Fitbit is one of the most accurate fitness trackers in the world. The probability of creating any error or delivering false data as the information is also less as a possibility.
We saw that people have been complaining about the particular brand about false calorie burning display. Also, some people had mentioned that their Fitbit devices were displaying calorie burning when the owner had not worn the device the whole day.
We checked the reason under different circumstances and would like to point out the findings below.
Sometimes Fitbit Calorie Estimation is Misleading
The device shows the estimated calorie burning when you have not logged an activity or activated syncing on your Fitbit device. If you look at the first device as the first thing of the day, you will see a value as high as 2000 as an estimation. But what you have really burnt can be as low as 500 calories.
You can sync the device or disable the calorie estimation to avoid this misunderstanding.
Your Heart Burns Some Calories
You already know that your Fitbit device displays calorie burning as an estimation. In the early morning, you may see that your calorie-burning estimation is 2000.
Although you have not stepped out of bed yet and are looking at the watch face, you have burnt some calories as you are alive all night.
Let’s assume that you have spent 08 hours of sleep from midnight and you have burnt 8000 calories meanwhile. Then the estimation of calorie burning will be 2000.
BMR Burning mode and its effect on smart calorie burn calculation
We found some Fitbit owners who had got a 2000 calorie burning even without wearing the Fitbit device. We found out that it was not an error but due to a selection of the BMR mode.
In the BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) mode, the watch acts smartly and calculates the calories burnt using your details such as weight, height, gender, and age.
Although you are not wearing the watch, it will keep assuming how many calories you would have burnt if you wore it on your hand. The algorithms will consider not only the age but several physical conditions.
Note: The reading you get with the BMR is not as accurate as when wearing the Fitbit device. Therefore, you must wear the Fitbit device as much as possible when you want to know the calories burnt.
How to deduct BMR data from exercised data?
You can’t see the calories burnt when the Fitbit watch was in BMR mode. But, we can use the following steps to know the calories you burnt in a specific duration.
- Go a day without syncing the watch and remember how many calories you have burnt (Assume it as X).
- Sync on the very next day and how many calories have been added through the syncing (Assume it as Y).
- After making the deduction (Y-X), you may get the necessary value.
Note: you can stop syncing up to 07 days as the Fitbit can store your data for up to 07 days.
Never Rely On A Fitness Tracker To Get The 100% Accuracy
As we previously mentioned, Fitbit is one of the best fitness trackers in the world. But, we can’t mean that Fitbit is the perfect fitness tracker as it can make mistakes too.
In a research published by the Journal of Personalized Medicine, Anna Shcherbina, C. Mikael Mattsson, Daryl Waggott, and more, 04 researchers mentioned that Fitbit could create errors as wide as 27%.
Simply, if you got a reading of 2000 calories burnt, then the actual value can be as low as 1460 calories burnt by you. Also, that can be as high as 2540 calories too.
Note: The same study has shown that Fitbit is the brand that has the lowest error percentage when it comes to world-known brands such as Apple. Samsung, and PulseOn, there can be an error percentage of up to 93%.
Get access to the study through this link.
Hardware Issues can cause unexpected readings as well
although the margin for the error is less than other causes, hardware might have caused the above 2000 calories burned. Heart rate, exercise, movement, and various readings are used to get the calorie-burning reading for you.
The Fitbit trackers use several sensors to get the above readings. When there is an error with one of those sensors, you will not be able to get a proper reading.
We found some users had complained about the faulty heart rate monitoring sensors, which may produce faulty readings.
Conclusion
We think now you can understand why your Fitbit is burning 2000 calories. However, we still could not find an answer to your problem, please refer to the Fitbit customer care assistant.
