MFP Exercise Calories vs. Machine Count

Pattie74

Hi Guys! I go to the gym regularly and have notice there's a HUGE difference between the calories MFP says I burning and what the treadmill or elliptical says I'm burning...any insight? Which is right? I normally put in what the machine says, but want to be sure that's what I should be doing.

2dogzrule

The best thing to do is get a heart rate monitor that tracks your calories. I use one and my calorie count is always lower than the machines. The machines are mostly generic. The heart rate monitor will be set to your specs. Alternatively, I'd use the MFP ones as they are probably closer to your actual burn.

k_nicole87

The machine is going to give you a lower count (most of the time) so I suggest using the lowest calorie count instead of over estimating.

aerogameros

Are you using a treadmill with elevation? I think MFP's calorie count assumes a flat surface when you enter "Running- in place" as the exercise. I would imagine there is a noticeable difference in your calorie burn if you run for thirty minutes on a flat surface and then repeat the same run at 10% inclination. I notice the same thing on my runs on the treadmill, and it's because I run at 10%+ inclination setting. How huge is the difference? For me it's about 100 calories.

lisaabenjamin

The calorie burns both in MFP and on gym equipment are notoriously overestimated I'm afraid! If you've put your height and weight into MFP then it calculates an estimate of the calories burned for a given exercise, a given duration, for an average intensity. It's the same with gym equipment, though if you're not using the kind where you can put your height and weight into the machine then it's going to be even further off the mark.

The only way you can get a more accurate reading is to use a heart rate monitor which estimates your calories burned based on your heart rate. This gives a truer reflection of calories burned because it takes into account how hard you are actually working.

If you don't have a heart rate monitor, by all means use the MFP/gym readings, but be conservative when eating back your exercise calories, i.e. only eat around half back.

sissidevore

i always use an online calcualtor . its more accurate, at least you can put in your gender and weight like it says i burn like over 1000 calories on MFP per hour on an elliptical, the online calculator lets me put in my effort as well, and i usually put in

1hour
female
moderate effort
150lbs

and it says like 400 each hour. so its a major difference. honestly i would buy a heart rate monitor though

rides4sanity

None of them are great, but if you put your height and weight into the machine it is likely closer. Either way I'd still only eat back a max of 75% of the estimate...

If you find your weight loss isn't matching up to what you expect, you can cut back to 60 or even 50% of exercise calories, but I wouldn't go any lower than that. If you happen to be dropping too quickly you can eat back more. It's a balance and it takes some time to find what works.

Good luck!

Broderick50

My advice is just be consistent if you take the calories from the machine don't worry about what MFP says you burned. Unless you're wearing a heart rate monitor and those things aren't as accurate as they claim to be your count is always going to be a bit off.

asciiqwerty

THEY ARE BOTH WRONG!

Why? they are both estimations based generally on the use of empirical normalised formulae set for the limited number of inputs they each have.
MFP : is based on duration and is sometimes affected by your weight and the cadence/speed of the excercise (if you pick the correct entry from the database)
the machine in the gym? : what info did you give it, does it know your gender, height, bmi, weight? if not then these aren't included in the estimation

the energy (kcal) that you expend doing a given exercise at a given effort depends for a given duration on you (weight height, build, fitness), the hardest bit for the empirical formulae to estimate is effort

as I lose weight, it takes less effort to do exactly the same workout > i burn fewer Calories
if I want to burn the same number of calories as i lose weight, i need to change the workout (harder/longer)

as I practice an exercise i may improve, doing the saame routine as previously will take less effort and i will burn fewer calories doing it


many people will tell you that mfp over-estimates - it works fine for me, though i track my excercise progress also on endomondo - when people advise to eat back 50-75% this is usually a fudge to account for the fact that they are underestimating their calories consumed

some machines can be very accurate: e.g. cycling machines with a *power* output can be converted very accurately into energy (Cal)

if in doubt, use several different methods (mfp, machine, hrm, endomondo, MET calculations ) and pick the lowest value

3dogsrunning

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/exercise-calories-sometimes-the-cardio-machines-are-more-accurate-404739

A good read on the topic.