Are the calories burned accurate on my fitbit surge?

[xltheriot]

Hi there,

I've been trying to lose more weight recently so I decided to get a Fitbit Surge. I've been doing well on my own with my weight loss, but I wanted to get a tracker that I could wear during exercises.

A bit of info: Age = 24 Height = 5'7" Weight = 250lb

All of this info is correctly entered into my fitbit app and I wear the fitbit correctly on my arm.

I've been trying it out recently while on the treadmill, but the results are kinda out of this world. So yesterday I walked at ~3.0mph for an hour straight. My treadmill says I burned in the neighborhood of 320 calories, but my fitbit recorded over a 1000 calorie burn.

Here's an image of the workout: http://i.imgur.com/3ToCRmZ.png

Since there's a huge discrepancy on what the treadmill says and what the fitbit says, it has me worried. I just want to know how accurate the fitbit is so I don't screw up my weight loss regime since I've lost over 20lb so far.

Thanks!

[Julia_G]

Hi, @xltheriot, 1000 sounds like a lot of calories for an hour on the treadmill.  I think the first thing you should do is check your profile settings, especially your units -- make sure it is 250 lbs and not 250 kgs and 5 foot 7 inch not 57 cms...  I think something is wrong somewhere...

[xltheriot]

Hi @Julia_G, I was careful when entering in my information and I just double checked it in my profile.

And in my phone all of the measurements are in the correct units.

I'm not sure what else could be wrong. I hope my fitbit isn't defective.

[Julia_G]

I would be surprised if this had anything to do with your Fitbit itself, rather than some background calculation that has gone wrong, but it is obviously strange.

I would suggest giving your Surge a restart (just in case, and because that is what is always suggested): instructions here.

After that I would suggest trying a few more workouts to see what results you get.

Please let us know.  Interesting question!

[YojanaFitbit]

Hey there, @xltheriot! Welcome to the Family! Thanks a lot for posting your inquiry here and attaching that picture. Thanks for helping in this thread @Julia_G! 

I wanted to check with you some interesting data, since that amount of calories sounds like too much. Remember that your Surge takes your HR (check some tips on how to wear your tracker), number of minutes that you're working out, your profile information with your weight, height, edge and gender and uses the name of the activity to calculate calories burned.  So, we have to check also some information about your routine to see how accurate was that activity. 

Now, Intensity is the key for your treadmill routines. The intensity level of your treadmill workouts determines the length of time you can continue the same workout. For instance, if you are running 8 mph, you might only be able to run for one minute. However, if you are jogging at 5 mph, you will likely be able to continue to run for 40 to 60 minutes. If you are able to talk but cannot sing, you are exercising at a moderate intensity, or the fat-burning zone. If you are barely able to say a few words without having to stop and catch your breath, you are exercising at a vigorous intensity, or the cardio zone.

Cardio workouts burn a tremendous amount of calories in a given minute compared to fat-burning workouts. Additionally, you burn more calories after a vigorously intense cardio session compared to after a moderately intense fat-burning session. If  you click on the activity, you will see more details about your activity, for example: your HR Zones and the calories burned per minute. 

Why don't you compare that activity with any other day, in which you have done a similar activity. I usually burned around 8 calories in the treadmill but I usually stay in the Fat Burn Zone, and my BMR info is a little bit different. Age = 35 Height = 1.5 meter  Weight = 130lb. That give me a total of 480 calories burned in one hour. Can you please check your information for that exercise vs other activities to know how many calories your burning in your different HR zones. 

If you restarted your Surge already, that should help to have a better calculation. Hope you keep exercising that hard to reach your goals! You can read more about the accuracy of the Fitbit trackers in this article in our Fitbit page.

I'll be around, waiting for your response!