Is MFP's calorie counter off?

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fifrenzyguy34
fifrenzyguy34 Posts: 27 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
When it says I run for 35 minutes on the Elliptical runner it's saying I'm going burn nearly 620 or more calories... That seems a little high. If anything I'd want it to tell me a little under so I would err on the side of weight loss. :laugh: :happy: :laugh:

I drum for a band and it's telling me that for every 10 minutes of drumming I do (a total of maybe two of our songs) I'll burn 80 calories. Even with our songs being harder and heavier I don't really feel like it would be that much. Does anyone else feel it might be feeding us a line? Maybe it's just me. Thanks!

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Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Calorie Counter

Replies

  • la4et
    la4et Posts: 134 Member
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    I find the calories burned are quite high as well. I change the calories burned to what I think I burned for better accuracy.
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
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    I kind of think that too, but as long as It's working I'm going to roll with it.
  • fifrenzyguy34
    fifrenzyguy34 Posts: 27 Member
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    A friend of mine went to Amazon.com and bought a calorie monitor. Apparently she straps it to her chest, puts in her information on a watch (or something) and then it monitors your heart rate and adjusts from there. So this would work from anything to heavy cardio to running after the kids. This will probably be something I pick up within the next month or so. It would be nice to know exactly how many calories are burned doing what.
  • Lisa0711
    Lisa0711 Posts: 1,405 Member
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    A friend of mine went to Amazon.com and bought a calorie monitor. Apparently she straps it to her chest, puts in her information on a watch (or something) and then it monitors your heart rate and adjusts from there. So this would work from anything to heavy cardio to running after the kids. This will probably be something I pick up within the next month or so. It would be nice to know exactly how many calories are burned doing what.

    Yeah, heart rate monitors are great! They really take the guesswork out of exercising, and I've found that since I got mine I've been exercising consistently, whereas before, I never really got into it. I had one that didn't come with a chest strap (it was a Mio from Wal-Mart), and after I got my Polar HRM (I ordered it from Amazon.com, too), I found out that I wasn't burning as many calories as I thought. I paid about $150 for mine, but it is the F11. It has quite a few features, but I don't really use all of them. Looking back on it I would have probably just gotten the F6 or something. But they're totally worth the money!!
  • chgudnitz
    chgudnitz Posts: 4,079
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    I find the calories burned are quite high as well. I change the calories burned to what I think I burned for better accuracy.

    Please tell me you actually have some factual basis for what you are changing the numbers to????

    These numbers on here are from another site who gets their numbers from a study on physical activity on the average person based on weight and the level of activity for each activity. They are pretty close as an average. You may be way over or under the average, but as a standard, they are good.
  • fifrenzyguy34
    fifrenzyguy34 Posts: 27 Member
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    I'm using the actual numbers from the Elliptical machine itself. Not only does it know my weight but it monitors my heart rate - calculating how many calories are burned. I went to the gym last night and ran and it projected me nearly 300 calories over what I actually burnt. :grumble: Oh well. Those heart-monitoring systems are the best! :drinker:

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