Are the calculations somewhat accurate?

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  • fpeory
    fpeory Posts: 1 Member
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    I can't say about the MFP numbers, but by HRM consistently shows about 15% fewer calories burned than the elliptial machine I use for cardio, even though it too is getting the transmitter signal from my HRM and it also has my personal data. Different algorithms I suppose, but I go with the HRM calorie number because it's more conservative.
  • drgndancer
    drgndancer Posts: 426 Member
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    It's a matter of model complexity and data points. A model with more relevant data points is going to be more accurate. HRMs have more data points available than any other source of calorie burn available in a commercial setting. Obviously a medical evaluation model with multiple sensors and a more complex model algorithm will be better, but you can't get that day to day. A heart rate monitor has more data points and therefore more accuracy than any other commonly available model. At least for cardio. Heart rate is not a significant contributor for strength training calorie burn, so obviously an HRM is not as useful there. The model is lacking for that type of activity.

    A heart rate monitor is not a perfect tool, but for cardio it's the best tool you're going to find outside of a medical study. As for the accuracy of MFP and it's use of body weight/height data, all I know I'd that it gave my wife and I the same burn when we were 25 pounds and 4 inches in height different. That doesn't seems like a very fine grained model.
  • WickedPixie1
    WickedPixie1 Posts: 111 Member
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    I posted a similar question and one of the posters sent me here:

    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/

    I found it useful and it explains gross and net calories which I didn't realise there was. Only problem I found with it was for the exercise I did today, there were 3 calculators, an activity based one, a heart rate based one and a machine specific one...I just used an average of all 3 for today, if I do different exercises or machines, I'll just base it on an average of the first two.
  • natwen
    natwen Posts: 81
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    I posted a similar question and one of the posters sent me here:

    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/

    I found it useful and it explains gross and net calories which I didn't realise there was. Only problem I found with it was for the exercise I did today, there were 3 calculators, an activity based one, a heart rate based one and a machine specific one...I just used an average of all 3 for today, if I do different exercises or machines, I'll just base it on an average of the first two.

    A lot of people on MFP don't understand the gross vs. net calories. I have tried to explain it but haven't been very successful conveying what I understand. I always subtract 100 calories per hour from what my HRM says I burned to account for this.

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