My Kinect was LYING to me

zenchild

After buying the Xbox, the Kinect sensor and the game in January, I finally started doing Fitness Evolved 2012 last week. I'm a slow starter. I've been doing it for an hour a day and taking Saturday as a rest day (it's my busiest day so I figure I'm getting plenty of exercise anyway). I'm not slacking with the Kinect. I make sure I get my heart rate up and I'm sweating. After the running and jump rope segments I'm gasping and soaked. And I kept marching in place during the pauses to keep burning. I want this to work.
I was very disappointed that the Kinect only said I was burning about 100 calories through my hour of torture. MFP said about 150 calories for an hour on a Wii (nothing in the database for Kinect). I felt cheated. I would go through a 12 minute cardio segment and it would say I burned 15 calories. After calling my Xbox all sorts of rude names, I decided to pick up a heart monitor. I got a Polar FT4 on Sunday and strapped it on that afternoon for my workout. 62 minutes later, 440 CALORIES! I kissed the Polar, gave the Xbox the finger, and triumphantly marched (well, crawled) upstairs to log my workout.
I had no idea there would be such variation. I just kept using what MFP told me and hoped for the best. I know it won't be that different for everything. I suspect that my 40 minutes on rollerblades is less than MFP says. At least it'll be accurate. I've been trying to be painfully honest with my food. I want to be just as accurate with my exercise.

patty43ck

That's hilarious (picturing you flipping off your XBox) but I am glad you got it figured out and gave yourself the credit you deserve! I have a Wii Fit and got too frustrated with all the long pauses before it lets you move on to the next exercise. I like continuous exercise because if I stop for too long it makes me want to quit. Is XBox any better about that?

Lauren8239

I do EA sports active 2 on my wii, and it's the same thing. I use my hrm for the true calories burned.
Doesn't it make you feel good knowing that all that hard work is paying off and you really are burning huge amounts?

zenchild

There is a pause between exercises so I just keep moving around during the pauses to keep my heart rate up. Depending on what part you're working on the segments can be different lengths. The games are usually 2-3 minutes but there are leg/ab/arm/etc workouts that vary from 2 minutes to 26 minutes. I did the 12 minute cardio segment and nearly died. I thought that I was in good shape since I can rollerblade at top speed for 40 minutes and barely break a sweat. Now I realize that I'm not nearly as fit as I thought.

PeaceLoveVeggies

I know how you feel! LOL. I started off doing Your Shape Fitness Evolved at the beginning of my journey and I worked SO hard - pools of sweat to think I was burning only 160 calories so the game said. I was so angry lol. I finally got the Polar FT4 and I was surprised to see I had burned more than 300 calories doing what I've done every day.

WTF?! LOL

LordBezoar

The Biggest Loser game for Kinect is really good, too. Not a ton of pausing and it is fairly customizable.

jcpmoore

I've had similar experiences with my Wii games. They estimate so low because they think it's such low effort. Well, for some of us it's NOT! I think HRMs are the best tool. I love mine!

Klem4

I love my FT4! just got it last week, used it in Zumba class, and burned way more than I thought. We have a kinect, but I haven't bought any of the workout stuff for it yet.