We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Runtastic vs Endomondo - calories burned?

DaveyGravy
DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
edited October 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Hey :) I've been happily using Endomondo for a long time now and had no problems with it but I did feel that the calories it said I had burned seemed very high. I switched to Runtastic and the calories are a lot lower (220 vs 120 cals per mile walking) so I was wondering why such a large difference? Is it to do with gross and net calories burned? Which is the one I should be using?

Thanks in advance!

Replies

  • Trimi
    Trimi Posts: 57
    Are you sure you have both apps properly calibrated for your weight/height/age?
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    Yeah they are both set to my correct height, gender, age and weight
  • Trimi
    Trimi Posts: 57
    Frankly, unless you're around 300 pounds, you should not be burning more than 120-150 calories per mile. So it seems like Endomondo is vastly overestimating your calories, while Runtastic is being slightly conservative with your calories burned. I use Runtastic myself and have found it to be pretty accurate.
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    I'm 271lbs so 120 is probably about right, yeah it was showing 1000 calories for a 4.5 mile walk, that is what prompted me to check because I will burn 750 in the gym and be about dead and 1000 walking and i was fine.
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    Thanks for your help :)
  • MzDfy
    MzDfy Posts: 14
    I have used both and this is what I've learned, don't eat those calories back! Just go with your allotted calories for the day unless you've been lifting weights. When I do heavy lifting then I eat all my calories back, and I do it with high protein, such as a shake or bar.
  • jonchew
    jonchew Posts: 239 Member
    When you mention calories burned per mile - are you using what you know to be the actual distance (a measured course) or Endo's GPS-computed miles?

    I ask, because the GPS in my phone is horrible, I can run what I know to be 5K, but Endomondo will log it as much more than 5K, & if you look at the map generated, it looks like I've bopped from place-to-place, instead of running a nice linear path.

    Also, do you use a heart rate monitor? Endomondo may be using your heart rate in it's calculations (I don't know whether they actually do that or not - just a thought).
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    Well I tend to walk the same route a lot of the time, I know approx how far the route is and the apps both say it's the same distance give or take a tiny bit, but the calories are miles apart. I don't use a HRM or anything with either app.

    My first thought was the Endo displays gross calories burned whilst Runtastic displays net calories but I don't know the difference between these lol
  • Maalea
    Maalea Posts: 16,999 Member
    Endomondo overestimates the calories by about 50%, unless you provide some heart rate data, then it is roughly okay.

    Runtastic has a major bug when calculating calories from walking - it just gives you 300 cals per hour, regardless of your speed (so if you walk 1 mile, it is 300, if you walk 10 miles, it is also 300). Just try it out and manually enter a workout...
    For other types of sport (like running) it works better, although it does not take the heart rate into account, even if you provide it.

    I have used Endomondo for more than a year, but finally got too frustrated with the calorie calculation and with being ignored on the Help forums, so now I am testing some other apps...
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    Well I walked for 1 hr 45 mins and burned 781 cals, so I don't think that bug is present in this version? Who knows though lol
  • sylnova
    sylnova Posts: 100 Member
    I never tried Endomondo, but I've been using Runtastic for a while now. I think it still overestimates calories burnt. I usually run with my Garmin + HRM and the calories burnt are always lower on this device than those calculated by Runtastic. I guess that if Endomondo is even higher, than it overestimates quite a lot.
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    Thanks, yeah it's not that important as I don't usually eat back ALL my calories burned but it's nice to know if it's accurate or not all the same lol
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
    I'm 271lbs so 120 is probably about right, yeah it was showing 1000 calories for a 4.5 mile walk, that is what prompted me to check because I will burn 750 in the gym and be about dead and 1000 walking and i was fine.

