Heart rate from strava or correct calories burned while cycling MTB

[TylerKrupa]

New to having a fitbit and already thinking it might not be the right tracker for a cyclist, specifically a MTBer.

The problem I am having is that my Charge 3 counts steps while riding my MTB on chunky New England singletrack. My first three rides I rode with the Charge 3 on my non dominate wrist and let it Auto Recognise my rides. This gave me close enough calorie count to my Garmin Edge 520 with wahoo tickr HRM for me to accept it. The problem is even though in the Fitbit dashboard it shows the 'Outdoor Bike' activities as 'N/A' for steps I can still see that it added about 4,000 steps per hour to my daily count! The reason I bought the Charge 3 is to keep track of my sleep and ACTUAL steps.

Today I decided to sync my Strava account with Fitbit and leave my Charge 3 in the car while I rode. This accomplished my goal of properly counting my steps for the day but now the issue is the calorie count is SUPER far off Strava and my Garmin Edge 520. For my 55 minute, 6.46 mile, 636 ft of elevation ride on dirt with an average BPM of 167 and a max of 187 Strava calculated 970 calories, Garmin calculated 970 calories and Fitbit calculated.....74 calories...... This seems about correct if i was on a road bike at the leisurely pace of 7mph on a paved flat bike path but is far from correct on a 30lb full suspension MTB with 2.5" wide tires, on soft dirt.

I went for a second ride this time on mostly pavement and the result was better but still terrible. 1hr02min, 13.15 miles, 367ft of elevation average heart rate of 167 and a max of 192. Strava gave me 1,040 calories, Garmin 1040 calories and Fitbit......631 calories....

It seems to me I have the option of having my step count inaccurate if I wear my Charge 3 while riding OR my calorie count be very off any day I bike (about 5 a week) if I sync my rides from Strava.

I would prefer to not wear the Charge 3 while biking since I could potentially brake it so it would be best for Fitbit to actually import either calorie data from strava or heart rate to properly calculate calories burned.

[LucioFitbit]

Hi there @TylerKrupa. Welcome to Community Forums.

Thank you for sharing this experience. I'd recommend you check these articles, How do I add, edit or delete Fitbit data and activities?, How accurate are Fitbit devices? and How does my Fitbit device calculate my daily activity?.

Hope this helps.