How accurate is MFP's calorie burning guide, really?

CVALGAL

Just curious to see if anyone else thinks it gives too many calories back for certain tasks? For example, I burn about 280 doing my c25k run, but then supposedly I am burning about that same amount for an hour of light household cleaning. Really? Maybe the cleaning really does burn that many cals, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Should I trust it? What is your opinion?

erickirb

Not very accurate at all. I would not log light cleaning. If you clean ofter just change your activity level to light active instead of sedentary to account for extra cals burned.

BeLightYear

It is really waaaaaaaaaaay off from reality

Mollydolly10

I consider MFP accurate for actual EXERCISE. But for things like cleaning, no, that's not accurate at all and shouldn't even be logged to be honest. I agree with erickirb to change your activity level if you REALLY want to "log" it. Otherwise, just don't worry about it, you're healthier for it anyways, that's what matters

jessica_mom343

I had a feeling it was way off to so that's why I bought a HRM. I'm actually burning more according to my HRM.

AddA2UDE

Perhaps it is off, perhaps it isn't. That being said, I guess the reality is that I am still losing weight so I guess the bottom line is that it isn't too far off.

engineman312

It is really waaaaaaaaaaay off from reality

agreed. i just did 20 miles on my bike, average speed 14.4 mph. my HRM says 1,823, my cardio trainer app says 994, and MFP said 1263. idk what to believe!!

vim_n_vigor

The only cleaning I log is the heavy duty scrubbing, hands and knees, furniture moving type.

SuzanneRogers

I cleaned with my HRM on to get correct burn for myself... then your numbers will be accurate for you.. if you use the default numbers they will be much higher. Trust me I burn a ton scrubbing bathrooms and floors in my house.

reese1206

WAYYYYY OFF!!!!!!

AddA2UDE

I disagree. My job usually consists of a fairly sedentary enviroment where I am usually sitting behind a desk. However, there are times when it requires me to get out and walk/jog/ kneel repeatedly. That raises my heart rate considerably and should be accounted for.

erickirb

It is really waaaaaaaaaaay off from reality

agreed. i just did 20 miles on my bike, average speed 14.4 mph. my HRM says 1,823, my cardio trainer app says 994, and MFP said 1263. idk what to believe!!

What type of HRM do you have. (Timex tends to estimate burns quite high, while Polar and Garmin seem to be much more accurate) Most users find that HRM's give a much lower number than MFP. Not to mention HRM's do not back out the cals you would have burned had you not exercised (maintenance cals) So if you biked for 2 hours you probably would have burned 1.5 cals/min sitting on the couch so you would have to back out 180 (1.5*120) from the HRM total.

jr1985

At least for me, MFP WAY overestimates calories burned for pretty much everything, including strenuous exercise. I bought a heart rate monitor to find out for sure... My actual calories burned, sadly is generally just a little over half what MFP would calculate me at

heathersmilez

It is really waaaaaaaaaaay off from reality

agreed. i just did 20 miles on my bike, average speed 14.4 mph. my HRM says 1,823, my cardio trainer app says 994, and MFP said 1263. idk what to believe!!

But it's right in the middle of your 3 quotes and the most important part is that it's not MORE than your HRM which is the important factor when it comes to eating back your cals.

I found it to be very accurate for spinning and the elliptical being within 30 cals of my HRM and the machine. As for cleaning that one does seem to be quite high.

FlyFishinX2

I'm heading out to go flyfishing in a couple minutes and will fish till dark or slightly past. According to MFP's calorie burn calculator I will burn 3021 , seems un-realistic to me

LilMissFoodie

It is all just an estimate. I certainly wouldn't be logging activities of daily living like cleaning if I were serious about losing weight. Generally, the more exercise you do, the bigger issue it is going to be. If you log an hour a day at say 250-500cals and eat those it's not going to make that much different if it's a bit off but if you are logging more than 1000cals a day and eating all of those then you would be more at risk. All in all, I think it's safest to log 'proper' exercise only (if you get what I mean by that) and monitor your weight. If you aren't losing then it's likely that you are overestimating.

Heart rate monitors are unfortunately very poor at predicting the amount of calories burnt. That's because calories burnt does not directly relate to your heart rate - just because you are unfit does not mean you burn more calories working less hard than a fit person that weighs the same as you!

engineman312

i actually have a timex, and i just realized that both my cardio app and HRM were set to my original weight. i generally use the MFP calories, because i don't want to over estimate my calories burned.

kennethmgreen

Just curious to see if anyone else thinks it gives too many calories back for certain tasks? For example, I burn about 280 doing my c25k run, but then supposedly I am burning about that same amount for an hour of light household cleaning. Really? Maybe the cleaning really does burn that many cals, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Should I trust it? What is your opinion?

It's all guesswork. The key is to do your best to minimize the margin of error. Some relatively inexpensive tools for doing this are a good kitchen scale and a heart rate monitor (HRM). The HRMs will still be a guess with regard to calories burned, but it should give you a better idea.

ADTeachTX

I think that it is important of us all to realize that everything is just an estimate. While we want to get as close as possible it is important to not get too hung up on numbers...number of calories in, number of calories burned...number on the scale, etc. What really counts is not a number but how you feel and whether you are being successful in your weightloss or gain efforts!

katkins3

One day MFP gave me over 400 calories for my time on the elliptical, while the elliptical machine read around 200 calories and finally, my HRM said a sad just over 100 calories. I almost gave up.
My solution: I use the number from elliptical, (the type which takes into account weight and age).
As long as I am losing weight at a reasonable rate I'll use the machine numbers and reconsider the question if I plateau.

theginnyray

Perhaps it is off, perhaps it isn't. That being said, I guess the reality is that I am still losing weight so I guess the bottom line is that it isn't too far off.

Yup!

brigbug

Bobby and I have HRM (heart rate monitor) watches that tell us our calories burned per workout. So, we just change it when it's off. I have found that it's much more accurate than on here. MFP gives you the average for tour age, weight etc...so it's subjective at best.

arc918

For running (which is 95% of what I do) I actually find it pretty accurate. MFP comes in a little lower than my Garmin.

A guy my size (~ 175) should be burning ~ 130 per mile.

As far as some of the other things in the database, they are WAY the hell off.

BeLightYear

i actually have a timex, and i just realized that both my cardio app and HRM were set to my original weight. i generally use the MFP calories, because i don't want to over estimate my calories burned.

I had a Timex (yes, with chest strap) for a while, it doubled my actual burn! Beware of the Timex

gp79

Buy yourself a HRM and see the difference for yourself. Everyone is different. It's all an estimation based off of some algorithm.

atsteele

This site might give you a better estimation: http://www.fitday.com/webfit/exerciseinfopage.html

spacecase76

I don't use a HRM every time I exercise, but, I have worn one for a week at a time (when exercising), and, I gotta say, MFP is usually about right. It is a tad under what the HRM says, but, that is negligible....MFP will say 152, the HRM will say 170 - I mean close!

Now, I don't generally log cleaning unless I am doing some serious, for sure cleaning - and then I log it "light". At my weight, 30 minutes is like 46 calories or something. It really isn't worth it to log it...