Why does my tracker already show calories burned?

[jennifer73]

i just got my fitbit zip and i havnt walked at all and it already says ive burned like 100 calories! how do i clear data?? ive tried restarting it, it doesnt work 😛

Moderator edit: subject updated for clarity

[WendyB · Accepted solution]

Nothing is wrong with your unit. It is your BMR

BMR
The calories burned are BMR calories. Your fitbit also calculates calories burned for your BMR. You burn calories just by being alive! Even Sleeping. Fitbit includes these burned calories in it's calorie calculations, so even if you did not wear the fitbit, you'll still burn these calories.

Read this http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/How-does-Fitbit-know-how-many-calories-I-ve-burne...

To Learn more about BMR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate

[LucyAP]

Hey there @jennifer73! Hope you're doing well, and enjoying some healthy activities! I noticed that @WendyB has offered a few suggestions to help resolve your inquiry about calories burned on your tracker. Was that the information you were looking for? If so, I invite you to mark @WendyB's post as the solution. Marking posts as solutions is a great way of thanking another community member while also highlighting their solution so that it may be discovered more easily by other community member's facing the same questions or issues as you. You can read more about Accepted Solutions here.

If this didn't resolve your question, or you're still unclear on this, let us know and we'll be happy to work through it with you.

[SamLeeAnn]

Mine says ive burned calories when I dont even have it on... What is that about? Help. I am getting annoyed witht the fitbit. 

Moderator Edit: Format

[HelenaFitbit]

Welcome to the forums @SamLeeAnn! The data you're seeing is a guestimate of your historical caloric burn. Although Fitbit doesn't have activity recorded at that time, we can base your caloric burn activity (before you've had a tracker) via your BMR.

Your Fitbit will reset at midnight every night, clearing your data for the day; however you still burn calories while you sleep or rest, so the data you see is your estimated calorie burn for the day or BMR, it is estimated using your age, gender, height and weight.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions

[Rich_Laue]

Even if you are not wearing your Fitbit, it assumes you are still alive and breathing. For this to happen your motor needs to brle running and you'll be burning fuel.  Your fuel is married in calories.

[mh68]

I just got my fitbit. It says I've burned 1,405 calories in the morning. I'm pretty sure I don't burn this much sleeping from midnight till 6:30 am. I'm not a big person. It's only noon and I did a light workout and now I'm at 1,921 calories. This is NOT possible. I can't figure out how to fix this. 

---

@LucyAP wrote:

Hey there @jennifer73! Hope you're doing well, and enjoying some healthy activities! I noticed that @WendyB has offered a few suggestions to help resolve your inquiry about calories burned on your tracker. Was that the information you were looking for? If so, I invite you to mark @WendyB's post as the solution. Marking posts as solutions is a great way of thanking another community member while also highlighting their solution so that it may be discovered more easily by other community member's facing the same questions or issues as you. You can read more about Accepted Solutions here.

If this didn't resolve your question, or you're still unclear on this, let us know and we'll be happy to work through it with you.

---

[HelenaFitbit]

Welcome to the forums @mh68! I'll be glad to help. 

If your caloric burn shows higher than normal, this may be caused for 2 reasons:

1. Your settings might've been added innacurately; like a higher weight or height than the real one. You can check and edit your profile settings here: https://www.fitbit.com/user/profile/edit
2. Your Zip has not reset your caloric burn data. Not to worry! This can easily be fixed by restarting your Zip.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions

[mh68]

The fit bit says it has burned 1405 calories each day for the past couple of months, prior to me even owning the device. Today is my first day using it. I'm assuming the 1900-1400 is what i've really burned today which is believable. I think I need to reset the zip as you suggested. I went to that link but it talks about removing the battery with a battery tool and I don't see one of those in my box. I've only gotten a HR charge fitbit, a charger cable, and a sync dongle. I've looked on line for a description of how to do this but I haven't found directions on how to do this and don't have the battery tool. Is that something one must buy separately? Thanks for your help!

