Double-counting calories burned w/Cronometer?

[Eliz_D]

I am wearing the Inspire HR tracker, and using the FitBit app on an iphone. My FitBit info is linked to Cronometer (which I use on my computer to log daily food intake), so that calories burned, as recording by the FitBit tracker, show up in the Cronometer daily diary.

Here's my question (with explanatory background info first):

When FitBit detects a moderate/intense activity, it labels it as an "exercise." FitBit also indicates I've had a certain number of "Active Minutes." Sometimes the "Exercise" and the "Active Minutes" have the same # of minutes, sometimes I have more "Active Minutes" than the "Exercise" (presumably b/c there was additional moderate/intense activity that wasn't long enough to register as "Exercise." In either case, FitBit exports two separate entries to Cronometer, one labeled "Activity" and one labeled "Exercise," and each of these include # of minutes and calories burned. 

Given that the "Exercise" minutes are included in the total number of "Active Minutes," is FitBit double-counting calories burned?

Note: I tried to upload a photo of the entries in Chronometer, but I'm not able to upload photos. I'll type out the example as I see it on my screen:

- Fitbit Activity    70 minutes         -679 calories

- Walk (Fitbit)     12.82 minutes     -71

-Walk (Fitbit)      26.49 minutes    -160

In the FitBit app, these exercise/walks register as 13 and 26 of 70 active minutes, respectively.

I did not manually log these walks. The shorter one was recorded via the Smart sensor function; the longer walk I tracked using the gps on my phone.

Thank you for helping me to understand this. I'd like to have an accurate sense of how many calories I'm burning.

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Eliz_D nice to see you around. Thank you for reporting the issues with your active minutes and calories burned.

You did a great job explaining what happened with your latest activities. Fitbit doesn't double count calories burned, you can learn more about this topic here: How does my Fitbit device calculate calories burned?

Your Fitbit device recognizes and awards active minutes when the activity you're doing is more strenuous than regular walking, which includes everything from a brisk walk to a cardio workout or run. Please check this help article with more details about active minutes: What are active minutes?

If you notice that you Fitbit is not accurate counting your calories burned, we need to check the type of exercise you're performing and how you're tracking it. Sorry you couldn't post your picture. It's important for me to have more details about your activities. Next time follow the steps here to upload a picture.

If you think that your Fitbit is not counting your step information as it should, please restart your Fitbit. 

I'll be around, keep me posted. 

[PattyP83]

Hmm as I wrote that I thought of a way to check and it seems that they are not double counted.

Saturday (3500 cals), I burned fewer calories than Sunday (3700).

Sunday I had strenuous activity (400 total). Saturday I did not.

Looking at cronometer, it shows Saturday as 1200 calories in physical activity and Sunday only has 1000.

So even if the minutes seem to include physical activity it seems like calories are removed from that.

[lzzparis]

I'm having the same issue.  It's not always consistent, but my activity today is a great example.  I did a workout (295 calories) and a short walk (59 calories), which Cronometer seems to have logged correctly (from Fitbit), but then there's this mysterious "Fitbit activity" which is 344 calories, not too far off from 354, which is 295+59, hence why I think things are getting double counted.  You can see in the Cronometer screenshot that it thinks I burned 1979 calories today when Fitbit thinks I burned 1593.  I can't imagine that's due to the BMR being off by that much.

I feel like this has to have something to do with the data that Fitbit is sending to Cronometer?  Is this "Fitbit Activity" including the calories burned during exercise as well?  Honestly, this integration is pretty useless if the calories are that far off between apps.

[Spopar1]

I use Cronometer to track calorie intake compared to FitBit calories burned.  There seems to be a double count of BMR and I don’t know how to get around it.  I’m also not sure that FitBit isn’t double counting my exercise and activity time.  The minutes and/or calories burned are suspiciously close.  An example of my concern is that yesterday at 6:00 pm, FitBit showed 1685 calories burned.  Cronometer said per FitBit I has burned 432 calories of 126 minute activity time and 433 calories of 74.3 walking time.  Cronometer’s total burn for me was 2000 calories burned.  Cronometer uses 1116 as my BMR.  I don’t know how much FitBit calculates but know there is an algorithm used and believe there is a duplication of BMR.  Does anyone one else have this issue and if so what can be done to get to a more accurate calorie burn number?

[SunsetRunner]

I've wondered the same thing.   I undertand FitBit exercise/activity calories actually include BMR.  So, it would certainly seem that when the data is exported to Cronometer the BMR portion of the exercise/activity calories will indeed be doubled up.   A workaround that I have tried is to simply make a compensatory calorie deduction.  To do that I have made a custom "food" in Cronometer  - it's not actually a food but rather a BMR derived calorie/minute value.  To find this value simply divide your BMR by 1440 minutes (1-day).  So, for example if your BMR is 1116 then 1116/1440 = 0.775 BMR calories/minute.  Then set the calories for this "food" to equal 0.775.  Then all you need do is enter this "food" into your Crono diary and for the amount just enter the total FitBit exercise/activity minutes.  

[Kllcrft75]

I reached out to Cronometer asking about this issue. This is what they said. 

"Hello Kelli,
 If you are tracking your activity with a tracker, we recommend setting your activity level to None to avoid double counting your calories burned.
 This can be changed in the Settings tab > Profile + Targets sub-tab > Energy Burned section."