Getting an accurate calorie loss count during exercise

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achilefuofh
achilefuofh Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I've been using the MFP app for a little while now, but am fairly new to using the website and have found seen/read so many inspiring stories and insightful diaries. One of the things I had a question about was the exercise calorie count..

When you guys log your exercise, do you go by what the machine says? Or what MFP says? Example....

I could run on a treadmill for 20 minutes and it might say I burned 300 calories. I might put 20 minutes into the diary and it'll say something different. Getting to the point....

What is the most accurate way that you all have found to log your exercise? Thanks!
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Replies

  • tinagn
    tinagn Posts: 72 Member
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    i go with what MFP says, i think that its better to underestimate the calories you are burning than overestimating them
  • Jessb1985
    Jessb1985 Posts: 264 Member
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    The most accurate way would be with a heart rate monitor, but that is also only a estimate based on your heart rate and weight.

    With regards to your question, I would go with the machines if I used them over the MFP calculations. I do a lot of walking and use an app on my phone to gauge my calories burnt.

    Either way, you're exercising and it can only be a positive, good luck! :)
  • kingscrown
    kingscrown Posts: 615 Member
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    I have a heart rate monitor. I find the calories on MFP to overestimates the calories for me. I do find the calories on the machines at the gym to be a pretty close count of what I do.
  • achilefuofh
    achilefuofh Posts: 4 Member
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    Thanks, everyone. I really appreciate it. This is an awesome community.
  • cmaradyn
    cmaradyn Posts: 8 Member
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    I use my heart rate monitor... But I have also used body bugg and it is supposedly more accurate... If you are over 180 lbs... I think you will find your calorie burn can be underestimated by mfp...

    For eg... If my work out burned 500 calories on my body bugg, my hr monitor would say 450 and mfp would say 350...

    I go by my hr monitor bc I wear all the time..good luck!
  • bub_snig
    bub_snig Posts: 56
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    I use my Nike+ chip I have in my shoes. It is taliored to my height and weight and it caluclates caleroies burnt. I then type in a random time on MFP and find the calories burn closest to the one I just did.


    P.S. You need an iphone with the nike+ app (it is installed in all iphones from 3 above) to use the chip.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    So I've been using the MFP app for a little while now, but am fairly new to using the website and have found seen/read so many inspiring stories and insightful diaries. One of the things I had a question about was the exercise calorie count..

    When you guys log your exercise, do you go by what the machine says? Or what MFP says? Example....

    I could run on a treadmill for 20 minutes and it might say I burned 300 calories. I might put 20 minutes into the diary and it'll say something different. Getting to the point....

    What is the most accurate way that you all have found to log your exercise? Thanks!

    If using a treadmill, the most accurate way up to 6.3 mph is a calculator or the treadmill.

    Much more accurate than a HRM, unless you get a more expensive one that knows how fit you are, by means of a VO2max stat.

    If doing other activities that are free form, HRM that has been properly setup, with knowledge it could be up to 20% either direction.

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

    If walking level at a speed that MFP has a description for, that is using the calculator too.

    The treadmill actually is accurate too.

    Those that say the HRM is always more accurate than treadmill don't know what they are talking about. They saw the HRM was different than the other estimates, and therefore it must be right. Interesting logic.

    Here is the study showing how accurate the calculator is.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/774337-how-to-test-hrm-for-how-accurate-calorie-burn-is

    And when the HRM can go very wrong.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/773451-is-my-hrm-giving-me-incorrect-calorie-burn
  • spersephone
    spersephone Posts: 147 Member
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    I don't trust either - I bought an HRM to calculate my calories. My treadmill (and those at the gym I used to go to) usually overestimates calories burned by quite a lot. Without knowing my height, weight, sex, and continuing heart rate, a machine or MFP can't possibly calculate a figure that is reasonably accurate.

    Being 100 calories out can be disastrous if you regularly eat back all your calories. It can be that difference between losing a small amount that leaves you really disheartened, and a reasonable figure (I mean let's say 700 calories over the week, that makes a small but considerable difference).

    If you go the other way and make sure you don't eat back all your calories, you might still be incorrectly calculating how much your body needs. I prefer to use an HRM and stay fairly close to what it tells me. When I do this properly, it works for me.
  • WickedPixie1
    WickedPixie1 Posts: 111 Member
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    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/

    I use the calculators on this site...depending on the exercise, I use 2 or 3 of them and use the average for my calorie burn....It always ends up being less than MFP or the machines...machines tend to be calibrated to a specific height or weight unless you can input them yourself.
    All my cardio is done at home, so I don't trust the readings.
    I do my heart rate calculation the old fashioned way...I take it manually at different intervals throughout my exercise and average it

    For weight training...I don't bother to input that...and I make sure I have a protein based meal or protein shake within an hour or so after training. Usually no more than 350 calories.

