AIBU to ask for your expertise?

[Was126orbustandmaybebust]

I have a Fitbit and I am trying to add some extra walking into at least 5 days per week so I can burn some bonus calories and continue to fit into my clothes.
I know the key to weight loss is what you eat and the exercise, unless it is intense, is just the icing on the cake I'm trying not to eat too often.
But look at two days from last week and tell me how on earth have I burned more calories doing nothing than i have on an active day? AIBU to ask for your knowledge before I decide that the key to burning calories is not to move?

It’s unpopular but calories in/calories out is not the answer.

As you eat less, you burn less, AND you use less so you need to keep reducing your intake for this to work longer term.

Your body doesn’t have a calorie sensor - all it knows is if it’s satisfied an nourished.

Essentially you need to change the way you eat, what you eat and when you eat to lose weight healthily and sustainably.

If you get your hormones in control by eliminating processed foods and seed oils and eat three food meals a day with a 14 hour ‘fast’ between dinner and breakfast you’ll have a really good base to start tweaking as necessary.

If you’re really overweight you might need to fast a bit longer, Lower some carbs a bit etb to see significant changes but those trackers are just nonsense.

Exercising isn’t nonsense and watching your food intake isn’t nonsense - it’s just no as simple as a simple equation.

The second photo is not at the end of the day. You use up calories just living and the fit bit doesn’t calculate them all to the end of the day, it’s adds them slowly throughout the day.

@Merryoldgoat Thanks for the information and I do agree. But I am asking why when I have been much more active on one day than the other I have burned less calories on the active day.
@Springintoabetterlife they are both at the end of the day i.e a full 24 hours. The 8.44 is the time on my phone I took the photo on the next day. Here is the day screenshot again.
they are exactly the same time span and I did not change weight - the fitbit just said I had burned more calories when I did not exercise.

Was it fully synced?

It maybe about the intensity of the exercise?

I take my fitbit data with a huge pinch of salt. It’s very inaccurate.

Well isn’t that the answer? It’s bollocks 🤷🏾‍♀️

Yes it was synced - does it automatically.
On the day I burned 1712 calories I did no exercise at all.
On the day I burned 1700 calories I exercised for 85 minutes.

Well @Merryoldgoat you may be right but if this is the case why do people bother buying Fitbits at all?
Maybe I should chuck it out the window!
I do know it is very demotivational to see stats like this when I am trying my best.

I honestly think they are in terms of calorie tracking etc.

I lost 2 stone tracking nothing, literally no exercise, and eating masses (but keto).

I think it’s nice to get into good eating habits and track progress but using it to predict how helpful a given exercise is is essentially a fool’s errand.

Thanks everyone I never expected them to be exact but cannot get my head around how stupid the stats look side by side:
12065 steps, 5.05 miles, 85 mins exercise: 1700 calories burned
5557 steps, 2.24 miles, 0 mins exercise: 1721 calories burned

So move less, travel less distance, don't rause your heart rate, so you burn more calories. 🤔

I don't pay attention to how many calories I've supposedly burned - I don't think it's ever accurate.

I use my phone and I did almost 22k steps yesterday which is apparently only just over 500 "active calories" burnt.

Have you changed any settings between or during any of those 2 days?

If you click on calories or active minutes, you can see exactly when you had the most active minutes/calorie use (looking at your heart rate chart will do same) and then you can remember what you were doing that used the most energy.

I'm confused about active minutes = 0 on the right screenshot, is that fully updated?

The calorie usage estimate is based on your heart rate monitor (+ your 57 kg mass, your sex & age). Active minutes = combo of heart rate + motion sensor.

Get this chart up, on those days for your phone.
This record is from me doing volunteering: cycle-walk-cycle, and then something else in late afternoon, possibly housework or nipping to shops (cycle+walk) to get some stuff.

I feel your pain @coffeecupsandwaxmelts
I have not @talknomore
The point is @lljkk I did nothing on that day bar work sitting down and go to the kitchen and get cups of tea, make a sandwich, dinner and unload the dishwasher. Active minutes do not register until you get to 10 minutes. The days are only 2 or 3 apart so I was/am the same weight and each are screenshots taken yesterday of days in the previous week so fully updated and the total for 24 hours.

I don’t rely on Fitbit for calorie counting o ly for my steps. I know there are bugs in their system as you have shown us.

Show us the screen shot from your phone, @Was126orbustandmaybebust, like mine, from the day when you got the mystery high calorie count and zero active minutes.

Just back from my walk(!) Will find it and add it on @lljkk

as promised @lljkk

That's certainly strange and as a long time Fitbit user I have never seen that happen. Fitbits are not perfectly accurate by any means but they've always been "logical" IME so sounds like a glitch. Worth contacting support if this is an ongoing issue not a one off. The fact your calories were a perfect round number of 1700 also suggests something is awry on your "active" day.

Here's yesterday's efforts.
I do find it bizarre and I did contact support when I first noticed it 18 months ago but got back a ' calories burned is all to do with heart rate and your weight' response.
Perhaps the excitement of spreadsheets raises my heart rate more than climbing uphill😂
I'll keep walking as it obviously works - alongside some slight restraint on eating - glad in some ways that evryone is as flumoxed as me.

So, that 1700 day, you don't perceive you did anything but sit still inthose periods when Fitbit reckons you used up extra calories? Nothing late morning or on/off all afternoon?

Not really @lljkk as my job involves sitting in front of a computer and I sandwich 37.5 hours into 4 days so they are long days starting at 6am and finishing at 4pm.
Reaching for a cup, filling and boiling a kettle, walking back to my desk and I unloaded the dishwasher at some point and with all the tea drinking and food eating walked to the loo a good few times too but that was about it - went up and down the stairs a few times to collect files. Probably told my cat what a clever boy he was and the best co-worker in the world hourly.... Maybe the latter burns calories.

Actually, you joke but one of the high calorie burn days I had was when I appeared in court (as a witness, I might add). I did nothing that day except sit in a room for hours, briefly walk into the courtroom and sit down to answer some questions then walk back to the room to finally drive home. The stress caused my heart rate up into ‘fat burning’ levels and my calorie burn was high.

Whether I actually burned those calories or not 🤷🏻‍♀️ but that’s how it logged on my Fitbit so how’s your stress while you’re wfh?

Thank you so much @Unluckyfourpercent
My stress levels are generally very low - it has its moments obviously like most jobs - but I know the role well at this stage and love working from home and saving myself 90 minutes commuting time.
My heart rate is generally about 65/66 so not "in the fat burn zone"
Good thought though.