accuracy of MFP

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tartansheep
tartansheep Posts: 122 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
so I walked around town for four and a half hours today, apparently that should have burned over 900 calories. I find this a little hard to believe - really? that many?

and step ups - is it really 15 cals per minute? it seems way too high, like today I ate really really badly (junk food) but still am netting at about 300 (apparently) because of the walking around town.

thanks

Replies

  • tartansheep
    tartansheep Posts: 122 Member
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    anyone ? ?
  • MuayThaiGrrrl
    MuayThaiGrrrl Posts: 4
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    I've wondered if MFP was accurate too, in its report of calories burned. It does seem a little high in comparison with what my elliptical machine tells me, or what my LoseIt! app tells me.
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
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    so I walked around town for four and a half hours today, apparently that should have burned over 900 calories. I find this a little hard to believe - really? that many?

    and step ups - is it really 15 cals per minute? it seems way too high, like today I ate really really badly (junk food) but still am netting at about 300 (apparently) because of the walking around town.

    thanks

    I ignore exercise calories completely. Even now that I'm maintaining I find they are not correct for me. If I exercise hard I simply listen to my body and if I feel extra hungry than I eat a 100 or 200 more calories and it's usually enough.

    Exercise is to make your lean body mass pretty, strong, and healthy (especially lifting weights).

    A calorie deficit is to lose fat. A calorie budget keeps your fat level where you need to be, either losing fat or maintaining.

    Nothing else really matters much.
    What is the exact number of calories for you?

    We’ve been trying to figure out an exact NUMBER of calories that everyone should be eating, without recognizing that everyone is slightly different. In truth, the calories aren’t the end game. Your body is. So the EXACT amount of Calories that are right for you is the EXACT amount that will allow you to maintain your ideal bodyweight no matter what some calculator or chart says.

    In other words, an online calculator might tell you that you need to eat 2,500 calories
    per day to maintain your ideal bodyweight. But the only way to know for sure if this is
    the right amount for you is to test it out. If you gain weight or can’t lose weight eating
    that much, then you know you need to eat less to lose weight no matter how many
    calculators and text books say otherwise.

    This doesn’t mean your metabolism is broken, it just means the estimate of your needs
    was just a bit off.

    -John Barban (The Body Centric Calorie Guide from the Venus Index and Adonis Index Manuals)
  • Knewton1986
    Knewton1986 Posts: 23
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    I use a heart rate monitor and ise it when doing excercise. I dont count general walking
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,454 Member
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    I feel that MFP tends to overestimate calories. I tend to underestimate the time to compensate! I'm not convinced that easy walking uses a lot more calories than doing what you would normally do round the house or at work. I don't know though - I haven't used another way to estimate it. Maybe it depends on the person.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    so I walked around town for four and a half hours today, apparently that should have burned over 900 calories. I find this a little hard to believe - really? that many?

    and step ups - is it really 15 cals per minute? it seems way too high, like today I ate really really badly (junk food) but still am netting at about 300 (apparently) because of the walking around town.

    thanks

    For walking level at the described speed exactly - yes.

    But as soon as you add incline or change the pace - no.

    In which case if walking, just get your own calc of your effort. For walking level or incline 2-4 mph, this is more accurate than a HRM.
    Once you start jogging your personal efficiency can vary the results, but still decently accurate.

    Why?
    It literally takes so much energy to move so much mass so fast.

    Your HR for such an effort only indicates if you are fit or not, and if fast mainly carb burn, if slow mainly fat burn.
    But the energy to move it doesn't change. Well, unless you have a club foot and your efficiency at walking varies greatly from avg.

    http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html

    To walking outside, if level you figure 1% incline to compensate for wind resistance.
    For up and down, you figure what the incline was on the route and use avg.
  • FemininGuns
    FemininGuns Posts: 605 Member
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    I was always starving when following the calories in/out theory here on MFP as the calories I was burning was way more than what MFP had logged. If you want to go by calories, I would suggest getting a reliable Heart Rate Monitor like a Polar FT (not sure what # they are at now - I have the Polar FT4 and works great!). After I tracked with my HR monitor, I was better energy wise.
  • LennyInFlorida
    LennyInFlorida Posts: 202
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    Yeah, heart rate monitor is the best bet for accurate count. I've even seen user submitted foods way off lol
  • HMToomey
    HMToomey Posts: 276
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    I can burn 222 calories according to my fit bit walking for an hour straight. That is with me taking 6,000 steps an hour. Not very fast but not strolling and window shopping either.
  • dalehall64
    dalehall64 Posts: 290 Member
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    Yeah, I don't use the MFP amounts for calorie burn either. Even if they were correct for one person, it doesn't mean they will be correct for the next person. Like others have said, the best way to find YOUR calorie burn is to get a good Heart Rate Monitor (I too have a Polar FT) input your body data and it will tell you what you burned over the course of your workout. All of my excercises on MFP are my own "created" excercises using my HRM info for the burn.
  • xxcandywrathxx
    xxcandywrathxx Posts: 200 Member
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    It is in no way accurate, I get told the calories I burn on the machines I use.
    (( MFP tells me i burn over 500 calories on the elliptical ect, when in reality i only burn half of that. ))

