Which count do I use?

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crazygooselady
crazygooselady Posts: 76 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Run Keeper says I burned 407 calories on my 4.22 mile run that lasted for 55 minutes.
Map My Run says I burned 524 calories.
MFP says something in between.

Which one should I be using for my calorie count? Does effort make a difference in calories? Run keeper seems to think not...I got about the same counts when I was walking when I was on vacation last week. Run Keeper works even when I don't start at home with internet. Map My Run won't load up the GPS if I don't start from home.

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  • crazygooselady
    crazygooselady Posts: 76 Member
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    Both versions are the free versions.
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
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    How old are you & what's your current height/weight?

    I would log the lower number and plan to eat back about 50% of the calories for starters and see how your weight loss progresses.

    ~Lyssa
  • loulamb7
    loulamb7 Posts: 801 Member
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    macgurlnet wrote: »
    How old are you & what's your current height/weight?

    I would log the lower number and plan to eat back about 50% of the calories for starters and see how your weight loss progresses.

    ~Lyssa

    +1
  • crazygooselady
    crazygooselady Posts: 76 Member
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    48 and 135. So basically, no matter how much effort I put into it, I am still burning 98 calories per mile?
  • crazygooselady
    crazygooselady Posts: 76 Member
    edited August 2015
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    Okay, just reset the Map My Run to my current weight, which should make a difference on my next run. But, when I used my current weight in the online calculator that they have, it is still more than the 98 calories per mile that Runkeeper seems to be using. Shouldn't effort use more calories? Is Map My Run more accurate because it does seem to account for effort?
  • corgicake
    corgicake Posts: 846 Member
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    Play with the calorie calculator here a bit and try to get a by-the-mile figure, then use it for a while to see if reality for you is higher or lower. I did that for bike miles and whatever my end result may be off hasn't been big enough to cause issues when multiplied by big numbers.
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
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    crazygooselady wrote: »
    Okay, just reset the Map My Run to my current weight, which should make a difference on my next run. But, when I used my current weight in the online calculator that they have, it is still more than the 98 calories per mile that Runkeeper seems to be using. Shouldn't effort use more calories? Is Map My Run more accurate because it does seem to account for effort?

    It depends on how they're calculating that number.

    For example, my Garmin watch will give me a higher burn than what my Fitbit reports for the same distance, even when they have the same weight information entered. I believe the Garmin is including my BMR in the number it gives me and Fitbit isn't, but I'd have to look into it myself a bit to know for sure.

    I know my Fitbit calories are very close to my actual burn because my weight has been holding steady, so I trust those numbers.

    I just plugged in my usual run into the MMR calculator, and it gave me 361 calories burned. Fitbit is showing 331 for the same distance (4 miles) so it might not be too far off.

    I would still recommend logging the lower number and eating back up to half the calories, just to see how your weight changes over 4 weeks. If you're trying to maintain and end up losing, eat back more. If you're trying to lose but losing more quickly than expected, eat back more.

    ~Lyssa

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