is mfp wrong??

Personally I have found the calories to usually be correct on MFP because I personally will look at the packages and compare them to the calories and nutritional info in the MFP system ... HOWEVER I have come across some that were incorrect but much fewer than I would worry about.

The exercise burns I think are slightly elevated and tend to use my HRM for a little more of an accurate number however nothing is perfect and never will be .... the more you use MFP and the more you learn about your body I think you will be able to adjust or recognize what is and is not working.

the problem is mfp wont say how they arrive at exercise cals, i.e when the site was set up , what info did they use to get to these figures. I asked the question a couple of weeks ago but so far no reply !!

iv been reading a few people saying the mfp calories arnt right and the exercise trackers calories are far off,is this right ? should i stop logging in my exercise? thankyou

No way....just keep logging and tracking while matching this with your result trend.
I had to tweak the calorie count rates for food intake, because MFP numbers were too low.
When I cross referenced these number with other standards at LiveStrong, CalorieCount and CalorieKing, the MFP numbers were the same, so the issue was me - not MFP.
I was not logging my food properly.
You must find your own zone. There is so much here in terms of support in addition to tracking.
MFP also helps with healthy food options and complete meals before you get to the grocery store or restaurant.. Find new recipes in the MFP recipe forum. Are for those on the go, the mobile apps allow you to make good decisions when eating out by keeping the nutrition information on hand for dishes from your favorite restaurants.
We have a great tool here, but it's only as good as our input.
At day's end we still need to take ownership of our own progress and processes.
Good Luck to you:flowerforyou:

By and large, MFP's calories are correct.

I have a real issue with counting exercise calories, though - especially with how they are "added back in" to your daily target. When you create your MFP profile and tell it your stats AND your exercise level (sedentary, active, etc), you have already "built in" your exercise calories to your daily target. To go and then do what you said you were going to do anyway, and earn bonus calories for it seems particularly stupid. It negates the entire point of MFP, which is fat loss because if you follow that logic you will only maintain.

My advice: NEVER EAT BACK YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES.

Happy New Year.

I totally disagree....but if this works for you, GO FOR IT!
I eat back those exercise calories; MFP is designed that way. My daily goals are set perfectly to account for 1 pound of weekly weight loss, so when I exercise, that deficit is already built into my net calories.
When I exercise, I need to eat those calories back to maintain that steady deficit.
Again, if your way is working, bully for you brother!
I enjoy the notion of eating back those exercise calories, because it motivates me to exercise more :bigsmile: and if I goof up and pig out, I can offset this through exercise.
This is how MFP is set up.
My advice: EAT BACK THOSE EXERCISE CALORIES...and enjoy!

By and large, MFP's calories are correct.

I have a real issue with counting exercise calories, though - especially with how they are "added back in" to your daily target. When you create your MFP profile and tell it your stats AND your exercise level (sedentary, active, etc), you have already "built in" your exercise calories to your daily target. To go and then do what you said you were going to do anyway, and earn bonus calories for it seems particularly stupid. It negates the entire point of MFP, which is fat loss because if you follow that logic you will only maintain.

My advice: NEVER EAT BACK YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES.

Happy New Year.

Actually, the activity settings are for your daily life excluding exercise, i.e an office worker is sedntary, but a nurse or waitress is active as they are on their feet all day.

Exercise is on top of that, not incuded within in.

I've found the numbers here to be more accurate than gym equipment especially if you don't take the time to put in your weight. I have an HRM and was surprised to find MFP wasn't actually THAT far off from my numbers. However in many cases it does over-estimate so it's better to eat back half your exercise calories OR set to your TDEE and and not them back since they will already be accounted for.

Short answer: yes, it is
Less short answer answer: If you set up MFP correctly, the inaccuracies don't really matter.
Long *kitten* answer: Read on

HOW TO SET UP MFP FOR YOUR LIFESTYLE

1: Weight loss goals
A: Set this to 0. In this case, you need to come in under your calorie budget to lose weight
B: Set this to some amount of weight loss per week. If you do this, you need to eat close to your total calorie burn for the day for health reasons.

