Do these cals burned seem correct or inflated?

focuseddiva

This morning, I went to the gym. I got on the treadmill. I do alternate jogging/walking. I'll jog at 6.0 mph for 3 milnutes, then walk at 4..3 mph for 3 minutes. I do this for an hour. Sometimes I jog for only 2 min and walk for 4 min.

At any rate, I logged 5 miles (distance) at the end of an hour through this combo of walking/running. I then cooled down with a one mile walk at 4.0 mph.

When I go to log this exrecise through MFP, I can't figure out a way to find exactly what I did for exercise-- b/c it wasn't all walking or all jogging for the hour. It was a combo. I am given two choices on MFP:

walking at 5.0 mph for 60 min
jogging at 0 mph for 60 min

I DID log 5 miles in 60 minutes, but it was through a combo of these. And when I plugged in 60 minutes for either walking or jogging, it gave me the same calorie burn: 653 calories. BTW-- the TREADMILL told me it was 540 calories (but I imagine that is preset for a 150-lb person, and I am 180 lbs)

So I left 653 cals burned in my diary. Does that seem like a correct way to do this or approximate? Or do you think that is overinflated and it's closer to the 540 the treadmill showed?

Also, I personally think there is a boost to the calorie burn b/c I am kind of doing itnerval training, right? I'm jogging for a few minutes (elevated heart rate) and then walking briskly for a few miuntes (cooling down a bit), and repeating this cycle for an hour. WHich I always thought was supposed to be better for burning calories than a steady pace of whatever for an hour.

HELP.

focuseddiva

Sorry -- I just -re-read whatI posted.. MFP gives me two choices:

walking at 5.0 mph for 60 min
jogging at 5.0 mph for 60 min

Both yield the same cal burn= 653 cals for me @ 180 lbs, 41 years old, female.

tayloar

Did you enter your weight into the machine? That would give a more accurate estimate. Maybe it looks like less on the treadmill because it's calibrated for a lighter person? I think most machine's defaults are around 150lbs if I'm not mistaken. Therefore you probably burn more than it said, and more like what MFP said. MFP's calorie burns are actually really good. I've started keeping track of my heartrate (via machines or my iphone app), and based on my weight the burns are near exact, if not an underestimate of what my heart rate says. I check it several times during the workout, and then keep track of how much time I was doing that workout, and then I plug it into http://www.calories-calculator.net/Calories_Burned_By_Heart_Rate.html

For running/walking I'll keep track of how many minutes I walk at 4mph and how many I jog at 6mph so I can log them separately for more accurate results. Best of luck!