Hey, I'm new!

teaspoon43

Hello! This is my first time on this site, I have used another version of a food tracker before on my phone but I had no way of also keep track of workouts which made me quit.. and very tired lol.

My question is - how does MyFitnessPal know how many calories I burn in a workout?

I look forward to making new friends during this journey! Thank you so much for creating this family.

IDontLikeRegistering

Hi and welcome to MFP. I'm in my first week too so I'll share my small knowledge with you

When you add cardiovascular exercise to your diary, you can choose the exercise that you did, and say how long you did it for. Then it will calculate the calories for you (presumably by multiplying the time you entered by some factor representing how many calories that particular activity burns per hour) and add them to your daily food allowance. Or you can specify the amount of calories you burned (if you're using exercise equipment that tracks that for you) and enter that against the exercise.

I sometimes find that doing it the second way doesn't work on my Android phone, so I'll log into a computer and enter it there.

Stick at it!

teaspoon43

Thank you!!

CaptainGordo

My question is - how does MyFitnessPal know how many calories I burn in a workout?

The site creators won't admit it, but it's magic.



I kid. It uses your gender/age/weight and the type of activity, combined with the duration of the activity, to create an estimate. If you are interested in a more accurate reading, look into getting yourself a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM).

If you click the "Search" link just above here, and enter "HRM", you will find a plethora of information posted in past posts about the kind of HRMs that folks have had success with.

Best wishes!

ValMcB

Welcome! Hope you find this site as helpful and addicting as I do!
Val