Cals in database vs cals on equipment?

cuppycakesmeg

All, I am new to MFP, just joined Monday. I have been going to the gym for a month now and not used any tracking method for what I had done before joining MFP. The other day, I had a great workout. When I added it, the cals in the database were a lot higher than the machines read. I had to do som finagling to get the numbers closest to what I burned according to the machines.

Which do you use? I am so confused. I want to make a go of this, need to lose about 65 pounds. But, I don't want to give myself a false sense of security and eat the cals if I didn't actually burn that many. Good thing is, I usually can't use all the cals I get each day. Of course, that brings up another point. I don't want to be burning the higher #'s found in the MFP database, count them too low, and then go into starvation mode because I am in fact counting wrong and burning too much. If I don't eat enough, I maintain or gain.

Thanks. I hope this made sense!

Meg

AMBlass

Honestly, I don't think either one is really accurate. From what I've read, only a heart monitor can tell you how many you actually burned. I usually go with whichever calorie burn is lower. Honestly, if you're off by 100 calories (which is what most discrepancies are), you are not going to go into starvation mode. Starvation mode is a huge deficit of calories over a long period of time. Unless you're over-counting every single day, you'll be fine.

btw - you don't have to finagle anything, you can just write in the time and then edit the MFP calorie to give you the number you had on the machine. It's totally customizable.

5stringjeff

If the machine has you punch in your weight, it's probably fairly accurate (i.e. within 10%). I have no experience using HRMs, so I couldn't vouch for their accuracy.

cuppycakesmeg

Thank you all!