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

[Rich_Laue]

As for past dates, if you bring one up, Fitbit assumes that your asking for what is known about the day, and will generate your BMR based on todays settings.

Im sure it would be possible to turn of the BMR, but would yhis be advisable?

As for activities part of the calories burnt are from trying to keep a person alive.

When it comes to diet, do you really want ti ignore tour BMR? It would be to eaay to not eat enough.

About the calories burnt during an exercise, these can be easily seen while looking at the activities log.

[saffa01]

I have just recieved my charge 2 today but have been on a calorie controlled diet (my own one) but based on my fitnesspal for the past month using the steps and exercise /steps function

I am looking to consume 1500 or loose 1400 calories a day (based on 2700 calories) and claim some calories back through exercise , walking ect whilst keeping under the 1500 calories a day. Now that my fitbit automatically takes off the BMR, lets call it 500 calories for living how do i compensate for this.

My regime never included my BMR, 

[Rich_Laue]

Im not sure what your asking @saffa01. 

If you ignore the BMR calories your body will be burning more than just the exercise calories. Not taking the BMR into consideration will mean that there will be more than just the 1400 deficit.  The weight will be coming off faster than you wsnt.

[saffa01]

Thanks for replying .

I guess the problem i have is : you need loose between 3300 - 3500 calories in order to loose a pound, this is over a day or week or month.

Before my Fitbit i was consuming 1500 calories a day as well as burning 200-300 calories a day through moderate exercise, this allowed me to steadily loose the pound a week that i wanted too, this was also achieved by me eating 1300 less calories a day needed to maintain my current weight. 

When i was doing this my calorie counting and deficit i did not include BMR.  Now that i have a fitbit my calories are going to read different (burning more) almost 2000 more based at the current reading within a 24 hour period.  

I now cant do my calorie counting based on the fitbit as before and dont know how to compensate for the different reading i am getting.

This morning sitting at my desk i have burnt 1000 calories , in my moderate exercise i was burning 300 in an hour.

there is a difference bewteen my original diet/calorie plan to the readings i am getting now 

[Moochikins]

Yes I agree too.

Wouldn't it just be easier to have an option to allow a user to turn off the following items.

1.) Historical estimated calorie burning

2.) The BMR effect

That way each user can have the choice to have information they choose.

Pretty please, fit bit ?

[Annfitness50]

I did not wear my fitbit to sleep, yet when I woke up this am to put the watch on it said I had burned 450 calories? Can I reset that so it goes away? 

[Rich_Laue]

@Annfitness50, no you can not make these go away,  these calories you did burn, I'm assuming that you are still alive, as for what tyey are please read the accepted solution that @WendyB, wrote on previous page, or my post above.

[ElaineJJ]

Thanks for explaining this, WendyB! I just got a Fitbit charge 2 and logged my breakfast, and the 'calories in/calories out' reading was confusing me, too. My breakfast was 609 calories and I couldn't understand why it was telling me I'd already burned 600 calories, LOL. it will be interesting to see how my usual diet (probably not healthy) and exercise routine (non existent) shapes up as I log my data. 

[Atrus]

yeah I agree, i'd rather have the option to turn it off, but there's other trackers the watch can sync to. Throwing your BMR in addition to your exercise deficit together is only useful if you're actively tracking your calories in, or manually deducting your BMR. Otherwise you just have grossly exaggerated deficits. If your diet is stable enough you know about where you're at, going all 'captains log, 9:15, I ate an apple.' is probably going to be over kill.

[maddymax]

Hi,

My Fitbit start with 650 calories. That much we loose as BMR during sleep. 

[maddymax]

Hi,

My Fitbit start with 650 calories. That much we loose as BMR during sleep. 

Best

Amit

[Rich_Laue]

Try checking it with a bmr calculator. You haven't really given us enough data to answer. We also don't know when you wake up I would only burn 400 calories but a male my weight and height half my age will burn 620 before walking up at 8:00

[Rich_Laue]

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

[maddymax]

My age is 32, 5ft 10 inch and 185 lbs. As per BMR calculater, my BMR is 1890. Is it right?

If yes, then why it shows 650 calories.

[Rich_Laue]

At what time of the day are you seeing 650? Is it right after wakeing up? 

[He_ven01]

How do I get the exact calories I burn in a day?

[Rich_Laue]

@He_ven01 I would start by going to a proper lab that has the ability to measure your calorie expenditure.

At best Fitbit, uses some proprietory math based on the average person, and should give a close estimate, if that is the user is close to beong average. Most likely they will not be. 

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi everybody, thanks for posting your inquiries about BMR here.

Thanks for your feedback. These are a really good question, as it was mentioned before, the value that you see on your tracker when you wake up in the morning is your estimated calorie burn for the day so far. You still burn calories even if you have been sedentary or were sleeping, without you having to exercise in your dreams. 

As you might know Fitbit Account estimates your calorie burn based on your age, gender, height and weight. Once you start tracking your activities the calories will increase depending on how active you are. Check the screenshot below from the Fitbit.com Dashboard in a computer, all day long you can see the estimated amount of calories that the body burns without exercising, and the long lines shows activity tracked by the Fitbit. 

1000 calories in one night is not normal, so we might have to check what is going on in those cases, since your tracker wipes out your previous day data to show only the information from midnight to the next morning. In my case every morning I get around 400 calories from 12 am to 8 am or so. 

If you're having doubts about your calories data,  please attach some screenshots so I can take a look of them please. Thanks in advance! 

I'll be waiting for your reply! 

[Roonarony]

On my it shows a history of almost 2 years back which I didn’t have the watch at all??? I just purchased yesterday and it shows 2 years of history of calories burned? How is that? Could you please explain?

[Nij11]

I have read the previous posts and understand that Fitbit logs the BMR calories you burn when sleeping. I don’t wear my Fitbit in bed, I leave it on my dressing table and on normal nights I see about 60 calories burned per hour while I sleep which is fine for my height and weight. However, I sometimes get ‘phantom’ calorie spikes while I sleep and even get active minutes logged before I wake up. Just this morning for example my Fitbit logged 70 cals between 04:30-04:45 & 66 cals between 04:45 & 05:00. Have you any idea why this is happening and what I could do to stop it?