MFP Cardio Calories Burned Somewhat OptImistic ?

BrendanScrote

I was looking at the calories burned when entering my cardio workout (C25K) and find the MFP figures far higher than those indicated by my treadmill (about 30% higher) looking around the interweb i find other values but the MFP values always seem to be the highest ... now I'm not complaining because this is a truly wonderful free resource and i usually mange to be under my calorie goal but wondered if others had noticed the same?

eawog

I have noticed this as well. Especially when I do the elliptical.

sjkcwatson

I've found it to be the opposite. When I run on the treadmill for 30 min at a 10 min/mile pace it will say I burn around 430 calories, but when I plug it into MFP as 30 min of running (jogging), 6 mph (10 min mile) I get 266 calories. When I'm outside walking or running I use mapmyrun. It always gives me a much higher estimage of calories, but I take the average speed and time and find the next closest in MFP Itypically 4.5 mph walking) and it gives me a much lower estimate. I figure that it's all fairly approximate, but when I stayed consistant with MFP I lost weight so it worked so I kept going. Now that I'm maintaining it could be a little more important, but I'm trying to just keep and overall weekly average and so far (8 months of maintaining) it has worked. I'd say just pick something and be consistant. You can always swing your calorie goal just a little if you thiink it isn't calculating correctly - or wear a heart monitor. Good luck!

Hornsby

Yes, MFP estimates are overestimated by quite a bit in most instances.