    That seems really high regardless of your size! My longest run is probably 75 minutes (7 miles) and I still burned under 1000 calories (I think it was 700 something). I use map my run for cal estimation.
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    I know right! That's why I wanted to investigate it because I wasn't even close to a heart attack and had apparently burned that much lol. I walked 11.1 miles last month and it said 2600 cals which is just not right.
  • Maalea
    Maalea Posts: 16,999 Member
    Well I walked for 1 hr 45 mins and burned 781 cals, so I don't think that bug is present in this version? Who knows though lol

    If I enter a walk manually on the website, it is still the same. But perhaps they are fixing it and only started with the mobile app - I have to check it next week again :-) Would be great if it worked!
  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
    Yeah, try it out! :) Definitely going to go with Runtastic's numbers I think, prefer the Endo app however...argh lol
  • troy0
    troy0 Posts: 37 Member
    I use endomondo and a Polar rs800cx hrm which is calibrated with a vO2 max value (which itself is admittedly estimated using cooper scores and run distance formulas) and it's always within 10% of the reported endomondo calorie burn. The Polar is generally the lower reading but not always.
    If I felt endomondo were 50% out I wouldnt use it.
    I've used strava for a while recently and It reports much higher calorie burns for the same run than endo does. Its always about 15 to 20% more than the polar hrm.
  • kaotik2003
    kaotik2003 Posts: 21 Member
    I was also an Endomondo Pro user, but since I discover Runtastic, specially their road bike app I changed and I found this thread because I had the same issue with Endomondo calculating huge calories amount
  • lewandt
    lewandt Posts: 566 Member
    I use Endomondo and May my Ride (or run) and Endomondo is always high. May My Run is closest to what my heart rate monitor says so i usually go by that one.

    I have not tried any others

    I do love the Endomondo web-site though as i can track my workouts nicely there (slip speeds, etc). And i think the Endomondo app is more user friendly.
  • RunBrew
    RunBrew Posts: 220 Member
    I've been using Endomondo for about 8 months and its never been very far off for me. In fact, on the infrequent occasions that I have used a HRM, the calories actually go UP compared to the same run with no HR data.
    Example:
    ran a relatively flat google earth confirmed 12.01 mile loop at a moderate pace (total avg pace (8:03/mile) total time ~1:37.00
    Without HR data- estimated 1280 cals burned.

    Same loop, 12 days later, at 8:05/mile avg
    With HR data, avg HR 161, max Hr 167 (yes that's typical for me)- cals estimated 1550.

    (On neither occasion did I attempt to eat them all back. maybe I ate 7-800 back.)

    OP, there's something amiss with your endomondo settings, or GPS tracking. Mines been super reliable and I live in a pretty rural area where GPS can be sketchy. I've even done runs with THREE different programs going just to compare and Endomondo is never wildly off.
  • ievasu
    ievasu Posts: 1 Member
    My situation is the exact opposite as most of you guys. Endomondo shows less calories burnt compared to other fitness apps. I used to run together with my boyfriend and he was tracking activities in Runkeeper. When I imported the same activities in Endomondo, it shows much more decent amount of calories. Now when we are jogging together my boyfriend always gets 50-100 more calories burnt than me! It might be due to our differences in weight, but 100 calorie difference is too much, isn't it??
  • KiwipowaRoo
    KiwipowaRoo Posts: 220 Member
    Men burn more calories than women, so he should be burning more.
  • KiwipowaRoo
    KiwipowaRoo Posts: 220 Member
    And my HRM is about 20% lower than Endo, I just wish I knew which was reading better (apparently Garmin is often off). I guess I should try and get my vO2 max done...
  • eldamiano
    eldamiano Posts: 2,667 Member
    Try using Runkeeper. That seems to have been accurate for me.
  • vkazzRre
    vkazzRre Posts: 2
    Endomondo calculates gross calories from HRM.

    Please upvote feature request to support nett calories on endomondo
    https://support.endomondo.com/hc/communities/public/questions/203290766-Request-for-nett-calories?
  • Ohliza
    Ohliza Posts: 2 Member
    I have been using Runtastic and just added Endomondo today and had both running on my walk. Endo reported my average speed at 3.5mph and said I went 4 miles. RT reported 2.6 mph avg (sounds right as I was running up stairs some of the time, walking the rest) and 3.6 miles. Calories were 500 vs 700.

    Wonder why so different?
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 8,113 Member
    I switched from Endomondo to Runtastic because the calorie burns seemed too high. I only use the app for walks, as I wear a HRM at the gym.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories