Machine calorie total vs. MFP calorie total: which do you us

rosemh83

Example: When I do the elliptical, it will say that I've burned about 300 calories in 30 minutes. However, on MFP, it will say that I burned 540+ calories. Which one do you guys prefer to use? This huge gap makes me weary of the calories counts for classes where I don't have a machine to tell me the exact calorie burn....

tangal88

I would get a heart rate monitor, that allows you to input your gender, height and weight. That will be the only way to tell for sure. Everyone will differ, based on their height, weight, sex, body fat levels, how hard you work etc.

For example:

My Treadclimber says I burn about 600 cal an hour
MFP says 592 an hour
My Heart Rate Monitor says about 400 cal an hour

If you cannot get an HRM - just know your cal burn may not be accurate. This is not a big issue, unless you try to eat ALL your exercise calories. If you do, I would try to compensate a bit, and leave 100 to 200 cals on the table, at days end.

Then just see how you loss (if thats your goal) pans out over 4 weeks. After that make adjustments as needed.