is this site realistic

Theresafinallygetsitright

I had my VO2max analyzed recently and am using those results along with a HRM to get my calorie burn now (finding a happy medium between the two which are both lower than MFP). MFP seems to be about 20-30% higher than those numbers. Now, if I were eating all of my calories back and using MFP numbers, I would be increasing muscle mass and cardiovascular endurance but would likely not be losing any weight.

kstep88

I do think the site is reliable to an extent. It can only do so much.

I use a HRM and a food scale to keep track of my food more accurately.

enyo123

It's an estimate. If you want to be truly accurate, then get a heart rate monitor.

I used the site for the first couple of weeks. Just this weekend, I dug out my HRM and started using it. For Turbo Jam, it was over by about 60 calories. For the taking the dogs/kids out for walks through the woods, it was under by about 60 calories.

The food, though, is accurate, which is awesome.

korinastern

I use this site to keep myself accountable for my food intake but I rely on my pedometer for my calories burned from walking. Be careful of pedometers though make sure they filter out steps that arent real. I need a place to keep my food diary so I know what I am really eating. If i am in doubt about the calories I just cross check.

SabrinaG1986

My experience is that the food calorie counts are pretty good. For instance, at the beginning, I always checked the count in MFP with the counts on the side of the package. The majority are spot on. The beauty of MFP is the huge database of foods so that there's no excuse not to know what is going in one's mouth. While I've had less experience on the varied exercise, I would imagine that if the counts were off, the Community would certainly say so.
Best of luck with your journey

this! I use a HRM to track my calories burned when I'm working out, sometimes if I forget it I use the numbers on my treadmill because they are usually pretty in-line with what my hrm says. Also as for speed, I track my walks and runs on walkrunjog.net and time myself and it gives me my average pace usually. Hope that helps!

sweet110

There are two ways to approach the site and its calorie counting method:

1. As a meticulous, rigorous accounting for calories in/calories out calculations. Folks with this mindset get HRM's and food scales. WHich helps them get closer to *knowing for sure* that everything is accurate. (It can also be a wonderful disciplining tool.)

2. As a way of developing an eye towards appropriate portion sizes of various foods and to make better decisions. Deciding to have more vegetables and less rice in that stir fry once they realize what a reasonable caloric serving of rice actually is. Realizing that that "healthy" bran muffin has a zillion calories and having an omelette instead. Getting a general sense of what it takes to "burn off" that 1/2 a pizza, and deciding to have something different. 100% accuracy is less important than getting enough of the right feedback to change habits and make better decisions.

Many of us are a mixture of the first and second perspectives, and it changes as we go. But I think the important thing to underscore is that both ways of looking at it seem to work, for most people, most of the time. Just look at all of the MFP success stories.

Pebble321

All the numbers we are dealing with are estimates - and I've found that MFP numbers are a pretty good estimates.

The food numbers do vary - but that's the flip side of the fact that it is a user-edited database and there are people all over the world adding new foods every day, so you need to pay a bit of attention to getting the right entry for your location and if it seems like the numbers are off, then you'll need to double check.

The exercise cals are an estimate too - they are going to be as close as any generic database you'll find online. They take your weight and age into account, so are going to be better than a database that just gives a general number, but probably not as accurate as if you use a heart rate monitor that is using your heart rate as well as your age and weight to make an estimate (yes, HRM numbers are an estimate too!)

Don't stress too much about it - if you like the idea of tracking your food and exercise then MFP is a great tool. If you don't want to track those things, then this proabaly isn't the right approach for you.

pkfrankel

Every food item gives members a chance to confirm or deny the nutritional values stated so you can check the accuracy. The calories reported for running 8 minute - 9 minute miles and for cycling 14-16 mph and 18-20 mph are within 10% of the calories reported on my Garmin HRM.

100% accuracy is not necessary for me since I use this site as a way to track the quality of food I eat rather than the actual calories. But I feel confident the numbers are accurate as can be expected.

Bagman12002

For me it has opened my eye to what I eat, at times I do ck what the calories are if they appear to hi or lo, but it's a tool I never had before.

dakitten2

I've been more successful in changing my lifestyle thru mfp than any other "diet" I've ever tried. I always do check the nutrition info and submit changes when I find one incorrect. As far as non-packaged foods, I usually check a couple of sites to see if the info is pretty close.

Also, I recheck restaurant info as these too can change time to time and I update those in the database with the date the info was updated.