[HelenaFitbit]

Thank you for your response @mh68! I was under the notion you had a Zip tracker (since these are the boards for the Fitbit Zip); but not to worry! You can reset your Charge HR following these steps.  

If you have already checked your settings and they are all correct; please note that your Charge HR also bases your caloric burn for the day on your HeartRate information, along with your height, weight, age and gender. I have provided information within this thread as to why you might see a caloric burn number prior to having a Fitbit tracker. 

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll be glad to help. 

[Rich_Laue]

The reason Fitbit says you have burned calories before you got your Fitbit, is becaise you asked Fitbit to display those dates. 

The BMR calories for the day are not saved, you choose a day, fitbit calculates your BMR, then adds any aditional calories that where burnt from any known activity, then displays the result. For days before Fitbit, the only known data is the BMR calories ao that is what is displayed.  Fitbit isn't concearned with when you boight the Fitbit,  its only concern is to display as much of the data it knows about the day chosen

[mh68]

I don't burn 1,405 before even waking up at 6 am. There are no mistakes in my settings. It came this way from Amazon, saying 1,405 cal burned everyday before I even entered my age and height and weight etc. Either it's defective and I send back or keep and mentall substract 1,405 cal each day. I've done the restart twice now and can't get rid of these calories burned. Thanks for the suggestions though. Everything else seems to be in order.

[Rich_Laue]

All ypu need to do is create an account,  set up your height weight and gender. Now without adding a tracker, go and look at any day. It will show you the BMR calories that where burnt on this day.  These where not preloaded on your Fitbit, but are calculated in response to your request to see the day. If there where any steps recorded by your new Fitbit then these would also be displayed  with a rise in the calories. 

So why does fitbit display your BMR before you got the tracker? Well,  where you alive and breathing on those days?  If so your engine was running and calories where being consumed.  You request a day to display, and Fitbit says, this is what i know about this day.  Fitbit assumes you where alive, and weigh what you do today. Sees that no activity was recorded, so displays the calories burnt as if you sat in a chair all day.

[Relly86]

I have the same Issue with my Fitbit Alta. It says I burned 1946 calories each day. Ive tried to figure out what to do but it seems hopeless.

[Rich_Laue]

@Relly86 there is nothing to do here,  scroll up and read the accepted solution, eas long as you are a living breathing human, these calories you are burrning. 

[iannelson]

I understand that it uses the BMR. I just bought mine and put it on after charging and not wearing for a couple days and it says ive burned 1000 calories. Is that accurate based on me being 6'6" and 250 lbs at 34 years old?

[Rich_Laue]

The easiest thing would be to go to an online BMR calculator, and enter your info.

[padmasrinivas]

Calaries burnt are shown in 2 different rows. Under min walk it is showing total 430 calories burnt today.  At the last, it is showing 1761 calories burnt out of 2372.

why calories burnt are showing in two different headings

[Rich_Laue]

@padmasrinivas a screen shot would be helpfull

[Moochikins]

I know they say this is solved but really I find the answer that fitbit assumes you are alive and therefore puts in an amount of calories burned as a bit weak.

If it is being so helpful how about given us the option to turn that off if we dont want to see the past 3 years before I purchased a fitbit with a whole bunch of exactly the same data in it.

Is there a way I can see an estimate of the calories I burn "through the activities that fitbit is tracking" ?

This is what I am more interested in - it serves no purpose for me to see an estimate going back, well I dont know exactly how far it goes back - I stopped scrolling after approx 3 years.  What is the value in seeing, Fitbit estimates you burned 2.75million calories over the past 5 years just by our estimate of being alive - here's your badge or medal ?

The other thing is that I had used a Samsung Gear for the past 5 months and tracked all my activity via that and the connected Samsung Health app on my phone.

Can Fitbit somehow access that wealth of data and give me some actual historical information - since its being so thoughtful and interested in my historical activities ?

Ok, this is probably just me venting, but sheesh.  Can we have a toggle switch to say do you want us to estimate your calories burned before you bought a fitbit ? Y/N - I would say No if given the opportunity.