Calorific accuracy of different exercise apps

Ianharrison9988

I have realised that if I add my exercise to different apps (My Fitness Pal, Map My ride etc) the calorific value of the exercise varies massively. Which one should I trust as a reliance on the wrong one may result in me inadvertently eating more than I intended to. Does anyone have any advice on this or any suggestions on how to approach this anomaly.

scottaworley

I would invest in a heart rate monitor. If you must use an app go by the one that is specialized to what you are doing. Map my ride will probably be more accurate than MFP.

w2bab

I use my heart rate monitor. MFP can give me a calorie estimate when I use the elliptical, however the figures in the database have no variance for whether I am going at a nice easy pace or if I'm really pushing myself at the highest level and a faster speed. It wasn't expensive, either. It was $50 at Costco, and it's been worth every penny.

Lyadeia

Another vote for a heart rate monitor. Get one that you can program your individual numbers into...the most accurate ones out there will have a way for you to determine VO2 max and enter that in as well, but you don't have to get THAT detailed if you don't want to.

MFP for me was way off on practically everything, especially on the workouts that I was either doggin' or insanely pushing myself. MFP doesn't account for that, but your HRM will.

megedoug

Yet another vote for a heart rate monitor. This way you'll get how many calories YOU burned, not how many calories a hypothetical person would burn using some random algorithm. Until I had my HRM monitor I just used whichever calculator had the least amount of calories burned so I wouldn't eat too much back

scottaworley

The good thing about the GPS based systems is they take into account speed and incline. MFP is just averages. But , again, HRM.

Ianharrison9988

For everyone that has replied. Thank you. I get the message and have ordered a named bluetooth HRM for my gym workouts..