Does MFP figure exercise calories a little high?

jmatney79
jmatney79 Posts: 80
in Fitness and Exercise
I was thinking that the calories that MFP calculates for my exercise is a bit high. According to MFP, I burn 600ish calories doing 1 hour af aerobics. I checkd a couple websites that give you your calories burned by your age, heart rate and weight, and it is HALF of what MFP says...any thoughts? I don't eat my exercise calories back, and if MFP figures calorie burn too high this is probably a good thing. Here is one of the websites.
http://www.calories-calculator.net/Calories_Burned_By_Heart_Rate.html

Replies

  • IveLanded
    IveLanded Posts: 797 Member
    If I do a hard work out for an hour (circuit training, cross training, etc) then I burn between 400 and 500 calories. I've tested that with a HRM. My experience has been that MFP is generally pretty accurate for the work outs I enter. If you think it's a little high, just adjust the time down so it reflects a more accurate calorie burn.
  • Spanaval
    Spanaval Posts: 1,200 Member
    I think that it really depends on the person. For me, MFP estimates are a little high, but not completely out of the ballpark. A lot of people find their estimates to be outrageously high, however.
  • sweetNsassy2584
    sweetNsassy2584 Posts: 515 Member
    yes
  • jmatney79
    jmatney79 Posts: 80
    I think that it really depends on the person. For me, MFP estimates are a little high, but not completely out of the ballpark. A lot of people find their estimates to be outrageously high, however.

    Mine seem to double. Do you know by chance if the closer you are to a healthy weight, the more accurate the burn?
  • LiddyBit
    LiddyBit Posts: 447 Member
    I think the estimates are high, so I never enter the full amount of time when I log exercise.
  • dmf80
    dmf80 Posts: 60
    Yes! So do the machines are you gym (25-40%). The treadmill at my gym tells me I burn 150 calories per mile I run. I wish this were true. Reality is probably closer to 100-120 per mile. Gym's have an incentive to inflate these numbers. It makes us feel accomplished and successful. These feeling make us more likely to continue to come (pay for membership).

    If you are having trouble losing weight you might want to factor in these inflated number and rethink your caloric intake.
  • rherington
    rherington Posts: 85 Member
    It varies.

    My HRM says more calories burned in an hour than MFP. MFP is fairly close to what my treadmill says. They are all estimates anyway.
  • Spanaval
    Spanaval Posts: 1,200 Member
    I think that it really depends on the person. For me, MFP estimates are a little high, but not completely out of the ballpark. A lot of people find their estimates to be outrageously high, however.

    Mine seem to double. Do you know by chance if the closer you are to a healthy weight, the more accurate the burn?

    Maybe. I don't have a huge weight loss goal, maybe 5 or 10 pounds. We should probably take a poll and see.
  • mama2shi
    mama2shi Posts: 300 Member
    Yes, they figure it high. Best way to know is to get a HRM. I live by mine while working out!
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    Some yes, some no. When I first started on the cardio, I thought the calorie burns were completely based in fantasy. Then I got on the elliptical and focused on getting my heart rate to a good beat, measured my heart rate, and used an online calculator (poor man's HRM) to estimate burn - and lo and behold MFP was actually somewhat low. So I used MFP.

    For things like yardwork and gardening, it depends on your effort. When I log them, I tend to be more vigorous doing them since it's an "official workout" in addition to a chore that needs doing. I tend to estimate and log the actual time I spent putting significant effort into it, and not breaks or walking over to fetch a different tool from the garage.

    But, regardless, I have a 1,000 calorie a day deficit for a 2-pound-a-week loss. But I also know it's not a race. If I screw up by 500 calories on 2 days' work out in the yard, it's a 1/7 of a pound setback but my scale rounds to the nearest half-pound.

    I don't worry about a couple hundred calories of accuracy here and there. I try to log my daily workouts as accurately as possible, since those are 4-5 times a week and a 500 calorie mix-up on those would be more serious. But as long as I'm losing weight, I figure "close enough".
  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
    Yes. The best thing to do would be to get a HRM. I have a Polar FT4 and I love it. I never workout without it.

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