How to track calories when I'm sleeping if I don't wear the Fitbit?

[Tina1977]

Hi there, I’ve been sleeping with my Fitbit on but find it uncomfortable. I want to stop wearing it while asleep but how will it calculate the calories burnt while sleeping?

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[Baltoscott]

Hi @Tina1977

It will give you credit for the BMR calories (what you burn simply by being alive, pumping blood, maintaining your temperature, breathing, etc, but not otherwise moving) for any time it is off your wrist and not detecting movement.  The number is based on your current weight (which may be what you put in when you set up your account if you don't ever update your weight), height, age and sex.  It will probably be very close to the calorie count you now get while wearing your fitbit.

Hope that helps.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Tina1977, I hope you're doing well, it's nice to see you around the Fitbit Community. It's great to see you too @Baltoscott, thanks for all your help. 

@Tina1977, as @Baltoscott mentioned, Fitbit automatically calculates your BMR calories automatically based on your settings, (gender, height, weight and heart rate -if you have a hr enabled tracker-) so you don't need to worry about losing those calories burned. 

Additionally, if you'd still like to track your sleep while not wearing the tracker, you can use the Fitbit app by tapping on the Sleep Tile and then on the plus (+) sign on the top right corner. You'll get the option to "Begin Sleep Now" tap on it for the app to track your sleep. 

I hope this can be helpful, if there's anything else I can do for you, please feel free to reply. 

[Tina1977]

Ive got the alta hr fitbit. But whats the difference between taking your fitbit off at night and pressing the sleep now button when you've taken it off to go to sleep?

[Baltoscott]

Pressing the "+" button in the app after removing your fitbit is just a way of logging that time as sleep time so you can track how long you are in bed.  (If you don't press the button, you don't get a sleep log at all).  If you wear your Alta HR to bed, it will continue to track your HR and body movement and auto-detect sleep based on that. That gives you some idea of how restful you sleep was, how many times you got up, and so on, and allow you to track that information over time.  Wearing it while sleeping gives you much more useful information; but since that is uncomfortable for you, pressing the button in the app at least lets you keep track of time in bed.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Tina1977, I hope you're doing well, thanks for taking the time to reply, it's nice to see you too @Baltoscott, I appreciate your help! 

@Tina1977, as @Baltoscott mentioned, when you start your sleep from the Fitbit app, you will be manually adding a log when you stop the sleep at the moment you wake up, this will only provide a simple sleep log. On the other hand, when you use your Alta HR during the night, the tracker will use your heart rate and movement to auto-detect your sleep and provide you a better reading through a feature called Sleep Stages. You can check more information about Sleep Stages on this article: What should I know about sleep stages?

I hope this can be helpful, if there's anything else you might need, feel free to reply!