Fitness tracker underestimating calories burned or MFP overestimating?

KS1820

I've been tracking my workouts through both my Polar fitness watch and MFP but have been seeing extremely different numbers and I'm wondering if anyone here might know which is more accurate!

Schila64

I use the Polar M400 . Sometimes I have used the M400 on one wrist and on the other the Fitbit Charger 2 and their readings are very close, but when I look at the burn on the same exercise on the MFP database their number are way higher. I believe the numbers that you get with a Heart Rate Monitor as a Polar or Garmin are more accurate than the one MFP has in its Database for certain exercise. I see on some of my MFP "Friends" that they log 60 min of Weight Training and their numbers are astronomical high .

cwolfman13

It's all an estimate, but your HRM is likely going to be more accurate for steady state cardio than what you get from the database. Nobody is burning 1,000+ calories doing 60 minutes of elliptical.

Tacklewasher

cwolfman13 wrote: »

It's all an estimate, but your HRM is likely going to be more accurate for steady state cardio than what you get from the database. Nobody is burning 1,000+ calories doing 60 minutes of elliptical.

At the same time, 60 minutes on an elliptical should be more than 265.

Something seems wonky with both numbers.

cmriverside

Here's what I do after asking all these same questions.

I use a set number for each one hour of exercise. For me that number is 300 calories. I would think for most people (unless they are obese) the number is somewhere between 300-500 calories. Pick a number. Use it for two months. Log all your food.

See where it puts you.

If you log food accurately, then the variable is your exercise calories, right? 300-500 is going to be close enough for most people.

For what it's worth, the Polar is also tracking your regular BMR.

Here's a good blog post:

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472

Spliner1969

Always go with the lower estimate for starters. Then, watch over time whether or not your expected loss rate or gain rate. If things are off (losing or gaining too fast), adjust those burns. Everyone is different, and it takes time to dial in what's accurate for you. Then.. if you're lucky, six months down the road you'll have to re-adjust again because you'll lose (or gain) weight and the burns will be inaccurate again. No app is perfect. But as a rule, I'll compare app burn amounts to what MFP has in it's database and adjust to the smaller number. Has worked well for me.