Calories data from before setting up Sense

[cliang]

1. I purchased the Sense early October and installed the latest iOS Fitbit app

2. Found out from "Account Setting /  Delete Data" there are many garbage entries since Jan 2009: the values are 0 before the date I setup my watch but there are non-zero values for Calories

3. Try to delete these garbage from the app but no matter how I select last month, last year, or date range, the dialogue box pops up to confirm the deletion of the past 12 days data.

Support was contacted but no solution.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[SteveH]

Are the calories burned the same number for any day in the past you select? If so, this is not a bug but just a strange way that fitbit works.

As you probably know, as well as tracking calories burned through activity your fitbit also tracks 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. If you look at a day before you started with Fitbit it will calculate the total BMR calories for that day based on your current profile settings. The data is not really there so can't be deleted. It would be good if things didn't work this way.

[cliang]

No, the past calories varies in different period.  I don't think Fitbit should populate the past data with undocumented algorithm.  It should allow user to choose whether the bio data should start from scratch, or with projection.  This will affect the trust of the bio data display! I don't like it. 

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @cliang. Welcome to the Community Forums. @SteveH, thanks for your great help!

@cliang, thanks for sharing that you got the Sense and for taking the time to contact our Support team. As @SteveH mentioned, the calories displayed on your watch sum the calories burned when doing your activities and the BMR, which is the rate at which you burn calories at rest to maintain vital body functions. The BMR is calculated based on your demographics and will be recorded at all time, reason why you'll see calories before getting your watch or even if you haven't got out of bed. This won't affect your overall data since it's an estimation and will change based on the activity you do while wearing your watch.

The amount of calories displayed in the past should be the same, however since you mentioned it varies, is it possible to take a screenshot and attach it in your reply? Also, does the same happen when accessing your fitbit.com dashboard? This information will help me to further investigate.

I'll look forward to your response.

[cliang]

Hello LizzyFitbit,

I can't find ways to upload screenshots.  Further, I don't want the bio data published.  I list the data below. 

Note that the Day-5 (since using Sense) calories is used as reference point, the delta is the difference from this.  bday = birthday; year -1 is prior year; year -2 is previous year to prior year and so on.  The populated value is the same for the entire year. Change is observed at birthday cutoff.  I still don't understand why these are needed to support the BMR.  Either way (Fitbit populates the figures nor insufficient days to take the baseline) is inaccurate.  Fitbit should publish how many days are required to take the baseline before these derived bio data become more accurate.

Reference-date: Delta
Day 5 use: 0
Day 4 use: 440
Day 3 use: 908
Day 2 use: 586
Day 1 use: 1,265
Current year bday: 1,456
Year -1 bday: 1,451
Year -2 bday: 1,446
Year -3 bday: 1,441
Year -4 bday: 1,436
Year -5 bday: 1,431
Year -6 bday: 1,427
Year -7 bday: 1,422
Year -8 bday: 1,417
Year -9 bday: 1,412
Year -10 bday: 1,407
Year -11 bday: 1,402

Year -11 beginning 1,397