FitBit sync'd exercise calories include BMR but Crono doesn't deduct?

Blacksands
edited May 2022 in Getting Started

I understand FitBit calorie calculations for an exercise actually include BMR. It would seem to me that because Cronometer already accounts for BMR calories the BMR portion of the exercise entry would therefore need to be deducted from the calories synced in Cronometer. For example: my BMR = 66kcal/hr. If I do an exercise activity for one hour and FitBit estimates say 500kcal that would be 444kcal for the actual exercise itself and 66kcal being due to my BMR. So, I would expect 444kcal to be the number that should be input to Cronometer. But this is not what happens, instead the full 500kcal is recorded thus it seems to me it's doubling up on the BMR calories for that one hour exercise period.

Is my thinking correct on this or is there something I'm not understanding?

Comments

  • Since Fitbit won't allow you to change this, you can do a workaround by setting your activity level to sedentary in crono-that way you don't double count.

    "I've never considered excessive sanity a virtue" Mike Uris, San Antonio Express-News, 2002

  • My Crono is not set to 'sedentary' but rather, and more apropriately set to "none". But regardless that is totally independent of Crono's BMR calculation and the way it sync's in FitBit BMR inclusive calories counts. Sorry, but I don't think you undertand the issue.

  • This is the same problem as with Garmin Connect.

    For example, today my "Burned" says:

    Exercise 1308

    But the 1308 includes BMR/inactive calories from the two activities I've tracked on Garmin. Those are 502kcal walking and 806kcal cycling.

    However, the 502 is (112 resting + 390 active), while the 806 is (120 resting + 686 active).

    So the additional exercise calories reported by Cronometer should be 1076.

    Is there a way for Chronometer to only add the active calorie burn from Garmin Connect activities?

  • I ended up creating a custom 'food' -I call "BMR correction". I've calculated my BMR as 66kcal/min which is the value I've assigned to this so that now when I do a workout, say 60 minutes, I then enter this 'food' to offset the BMR portion of the workout kcal. I type in 60 as the quantity and it then adds 60x66 kcal to my kcal consumed.

  • Since you are importing this from Garmin or FitBit you can simply set your activity level to sedentary and you'll be set. If you've chosen active and are importing activities from another device, the calorie burn will, of course, be double counted.

    "I've never considered excessive sanity a virtue" Mike Uris, San Antonio Express-News, 2002