    And I eat back most, if not all my exercise calories
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I don't trust either - I bought an HRM to calculate my calories. My treadmill (and those at the gym I used to go to) usually overestimates calories burned by quite a lot. Without knowing my height, weight, sex, and continuing heart rate, a machine or MFP can't possibly calculate a figure that is reasonably accurate.

    Being 100 calories out can be disastrous if you regularly eat back all your calories. It can be that difference between losing a small amount that leaves you really disheartened, and a reasonable figure (I mean let's say 700 calories over the week, that makes a small but considerable difference).

    If you go the other way and make sure you don't eat back all your calories, you might still be incorrectly calculating how much your body needs. I prefer to use an HRM and stay fairly close to what it tells me. When I do this properly, it works for me.

    Actually, all you need to know is weight.

    How much energy does it take to lift 5 lbs?
    Does it matter if young or old, male or female, or is 5lbs still 5 lbs?
    And the energy required to lift that against gravity doesn't change. Well, unless on the moon.

    How do you know the treadmills overestimated? Because it was higher than the HRM?

    Might find my post right above yours and shock yourself with studies of just how accurate the treadmill and calculators are with nothing but weight, and how off your HRM may be.
  • gimpygramma
    gimpygramma Posts: 383 Member
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    I go with the figure that is lowest....usually the machine's or my Fitbit's since they are always lower than MFPs. This moring I was walking with a friend who has a Garmin. We weigh almost exactly the same amount and her Garmin gave her double the calorie burn that my Fitbit registered. So I am hoping that it is the Fitbit that is wrong and I am really burning more than I log but still I choose to err on the side of caution.
  • crimsoncat
    crimsoncat Posts: 457 Member
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    I have a heart rate monitor and I calculate out my net calories burned. MFP is pretty accurate based on what my monitor calculations say.
  • Excira
    Excira Posts: 21
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    I go based upon what MFP says as long as the number on the treadmill is higher. This way, I may be burning a bit more than I've recorded but it will get me to my goal that much faster. ;)
  • gauchogirl
    gauchogirl Posts: 467 Member
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    Today is a perfect example because I wore my heart rate monitor. MFP said 45 mins elliptical is 597 cal. The elliptical machine I was on (programmed for my height and weight) said 542 cal. My heart rate monitor (also programmed for my height, weight and sex) said 440 cal.

    That being said. I still let it put in whatever MFP says and just make sure I eat less, knowing it's off. It's easier for me then stressing over which is right.
  • Ely82010
    Ely82010 Posts: 1,998 Member
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    In my case, the numbers in the treadmill are very close to the numbers given by this database. The difference is about 10 calories, at the most. Maybe it is because I don't weight much, I don’t know for sure.

    I don’t have a HRM, so I always use MFP’s calories for calisthenics, HIIT, circuit training, walking and strength training, and the machines at the gym for whatever cardio I am doing.
  • Amy911Gray
    Amy911Gray Posts: 685 Member
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    I go by my elliptical machine because I'm getting my speed up and MFP doesn't account for that.
  • jacquelyn_erika
    jacquelyn_erika Posts: 524 Member
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    Heart rate monitor.
  • spersephone
    spersephone Posts: 147 Member
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    It's very clear when the machines are wrong because they are often so far out from what you would expect.

    Based on using an HRM fora couple of years, I now know what is a normal pattern of heart rate behaviour for me, and can work out an expected range of calories burned.

    When you get on one machine that way overinflates that figure, then another one that underestimates it by a lot, you realise it makes no sense to go by the machine which has not asked all variables. I burn less than a male who is taller and weighs more than me. But I will burn more than someone who is shorter than me with a similar body type. The machines I have used do not take this into consideration.

    If you have a machine that seems to be reasonably accurate you can probably trust it, but I personally think that a correctly set HRM is more likely to be closer to what you are burning.

    There is no way that my treadmill is right in thinking I'm burning 1000 calories when I know it's more like 600. I'm not going to gorge myself with those extra 400.
  • mogletdeluxe
    mogletdeluxe Posts: 623 Member
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    I guess you can argue the toss until the cows come home.

    Personally, I use a Polar PT4 heart rate monitor.
  • tracymnx
    tracymnx Posts: 105
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    Get a heart rate monitor, I was shocked at how much MFP over estimates cals burned compared to what my HRM says. Its the only way you can get a relatively accurate count.

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