Calories burned

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Mimisam45
Mimisam45 Posts: 132 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
How does MFP determine the amount of calories burned for an excercise? 700+ for 60 minutes on the elliptical seems high?:noway:

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  • carolyn000000
    carolyn000000 Posts: 179 Member
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    It depends on how much you weigh and how hard you pushed yourself. I can burn 700 calories in a really tough workout in an hour. I was in spinning classs the other day and the girl next to me had a monitor thing and she said she burned 900 in an hour. Seemed high to me, I logged 600. I always log about 100 calories less than I think I burned so I don't go over. Great job on the challenging workout!
  • skylark94
    skylark94 Posts: 2,036 Member
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    The consensus among members here is that MFP gives ridiculously high numbers for most activities. Take whatever it gives you and reduce by at least 25%.

    I use a heart rate monitor with a chest strap for the most accurate number.
  • tburnelis
    tburnelis Posts: 13
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    Personally based on my HRM, a moderate intensity 30 minute Elliptical workout burns around 450 calories for me.

    I've gotten as high as 650 doing High intensity intervals on the elliptical in 30 minutes.

    700 for an hour seems reasonable, but again it does depend on weight and fitness level.
  • Sunny820
    Sunny820 Posts: 11 Member
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    I think the MPF numbers are very high, so if I run a 10 min mi pace for 60 min, I will log only 40 min or so till the calorie number seem about right. This could come around to bite me, but I would rather be conservative on how much I burn instead of luring myself into a false sense of security and eating more than I need.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    The real answer is that nobody knows.
    Unless you are exercising in a fully controlled and measured environment everything is an estimate.

    I use a HRM but although it makes it more personal and consistent it measures your heartrate and not your calories (remember that a calorie is a unit of energy). So the estimate for steady state cardio should be reasonable but it is still an estimate based on averages and formulas.

    Not even sure MFP numbers even qualify as an estimate!
    Personally I found the low intensity activities way over-stated and the high intensity activities not to bad but it's going to be different for everyone.

    Off to the gym to burn 700 calories, maybe less, maybe more..... :wink:
  • Camille0502
    Camille0502 Posts: 311 Member
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    I use a heart rate monitor. I have found that the MFP calories burned is 50% to 100% greater than what my HRM measures. So beware!!
  • Mimisam45
    Mimisam45 Posts: 132 Member
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    Thanks for all the reponses. . . . pretty much what I figured; that MFP estimates are pretty high!!!

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