In fact, almost every user review that you read will have wearers noting this overestimation of calories. It underestimates them occasionally, too, but the overestimation is the big thing to be aware of here. Not the best option in terms of fitness trackers or even of Fitbit in generalĭoes Fitbit Overestimate Calories Burned?įitbit does often slightly overestimate the number of calories burned.Overestimates calorie tracking by almost double.Comparable accuracy to other Fitbit Versa.Less expensive version of the Fitbit Versa smartwatches.More accurate than the Charge 4 in terms of calorie tracking.Overestimates calories burned from a walk by over 53%.
So, just how do the different Fitbit models compare? 1. This means that any Fitbits that are new and updated will consequently be better suited to track your calories burned in a reliable way. The newer the model of Fitbit, the more updated the hardware. Are some Fitbit Models Calories Burn Count More Accurate?Įach model of Fitbit is slightly different, so accuracy will also change per model. This will help you to feel prepared and capable when going into workout sessions. Instead, you should try to use fitness trackers as a way to notice patterns of activity. This should not be taken as accurate down to the last calorie burned. Optimal results and tracking will come from setting up your smartwatch from the start.įitness trackers, like the Fitbit, work to estimate calories burned to provide you with relevant data. When setting up a Fitbit Versa 2, you can and should customize things like heart rate zone and personalize your dashboard. How Accurate is Fitbit Calorie Burn?Īgain, it is important to note that no fitness tracker is going to be accurate without fail. Your activity will then be based off of your individual stats and BMR.įinally, your Fitbit can estimate just what you’ve burned during a given workout. This will include things like height, weight, sex, age, and other quantifying data.ĭid you know that your BMR accounts for about half of your daily burned calories? Well, you do now. The Fitbit can track your BMR based on information you add into your account. Even at rest your body must still maintain a heartbeat, breathing, the pumping of blood, and other internal processes. You are always burning calories in one way or another to maintain vital body functions. Your BMR is the base rate that your body burns calories at while sitting. Hold on, what is the BMR and what does that mean? How Does Fitbit Calculate Calories Burned?įitbits combine your BMR, or basal metabolic rate, and activity data to help you track your calories burned.
Accurate calorie tracker how to#
How Does Fitbit Calculate Calories Burned?.Given all the areas for potential error – including tweaked data input by users and variation in Fitbit models – the accuracy of the calories burned calculation will surely vary.īut at the very least, your Fitbit can still be used as a helpful guideline for planning fitness and weight loss goals. All of these data together with your BMR serve to create the estimate of your daily calories burned. With this baseline data, the Fitbit then uses the activities in which it records you engaging, factoring in your heart rate and motion, as well as activities you manually enter into your profile.
Already the Fitbit is using generalizations when it runs its calorie burning algorithms Herein lies one problem with the measurement, as not everyone of the same age, height, and weight is going to be at the same fitness level, have the same metabolism, and so on. The first is your Basal Metabolic Rate (or BMR) – the rate at which you burn calories at rest to maintain vital body functions – which Fitbit estimates based on your age, gender, height, and weight. Other similar devices in the study - including the Apple Watch, PulseOn, and Samsung Gear S2 Basis Peak, Microsoft Band, and Mio Alpha 2 - had higher error rates, up to as high as 93%, rendering them more inaccurate when it comes to calculating calories burned.Įssentially, Fitbits calculate calories burned by making an educated guess based on several known factors. Check out the products mentioned in this article: Fitbit Surge (For $209.95 at Amazon) Measuring the accuracy of calories burned on a FitbitĪ 2017 study published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine found that Fitbit Surge model had about a 27% margin of error, the lowest margin of error among the seven devices tested.