how many calories have i really burned?

geri1geraldinesuzanne

does anyone know how accurate the exercise database on mfp actually is? today i did 50 minutes of moderate speed stationary cycling and added it to my daily exercise. then i looked the same thing up on other calorie counter sites and the results were way different to mfp figures. only one came remotely close.

so as i've been calculating my calorie intake according to what mfp tells me i can eat for over a month now, now i'm not sure if i should be eating that much.

can someone help me out please?
:sad:

funnygrrl

does anyone know how accurate the exercise database on mfp actually is? today i did 50 minutes of moderate speed stationary cycling and added it to my daily exercise. then i looked the same thing up on other calorie counter sites and the results were way different to mfp figures. only one came remotely close.

so as i've been calculating my calorie intake according to what mfp tells me i can eat for over a month now, now i'm not sure if i should be eating that much.

can someone help me out please?
:sad:

im not sure what the anwer is, but someone did mention on a friend's status that the database is not accurate on here. i went roller blading a while back for an hour and was told i burned 200 calories on here (or something like that) then i checked self magazine and it was double that

ive noticed a lot of the food being off too, so ive corrected thoes (right off the packaging)

djstaen

I discovered different.. Normally the calories burned on here is higher then the actual calories burned. Although I have been seemingly close when it comes to food/drink. I have been losing the weight so I try not to complain but I would always obtain a 2nd opinion from other sites. It only betters you!

annegirl

Well, have you been losing weight? Cause if you are then you probably don't have too much to worry about. I read another post somewhere on MFP and the people from that post were pretty sure that the calories burned is accurate. And you don't have to eat back all your exercise calories, as long as you eat back about half of them. So if you're not sure you've burned as many as MFP says you can just eat less. Hope that's helpful.

mamaturner

I hear ya! I got so annoyed with unsure numbers that I caved and bought a HRM, a Polar F7. Totally worth it if you do a lot of exercising, I use mine probably 6 days a week, multiple times a day. Gives you the most accurate counts you can get! It also helps you to breathe better throughout your workouts... in all giving you more bang for you buck!

kbcrog08

I do stationary cycling at my gym on a regular basis, and the machine tracks my calorie burn. I avarage about 7 rpm on level 10 for a total of 20 min with my heart rate around 150-160 and burn about 200-250 calories. I have a good friend that bikes about 50-60 min on level 5 and runs about 9 rpm and when he is done he has burned around 400-450 calories, so my best geuss for you is that if you are biking at a decent steady pace for that period of time on a low level you are probably burning about 325-350 calories a medium resistance level you should burn 400-450 and a high resistance level (like 10) you should burn about 575-625 and of coarse you have the super high levels like level 15 that will burn a crazy 800+ calories (if you survive that level for 50 min :happy: ) I hope this helps, good luck!
-Katie

MacMadame

None of them are accurate IMO. They are all inaccurate in their own way. :laugh:

I use a HRM and compared to that, MFP is high on some things and low on others.

rad007

I come to say its fair if you go with 80-85% of the myfitnesspal.com mfp. Based on exercise research I did this site is 15-20% high.

allonthego

I'm not sure how accurate it is either I did a power flex class, which is a whole hour of lifting weights and it said I only burned 170 calories, I really thought it would be more than that I was a little disappointed with that number. I know when you lift weights you continue to burn more calories throughout the day but I was hoping for more than 170.

OpalFruitJam

I'm not that sure about the accuracy on here. I always use the cross trainer- the gym would say I have burned 500 calories, whilst MFP say I would have burnt about 700.
So, wherever possible, I would use what the machine at the gym tells you. If you are able to, key in your weight and age to the machine as well, as that is even more accurate.

Perhaps have a look around on other sites for an 'average' of exercises that are not able to be calculated by a machine, and then just key in that average? ^_^

LoveMy4Kids

I was told by the person who trained me at my gym that it depends on your weight on how much you burn off doing certain excercies? She said that the machine will say 200 calories, but that because I am such a heavy person that I would have burned off more than that! So is MFP going by weight too I wonder? or how does that work?

MacMadame

MFP does use your weight. But it depends on more than that. It depends on your HR, your weight, your overall metabolism, VO2Max, etc.

kgasser

Bodybugg! I actually use approximately 400-600 more calories on a normal day than MFP gives me! Forget when I exercise. And the BB works all the time, not just when exercising!

rjadams

it also really depends on how much you put into it. I have a heart rate monitor and doing the exact same DVD I can range over 100 calories burned depending on my energy that day. Even on the treadmill I will vary up to 75 calories doing the same incline and speed workouts. It really depends on how you get your heart pumping along with your age, weight and VO2 max. I think the HRM or Body bugg are the only way to see what you are really doing because charts don't change day to day but your effort and energy levels do.

mamagooskie

I think it is accurate, I wear a pedometer when I go out and its calculates for me too and the #'s are pretty much always the same between the 2 then I input the info on 2 other online calculator/programs and they show the same thing as well. You don't have to eat them though.

de1amo

i am a newbie and just did a machine recorded 700 cals worth of various maching at the gym -i input it here and it came to 710--some rates here were low and others high against the gym machines--but on average it gets it almost spot on--