FitBit Blaze Accuracy

[JamieLogical 8,684]

I had pre-ordered a FitBit Blaze back in February and received it on February 26th. Since then I have been wearing it 24/7, except in the shower or bath. I have also been tracking all of my food intake on the FitBit web site and so far I am happy to report that it appears to be pretty accurately monitoring my heart rate and calculating my calorie burn.

The first week or so, when I worked out, I wore my old chest strap heart rate monitor as well as the FitBit, so I could compare the two. The heart rate readings on both seemed to match up pretty well. The only thing I noticed was that toward the end of my long runs for my half marathon training (past 6 miles or so), the FitBit seemed to read my heart rate lower than my chest strap. My theory is this had to do with fluids pooling in my extremities making it harder to get an accurate reading through my wrist.

The major discrepancy was that my HRM calculated a much lower calorie burn for my workouts than my FitBit. But I have come to believe my FitBit is the more accurate of the two. Even though my HRM was programmed, with my gender, height, and weight, I think the algorithms it used to calculate calorie burn were just off. FitBit has so many users and such a large market share, I am inclined to believe they have been able to hone their algorithms over recent years to be more accurate.

Over the 19 days that I have been wearing my FitBit, I have averaged a caloric intake of 2010 calories a day and an average calorie burn of 2344. I'm not actually trying to lose weight right now, but with my half marathon training, I have found it challenging to eat back all the calories I'm burning. So I have had a total deficit of 6338 calories over the last 19 days. That comes out to a loss of about 1.8 pounds and that has been pretty much exactly what I've seen on the scale.< /p>

So, overall, I've found that both the heart rate reading and the calorie burn calculation seem to be pretty accurate. I'm going to continue tracking my food a bit longer just to get a bit more data, but ultimately I will be happy to stop tracking my food, because it's kind of a pain!

I think I would recommend the Blaze to anyone who is looking for a fitness tracker that is also a serviceable watch. My main complaint about the watch functionality is the limited number of clock faces available (only 4 right now). I am also a little put off by how expensive alternative bands are, but there seem to be some 3rd party replacement bands coming on the market now, so that might not be a problem much longer.

Hope this helps some people who might be interested!

[gpmed 623]

Thanks for the great info! Did you use another kind of Fitbit before your Blaze? If so, how do you think the two compare?

I recently got a Fitbit Charge HR and I've been pretty happy with it. I'm most interested in the HR function. I've tested it against other HR monitors and by taking my pulse manually. It seems pretty accurate on that front.

[JamieLogical 8,684]

I never had a FitBit before. I had a Bodybugg years ago and a Body Media Core more recently. Neither of those tracked heart rate. The were straps that you wore on your upper arm and they tracked skin temperature, movement, and skin conductivity. I've also worn a chest strap heart rate monitor for most of my cardio through the years.

[kaitlynm 335]

I have the Fitbit charge HR and it is very inaccurate. It gives me readings of 169 when I walk on the treadmill and then readings of 114 when I do my high intensity cardio classes. When I wear my chest strap my HR is much higher in the cardio class, and much lower while walking. I may try the blaze next if it is more accurate.

[AllthingsApple 34]

I've had my Fitbit Blaze for about 2 weeks now and I love it! I especially like how you can choose the type of workout you're doing. The app also breaks down when you are in fat burn mode or cardio. I can't say that I have any complaints at this point. I think it's worth the money if anyone is interested in a Fitbit. I previously had the FitBit Charge.

[JamieLogical 8,684]

I've had my Fitbit Blaze for about 2 weeks now and I love it! I especially like how you can choose the type of workout you're doing. The app also breaks down when you are in fat burn mode or cardio. I can't say that I have any complaints at this point. I think it's worth the money if anyone is interested in a Fitbit. I previously had the FitBit Charge.