2: Calorie tracking
A: Include exercises you would normally log as part of your daily activity level. If you do this, you don't log your exercises, or if you do, you don't eat those calories back.
B: Set your daily level to Sedentary, and log all exercises. In this case, you would eat back your exercise calories.

For myself I choose to set my Weight Loss goals to 0. This gives me a rough idea of my RMR, so I know I need to eat AT LEAST this many calories per day. I set my activity level to Sedentary and log all exercises. Generally speaking, I don't eat back my exercise calories.

This maximizes what MFP is good at (tracking calories consumed) and minimizes the error rate (tracking calories burned in exercise). Most of the foods in the database are highly accurate in their calorie composition. Just as importantly they are very good in tracking other health guides, such as carbs/proteins/fats and vitamin intake.

Because of this, I don't have to worry to much about the calories burned in exercise because that can only be an estimate. If I don't eat back any of my exercise calories, then I'm going to lose weight. If I want to indulge, I don't eat back more than half of my exercise calories. Know I'm going to hit a buffet later that night? Hit the elliptical for an extra 30 minutes.

However, I have enough discipline to not look at my total calories and think I can eat all of it, and I almost never go over. If that doesn't work for you, then you may want to look at other combinations. I would recommend perhaps a slight weight loss per week (say .5 to 1 lb) and Sedentary Life. Eat back most of your exercise calories in this case.

WHY CALORIES BURNED IS WRONG
This is just some additional information and isn't really needed if you set up MFP as I do. If you want to accurately track your calories burned for whatever reason, then you'll need to know this. I can't stress this enough though: Losing weight is a process. Eat less than you burn and you'll lose weight. The errors here generally average out to maybe a 1/4 lb a week, well within normal parameters.

There are actually a couple of reasons why calories burned in exercise is incorrect in both MFP and many HRMs.

1: The amount of calories your body uses even at rest (BMR) is based on a number of factors, but a big one which is routinely not asked about is your lean muscle mass. MFP assumes you are an average build. If you are average (whatever that means) then it will be close. If you are obese or very lean, it will be off. A good method to determine your BMR is the Katch-McCardle formula. I recently posted this and a user who had his calorie burn tested at a clinic said it was within 25 calories.
http://www.calculatorpro.com/calculator/katch-mcardle-bmr-calculator/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate

2: Your heart rate when exercising is directly related to how much oxygen your body can take in and process. This is called your VO2 Max. As this goes up your HR at a given exercise exertion level will go down.

During aerobic exercise, oxygen is combined with fat to create ATP. Your heart rate goes up as the demand for oxygen increases.

For example if I have a HR of 90 bpm while walking 3 mph and increase my VO2 Max (and no other stat changes) my HR may drop to 80 bpm. A HRM that doesn't track VO2 Max will give you an incorrect reading on calories burned. MFP, of course, doesn't track VO2 Max at all.

The first link calculates your calories burned with known VO2 Max. The last link helps you figure it out.
http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx
http://www.free-online-health.com/how-fat-is-burned-article.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VO2_max
http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/vo2max-calculator.aspx

The calories burned are higher on MFP for me according to my HRM.

Read and follow vorgas' post. Please. It depends on how you set your goals. Right now, I have mine set to maintain, but that only gives me just over 1700 calories to eat. I have a BodyMedia Fit Link (BMF), and as a result, I know that 1700ish is what I burn on a completely lazy day--I know this because of a day that I was sick in October and burned 1768 calories. I only got out of bed to let the dog out , to use the bathroom, and to get food/drink. So I add my exercise calories, but I use the calories from BMF because the calories in MFP are different. I used to have it set to gain .5 lb. per week but I still had to eat some exercise calories. If I don't want to eat exercise calories, I have to set mine to gain 1 lb. per week and then I come pretty close most days that I exercise, but I don't exercise every day.

As far as the food entries, you just have to be careful and read labels. If you want more accurate entries for whole foods and other things that don't come in a package with a label, try the USDA site : http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/list

And I agree with vorgas that there are other places to get a more accurate burn--the numbers on the shapesense.com site mentioned are very close to the numbers on my BMF. MFP can't really accurately estimate because there are more factors that go into the burn than the information MFP gathers.

Good luck! You can do this and MFP can help!

MFP is a user customisable tool.

Check your entries.