

It would be awesome if you can see the calories that you actually burned.

[lucyjenkins]

I know BMR is calculated on FitBit, however for some users it can be confusing and frustrating. I don't know how many calories I have burnt myself in a day because there is also BMR. Of course, exercise calories are tracked, but sometimes my steps amount to calories and are not counted as exercise. I think, just as the app 'MyPlate' and "Lose It!', there should be a Net Calorie (where the amount eaten takes away the amount burnt, not including BMR) option as well as displaying BMR calories being optional.

Please feel free to share your thoughts. I just feel it would benefit me and other users a great deal.

[WJDII]

Where the calories burned are displayed on the dashboard add subsets of BMR calories burned and Active calories burned (calories burned from actual movement). This will help to better fine tune one's ability to track the specific calories burned outside of BMR to work on weight maintenance.

For example, I track my caloric intake and am working towards a lower, more healthy weight. In order to know my adjusted calorie count and whether or not i am staying within my calorie plan I need to be able to separate my active caloric expenditure from my total and BMR caloric expenditure to lose weight. The BMR calories do not have enough impact on the weight maintenance process. This is especially difficult when everything this information into other tracker that don't take into consideration BMR when doing calculations for weight maintenance and management through caloric budgeting. This includes apps such as Lose It where if you include BMR weight management tracking can be skewed and inhibit progress toward the health goal.