Heart Monitor Results vs MFP results

bcatgray
bcatgray Posts: 41 Member
edited September 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
I wear a Nike heart monitor and watch when exercising. I have been noticing that according to my heart monitor/watch, I burn way more calories than what MFP will say I will for that same exercise.

For instance, MFP says that for 30 mins of 3.5 Brisk walking I only used 200 calories. However, according to my watch my brisk walking for 30 minutes uses more like 350 calories or more.

Is there a way to just simply enter the amount of calories that you have burned on MFP? Today I burned a total of 737 calories with my brisk walking, jogging, stretching and cool down for a total of 61 minutes. But when I entered all of that in MFP, it gave me something like 365 calories burned. So in order to make up for that in MFP, I had to juggle the amount of time that I spent on each activity until I got the 737 actual calories that I burned.

Is there an easier way to do this?

Replies

  • iAMaPhoenix
    iAMaPhoenix Posts: 1,038 Member
    i think you can just change the number of calories burned...try that next time.
  • mgmarks624
    mgmarks624 Posts: 3 Member
    i think you can manually enter calories rather than looking up an exercise in the data base.
  • Sunshine_Girlie
    Sunshine_Girlie Posts: 618 Member
    You can change the calorie amount after you enter in the allotted time you spent exercising. Type in 30 minutes and then adjust the calories. You can always create an exercise for yourself if you like.

    --Also, when you create an exercise, you can name it whatever you want. For example *My walk with HRM." Anything really.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,297 Member
    I wear a Nike heart monitor and watch when exercising. I have been noticing that according to my heart monitor/watch, I burn way more calories than what MFP will say I will for that same exercise.

    For instance, MFP says that for 30 mins of 3.5 Brisk walking I only used 200 calories. However, according to my watch my brisk walking for 30 minutes uses more like 350 calories or more.

    Is there a way to just simply enter the amount of calories that you have burned on MFP? Today I burned a total of 737 calories with my brisk walking, jogging, stretching and cool down for a total of 61 minutes. But when I entered all of that in MFP, it gave me something like 365 calories burned. So in order to make up for that in MFP, I had to juggle the amount of time that I spent on each activity until I got the 737 actual calories that I burned.

    Is there an easier way to do this?

    there is an easier way, when you enter the time on exercise MFP will give you calories burned, go over to that box and change the amount to what you burned there. So if you enter 20 minutes walking and MFP gives you 150, go over to the 150 before hitting enter, and change it to what your HRM said.
  • lindalee0315
    lindalee0315 Posts: 527 Member
    You can just override their number and put in your own. Just click on their number and type in what you actually burned in the calories column. My numbers are always signficantly different than MFP numbers and that's what I do.
  • writtenINthestars
    writtenINthestars Posts: 1,933 Member
    When you go to actually add your exercise, choose what activity you did, check the box, and then change the time and cals burned accordingly before clicking "save" or add or whatever it is! Hope that helps! :tongue:
  • fairygirl716
    fairygirl716 Posts: 213 Member
    I created my own exercise category called calories. I made each minute equal 10 calories. Then I can just input the number of minutes that equals the amount of calories burned. I figure since it is for me to keep track of only, the name doesn't matter and it keeps me on track.
  • putnam80
    putnam80 Posts: 69 Member
    yes you first enter the time, it gives you an estimate for calories burned and you can adjust that accordingly
  • Pril2000
    Pril2000 Posts: 254 Member
    I just choose my exercise and then change the amount of calories. If you put in the time, it will automatically calculate for you, but you can just delete the number of calories and put what you really burned.

    If you want to log every exercise, just add each exercise and then divide the calories evenly among them. Like for 3 exercises, you can do 200 calories each or something. It doesn't really matter how it's entered as long as it's acurate.

    And make sure you're subtracting your bmr calories from your calories burned on your HRM. :)
  • bcatgray
    bcatgray Posts: 41 Member
    Well, duuuuuuh! LOLOL I had no idea that you could change the calorie amount!!! I mainly enter it from my phone and I just assumed that I was not able to change it. I just checked and Yes I Can! LOLOL

    Thank you guys for the replies. I feel much better about it now. But now I'm ticked because all of those other days that I tracked my exercise in MFP on my cell, I did not make changes to the amount of calories even when I knew that the treadmill or my watch said differently. I just took it for what it said. LOL

    Oh well, lesson learned. Thanks everyone!
  • IsMollyReallyHungry
    IsMollyReallyHungry Posts: 15,389 Member
    Well, duuuuuuh! LOLOL I had no idea that you could change the calorie amount!!! I mainly enter it from my phone and I just assumed that I was not able to change it. I just checked and Yes I Can! LOLOL

    Thank you guys for the replies. I feel much better about it now. But now I'm ticked because all of those other days that I tracked my exercise in MFP on my cell, I did not make changes to the amount of calories even when I knew that the treadmill or my watch said differently. I just took it for what it said. LOL

    Oh well, lesson learned. Thanks everyone!

    I was on MFP for almost 5 months before I learned this also and I did the same thing you did to come to the right amount before I knew better......:) I had the opposite experience of you on equipment at gym. MFP was giving me too many calories burned especially for the elliptical machine. It is insane the difference is huge. If I burn 300 calories on elliptical according to my HRM, MFP was saying 700 or more.
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