    I suggest, calculating your self how many calories your burning.
  • Murf1968
    Murf1968 Posts: 315 Member
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    and step ups - is it really 15 cals per minute? it seems way too high, like today I ate really really badly (junk food) but still am netting at about 300 (apparently) because of the walking around town.
    MFP figures are generic but tend to be higher thatn actual HRM readings.

    For instance, I am 190lbs and my HRM tells me that I burn 9 calories per minute on the elliptical, where MFP suggests using 13 calories per minute. I know 4 calories doesn't sound like a lot, but it starts to add up after 15 minutes (60 calorie difference).
  • kinmad4it
    kinmad4it Posts: 185 Member
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    The figures MFP gives us can only be a very rough estimate at best.

    Doing 20 minutes on an eliptical machine. MFP doesn't know what resistance you had it on, how hard you were working and what your heart rate was.
    The same can be said for any form of exercise. Running at 7mph for half an hour would be easy for one person yet nigh on impossible for someone else, so calories burned would be vastly different.

    For me personally, I would never log walking as exercise anyway. Unless it was a fast pace and actually got me out of breath. I doubt I'd be working my heart enough to warrant calling it exercise.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    My best guess is that MFP overestimates by about 1/3. I ususally record cals according to the machine, if I don't use the machine, I record about 2/3 of what MFP says.
  • tadpole242
    tadpole242 Posts: 507 Member
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    so I walked around town for four and a half hours today, apparently that should have burned over 900 calories. I find this a little hard to believe - really? that many?

    and step ups - is it really 15 cals per minute? it seems way too high, like today I ate really really badly (junk food) but still am netting at about 300 (apparently) because of the walking around town.

    thanks
    Someone your weight, walking at a steady 2mph for the time you claim to have spent walking, would burn 1059calories so subtract your BMR (bmr/24 x4.5=288,) 1059-288 = 778, so it's not 900 but it is close enough. Why is that so shocking?
    and doing step up is hard work, (depending of course on how high the steps are) you are lifting 145 up 12 inches using one leg. Try going to the gym and pushing single leg extentions at that kind of weight for a couple of minutes.
  • mulderpf
    mulderpf Posts: 209 Member
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    so I walked around town for four and a half hours today, apparently that should have burned over 900 calories. I find this a little hard to believe - really? that many?
    So you walked around town, I am guessing that you put in that you walked at 2mph for 270 minutes, right? Did you really walk for 2mph for a straight 4.5 hours or did you stop, do some shopping, look at shops etc? When entering that you walked for 2mph for 270, it means that you did exactly that: you started walking, didn't stop and 9 miles and 4.5 hours later, you stopped. Then you burned 900 calories. If you did not walk 9 miles in the 4.5 hours, it means you did not walk at 2mph for the entire time, which means you didn't burn the calories...

    Sorry if I sound condescending when putting it that way (I really don't mean to!!!), but I think you are blaming MFP for being inaccurate when it's the way in which you input your activity which isn't accurate.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Here is a more detailed description of how some of these numbers are derived. The accuracy varies widely:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/estimating-calories-activity-databases-198041
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Here is a more detailed description of how some of these numbers are derived. The accuracy varies widely:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/estimating-calories-activity-databases-198041

    I wondered, would a personal mapping of your HR to better estimated calorie burn based on calculator translate to other less accurate estimate activities at same HR decent enough?

    Meaning, after 5 min warmup, I do a treadmill incline walk and keep my HR right at 145 for 15 min.
    I use the walk/jog calculator for my weight, pace, incline, and time, and receive my MET and calorie burn estimate.

    Would it now be pretty valid to say that any other steady-state aerobic effort where I get avgHR of 145 must also be about the same calorie burn? Outside heat or stress elevated HR throwing it off of course.

    Seems like you could spend about 60 min on a treadmill, hit 3 or 4 major HR levels you normally see, and map your own best estimated calorie burn, if that would apply.

    Of course, as fitness improved as measured by VO2max going up, you'd have to remap every so often since your HR would lower for the same effort.

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