I do think that mfp over estimate calorie burns, so I bought a HRM and plainly in my case mfp was over estimating. Also, I use my Wii calorie burns rather than the mfp numbers.

leodru

I find the barcode scanner on the iphone is excellent in the app - matches 98% of the time and is accurate. I do think the calories burned is over estimated on alot of items. I think people over use it as well - its fine to log exercise but if your going to eat more because of your logging then it might be leading you down the garden path to no weight loss.

i love my hrm but again take it with a grain of salt. it tells me i burn 700-800 calories at my workout which is great but seriously my tdee is 2700 for the whole day with regular movement. if it was this easy to burn it all then i'd be crazy skinny.

that being said this is the best tool i've used overall.

Linda_Darlene

For exercise accuracy on calories burned, you can get yourself a HRM! Without one, you can do what I do - I always enter under my actual time of whatever I do. For until I get my own HRM! They make them now that do NOT strap around your chest, just watch style. Shop around.

rmac18

The calorie counts are very accurate in my experience, but I find the calories burned to be high, sometimes a little high and sometimes ridiculously high. I use a HRM cardio workouts (run, elliptical, stairclimber, bicycling, fast walking, basketball, etc) and I often take other values from here and reduce by 25-50% just to not overestimate. If you use the HRM regularly you will get a sense of calories burned based on what you do and can use it to estimate other activities more accurately.

coachblt

I asked my doctor about exercise tracking on here. He said that's it is inaccurate so don't do it. That was fine by me. I haven't tracked it from the start, yet if thought it was a good idea, I would have done it.

It might be beneficial to track your exercise, not for calories burned, but just for the sheer pride of putting it down and making it official.

gypsybree

I like this site for the support and it keeps me motivated by checking in, but my question is how reliable is the calorie count of the food, and calorie count for the exercise . For example I went for a walk/jog (wog) and went to log it into my exercise diary, but who is to say how many calories I burned., or if I was going 5.5 mph. I guess I just wish that more people were concerned with what they ear and what amount of exercise they did and not so much on the numbers

I wouldn't be concerned with what other people are concerned with.

I have an android phone and there are many fitness apps which use the GPS to clock your speed.

I do agree with coach about logging it to know you've done it for your pride.

slkehl

I don't believe the exercise counts. I'll get way more winded jogging than biking for the same amount of time, and yet the calorie burn will be the same...

vdanzl

If you have a smart phone or iPod that you can add apps onto, there are many apps that will track your speed and distance. The one I use is Endomondo PRO. I was surprised that my pace was faster then I thought it was.

rmac18

I believe exercise matters a lot. I do not believe that I would have had the success I've had without a ton of exercise. MFP is based around net calories so you need to have some idea of what you expend in order to calculate the net. If you stay in a deficit you lose weight but my experience is that if you stay in too far of a deficit for too long then you may well plateau, which for me I got out of by actually eating more and keeping up the exercise. The other huge advantage of exercise is the toning aspect. As you lose weight and inches you'll want to tone the up, plus I believe that if you are exercising regularly and using your muscle then your body is smart enough to burn fat and not muscle. HRMs are available starting around $20 on Amazon, I personally use one by New Balance (I think it was around $60) and a lot of people like Polar and I have a friend that has a Pyle that seems to work fine. You need one with a chest strap (the ones without don't work well in my experience, mine works with and without chest strap but not nearly as well without plus you constantly have to check your HR to make it work). Ideally you should be putting in (and updating) your weight, height, sex and age so it can calculate calories burned accurately for you. There are lots of other features you may like but this is all that's necessary. Mine allows me to set training zones and will track how much time I spend in the zone, over the zone and under the zone as well as average HR. I find this interesting to monitor when I play basketball or other activities like that. That's what has worked for me and what I will continue to do. I guess it may depend on what your definition of exercise is. I really only count exercise activities where I'm working fairly hard and getting my heart rate up, working up a sweat (unless I'm swimming or something) and will feel like I've done something when I'm done. Now that being said when I first started it didn't take nearly as much to feel that way as it does now. I only write this to try and be helpful and share my experience over the past year. I'm not an expert or a doctor but I've lost 100 lbs and I am a firm believer that it is a combination of diet and exercise. I also firmly believe that over time (months, not days or weeks) I have a zone that I need to be in to lose, if I eat too much or too little or exercise too little (I suppose you could exercise too much if you don't allow your body to recover or injure yourself, you do need to take 1-2 days off a week from heavy exercise) then weight loss stops. For example if I were to eat 1,200 calories a day but burn 600 in exercise then I might stop losing weight after awhile and I'd probably also feel tired all the time and have difficulty focusing, however if I ate 1,800 calories per day and burned the same 600 then I'd lose a little over 2 lbs a week a feel great. That's an example based on my own personal experience.

70davis

bump