MFP Exercise Calories Way Off Base?

4thDegreeKnight

Two questions:

1) Sometimes how MFP calculates calories for exercise, specifically cardio, MFP seems to be way of base. A good example is the elliptical machine. MFP can tell me for 45m I was in the 700+ calorie range. Yet, the machine (which has my weight and age) calculates it at half that (closer to mid 200's). Same with the treadmill. I've been trusting the machine and over-riding what MFP says, but wondered if anyone else has run into this.

2) For those who do strength training - how do you calculate calories burned?
If you use MFP to keep track, it just watches exercise and reps, but doesn't credit calories burned. I have been using "strength training" under "cardiovascular" but then I think the calories burned is too low. What else do people do?

Thanks for the advice.

smalltown_princess

There is a strength training option under the cardio tab, I get what you're talking about with the overestimate on the cardio, just keep overriding with what the machine says

12by311

It's all just an estimate. If I am doing cardio I may use my Heart Rate monitor, but even that is an estimate. If you are weighing/measuring your food properly and using the machine and/or MFP's estimate and are losing weight (if that's your goal) then keep doing what you are doing.

hill8570

No sure why the elliptical estimate is so high -- I tend to distrust anything over 10 calories / min gross. In this case, I'd tend to trust the machine (or an HRM, if you have one). When given different estimates, I tend to take the lowest.

For strength, I'm OK with the MFP estimates (which are pretty decent for "normal" weightlifting -- i.e., 1 minute lifting / 3 minute rests, plus station setup). If you're doing something else, then one of the other options (such as circuit training) might be more appropriate.

snarlingcoyote

The answer for #2 is in the pinned post up at top for nominating a post. Just go to the end and you'll find it.

As for #1. . .on things like the elliptical, the number of calories burned can vary wildly from person to person, from elliptical to elliptical and from workout to workout (i.e.if one person sets the elliptical at their machine's 7 and moves at 6 miles an hour, that's a very different workout from someone else who has set the same machine at a 3 and goes for 5 miles an hour, and a one machine's higher resistance might be more similar to another machine's medium resistance! ). It's a very coarse tool in that regard.

For those sorts of machines, I think an HRM is probably your best bet for getting an accurate readout. Eventually you will know what X calorie burn feels like. (I eventually did when I ellipticaled. I didn't trust the monitor on the elliptical either - they vary wildly too!)

For things like hiking up and down hills or jogging across flatlands, I find it pretty much on the nose for me. But a five mile run at 6 miles an hour is the same over time - it doesn't vary, because ,well. . .the road is the road is the road!

(How do I know this about hiking and running? I have my metabolism and calories etc. calculated on a big ole' spreadsheet. I rely on MFP's calorie calcs of my run to input on the spreadsheet and my actual weight loss on the scale is pretty close to the spreadsheet, so I can only presume, MFP's calculations on those sorts of categories are pretty accurate.)

snarlingcoyote

Grrrr. . .double post.

4thDegreeKnight

Thanks for the advice everyone. Sounds like what I am doing is working.