calories burned

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I have a polar heart rate monitor that tells me how many calories I have burned while I exercise. What I need to know is why doesn't the calories in my fitness pal match up closer to my monitor? I walked for 45 minutes at a moderate pace and my fitness pal told me I should have burned like 400 calories but my monitor said I only burned 174???

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  • Cajunmalakai
    Cajunmalakai Posts: 59 Member
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    The most likely scenario is that your monitor is not properly calibrated. 400 calories is just about where you should be based upon your exercise.
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
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    a lot of times the MFP numbers are off - they are based on generics and not you personally.
    ive had it be off by hundreds of calories before, but i just use the numbers from my HRM
  • Melo1966
    Melo1966 Posts: 881 Member
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    174 sounds low for 45 minutes but the 400 might be high. How many miles did you go?
  • holly3585
    holly3585 Posts: 282 Member
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    Nothing will be exact, EVER, but your closest estimation of an actual burn should be coming from the device that you put your stats into, and that is measuring your heart rate. Go with the polar reading.
  • Yooperm35
    Yooperm35 Posts: 787 Member
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    174 sounds low for 45 minutes but the 400 might be high. How many miles did you go?

    I read somewhere that you would average about 100 calories per miles walked
  • lorgrayson
    lorgrayson Posts: 54 Member
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    http://www.fitnessforweightloss.com/how-many-calories-will-i-burn-if-i-walk-one-mile/

    Here is a chart that will tell you how much you burn for walking one mile. Then compare that to your heart rate monitor. MFP over estimates the calories I burn. I usually average 110-120 per mile.
  • shiloreis
    shiloreis Posts: 5 Member
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    I went 2 miles!
  • shiloreis
    shiloreis Posts: 5 Member
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    Thank you everybody for you help!!
  • Melo1966
    Melo1966 Posts: 881 Member
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    45 min at a moderate pace will get you more than 2 miles so go with 174 that does sound right now.
  • fruitloop2
    fruitloop2 Posts: 437 Member
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    It will also depend on the speed of your walk. If you're just casually walking you're not going to burn as many calories as you would going at a fast pace. If your heart rate wasn't elevated very much, you're not going to burn as many calories.