Calorie Burn Confusion?!

aem91409
aem91409 Posts: 137 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Okay so I use Runtastic on my iPhone for running, I generally jog about 4 mph so I log it and for 10 minutes of jogging MFP says I burn 421 calories. Today I ran at 6 mph and was excited to log because I thought it would say that I was burning a lot more calories...but for running at 6 mph, but logging it for 10 minutes said I only burned 117!
I know it's obviously not going to be exact when you enter it, but a 304 calorie difference when I was running 2 mph faster? What's up with that?

Replies

  • tracysway
    tracysway Posts: 67 Member
    Its likely that the calories for 10 at 4 mph is very wrong unless you are very overweight, even then this would be hard to believe. Have you compared it to other sites?
  • aem91409
    aem91409 Posts: 137 Member
    I'm just a little overweight. I'm 5'4" and 155 pounds, so not like I'm super obese or anything.
    It's just frustrating because I've been running at 4 mph for a while and logging it as that, and now I find out it's been really off...
  • tammyc226
    tammyc226 Posts: 158 Member
    What does runtastic say you've burned ? The app stores all your sessions and calorie burns.
  • jlahorn
    jlahorn Posts: 377 Member
    421 calories for 10 minutes of running is insanely high. There's something wrong, there.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    421 calories for 10 minutes of running is insanely high. There's something wrong, there.

    Yea, 421 for 10 minutes isn't even close to accurate so there has to be something off. For 10 minutes, that's probably more like 50-60 calories.
  • asdelmonte
    asdelmonte Posts: 171 Member
    That calorie amount for 4mph is totally wrong. If you are running 4mph and running for 10 minutes than you are running around .67 miles. That would burn around 65 calories. For the most part, 1 miles is 100 calories.
  • nicole_land
    nicole_land Posts: 7
    avg woman (5'4" and 150 lbs) burns approx 500 calories over 45 min of running at approx 6mph.
  • Philp0718
    Philp0718 Posts: 136 Member
    I'd say to get a heart rate monitor instead of relying on the app for calories burned. That way, you know EXACTLY how much YOU burned, other then an average.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    4 mph for 10 minutes would burn approx. 50-100 calories.
    6 mph for 10 minutes would burn approx. 100-175 calories.

    Estimates based on self.com calculator, my own experience with the Runkeeper app. I weigh more than you, but 15-30 minutes of walking at 3-3.5 mph will burn 200-250 calories, and that's really hilly terrain (so my heart rate is up)
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    Net caloric burn for running is about .63 cals per pound per mile.

    http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/how-many-calories-are-you-really-burning?page=single
  • cmbauer99
    cmbauer99 Posts: 184 Member
    I'd say to get a heart rate monitor instead of relying on the app for calories burned. That way, you know EXACTLY how much YOU burned, other then an average.

    BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    I'd say to get a heart rate monitor instead of relying on the app for calories burned. That way, you know EXACTLY how much YOU burned, other then an average.

    BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    While I agree to get a HRM so you know a bit better on what you burn, to say that you would know EXACTLY what you burned is way off. HRMs will tell you your exact heart rate, but they will not tell you anything other than an estimation on calorie burns.
  • huntergreene71
    huntergreene71 Posts: 21 Member
    I've used it when I was 300+ lbs and walking the dog as my main exercise. 1 hour and 15 minutes at 3 mph was giving me numbers around 500 to 600 calories. I also however, did see diminishing returns when I amped up the speed. Not less calories but keeping the distance the same, running for part of the circuit, thus making the time shorter, didn't give me a calorie jump like I thought it would.

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