I like how you can set your workout shortcuts to the types of exercises you actually do. I have mine set for treadmill, spinning, weights, and running. The difference between treadmill and running, btw is that the running mode incorporates your GPS in your phone for distance. Same as the difference between spinning and biking.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

I recently stopped using my fitbit after having one for years because I realized the step count was inaccurate. The steps are completely inflated. Iwalked with it on a few times and watched the step counts on my app on my phone and it was registering 3 steps for every step took. Some other people on instagram I talk to noticed the same thing with theirs. I haven't used a Blaze. I switched right before they announced it.

[JamieLogical 8,684]

I recently stopped using my fitbit after having one for years because I realized the step count was inaccurate. The steps are completely inflated. Iwalked with it on a few times and watched the step counts on my app on my phone and it was registering 3 steps for every step took. Some other people on instagram I talk to noticed the same thing with theirs. I haven't used a Blaze. I switched right before they announced it.

For the first couple of days I had my Blaze, I would actually count my steps in my head as I went for a 15 minute walk and then compare my count with the count on the Blaze and they were pretty close. Not exact, but close enough for me. Does it really matter if I get 10,000 steps in a day or 9,980? Not really. I'm not using it as a $200 pedometer anyway. I was more interested in the heart rate monitor functionality and the daily calorie burn calculation. After all, two days a week I bike for cardio and it doesn't count 13.2 miles as even one single step. And when I run a step while running counts the same as a step while walking, despite expending more energy. So a step count is NOT an accurate gauge of my activity level.

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

Maybe they have corrected some of the issues or yours is simply fuctioning better because it is new. It is known in the industry they over inflate, that is part of what makes them so popular with consumers.

When your blaze is over 6 months old, the accuracy might decrease. The older they get the less accurate they are.

Most of the fitbits are just glorified pedmeters, they are terrible at measuring other activities. The newer ones with GPS for runners are more accurate, but only a couple models have that, the one you have and the more expensive one.

I find it interesting that your fitbit has more accurate HR monitoring, chest straps are supposed to be the gold standard.

Thanks for posting about your Blaze experience.

[JamieLogical 8,684]

I find it interesting that your fitbit has more accurate HR monitoring, chest straps are supposed to be the gold standard.

Yeah, that was a big factor for me. I am training for a half marathon and the chest strap was causing me chafing on my long runs, so I wanted something that measured heart rate through the wrist, but I was worried about the accuracy. In my research I found out that FitBit had been working hard on this optical heart rate technology. But I was still pretty skeptical. I was surprised to see how close they actually were when I started working out wearing both the FitBit and the chest strap. I think the FitBit is more affected by movement, but I figured out that if I wore it tight and higher on my arm, it was pretty much dead on. If I wore it a little looser and down by my wrist bone, it was less accurate.

There does seem to be an issue still with it on my long runs, once I have fluids pooling in my extremities after an hour plus of running. I was doing a 9 mile run/walk last weekend and towards the end I noticed that during my run intervals, my heart rate wasn't going as high as normal and during my walk intervals my heart rate wasn't going as low as normal. Usually I peak in the 160s and get down into like the 140s once I'm well into a run. But for the last few intervals of my 9 mile, the heart rate reading was staying in the 150s. The higher 150s for the run part and the lower 150s for the walk, but that didn't seem right. Unfortunately, I wasn't wearing my chest strap HRM at that point to compare, because the whole idea of getting the Blaze was to not have to wear my chest strap on my long runs anymore.

Still, in general, I have found the heart rate function and the calorie burn calculation to be pretty accurate and I am going to keep using it. If there is a small window of time, late into my long runs once a week, where it isn't perfect, I can overlook that.

[Wallflower7522 328]

Interesting. Thanks for the review! I've had a charge HR for almost a year and am debating on upgrading to a Blaze soon. The $200 price point is a little steep so I'm torn between the blaze and an Apple Watch which I could probably get for $250 but as I'm more interested in fitness tracking I'm leaning towards the Blaze at the moment.

[AlphaB 28]

Great news! New Fitbit Blaze faces with the latest update. I like it a lot more

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