Question about calories burned

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AJ_Muffin
AJ_Muffin Posts: 93 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm new here and I've noticed a lot of you doing cardio workouts and burning tons of calories in 20-30 minute sessions. I work out using an elliptical at home and it tells me the calories I burn in 20 mins is only approx. 100 calories, but when I enter it into MFP it's default setting shows 214 calories. Do you all use MFP's calculations or your own?

Replies

  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,368 Member
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    I'm finding the MFP numbers surprisingly accurate, in my case. I occasionally wear my heart rate monitor to check my actual burn and they usually match closely.

    Your mileage may vary, however.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    It seems to be different for everyone. I also have an HRM and for some things (like circuit training, general) MFP is pretty close but for other things it was way over.

    A trick I found on the elliptical is that, like walking and running, I tend to get about 100 calories per mile (sometimes a bit more or less depending on effort/resistance settings) so if your elliptical gives you distance, this may be a good way to double check. Example: if you go 1.6 miles, that's 160 calories.
  • Anthonydaman
    Anthonydaman Posts: 854 Member
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    MFP's exercise calories burned calculations are very exaggerated. best bet is to get a HRM as it is pretty acurate
  • bethfartman
    bethfartman Posts: 363 Member
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    I don't know which is more accurate as far as between MFP and the cardio machine, but the way I do it is take what the machine says and what MFP says, use the lowest number and drop it by a third and then I eat back no more than 1/2 that number.
  • sianquin
    sianquin Posts: 86 Member
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    I use a hrm aswell, for things like spin class i found MFP was a good 100cal less than what i acually burnt, really it depends on your age, height, weight and efffort to see how much your burn, generic machines and random mfp numbers can't really track it, saying that one of treadmills in my gym is always the exact same as my hrm.
  • hpilon27
    hpilon27 Posts: 43
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    MFP doesn't know what settings you used for your elliptical workout. You would need to go with the elliptical numbers here (I assume you entered your age and weight into the elliptical program?). Try increasing the resistance setting and your speed and you should see an increase in calories burned.
  • spetermann190
    spetermann190 Posts: 289 Member
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    I probably way wrong lol ... But what appears To Me is that MFP uses the data from the person that first enters the exercise and extrapolates cal burn based on time ... If I am even remotely correct then if I as a 200 lb 40 year old man initially enters an exercise and then a 20 year old 110 lb woman selects that exercise would grossly overstate cal burn and vice versa ... Again ... Only making assumptions based on exercises I have added to the database. Might be 100% incorrect
  • bryn10
    bryn10 Posts: 44
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    Most of the time MFP reflects the same numbers for me as the machines. I do a lot of my cardio outside so I have come to rely on MFP's numbers for those days. Heart rate monitor usually reflects around 100 cals/mile unless I'm doing HIIT training (High Intensity Interval Training). There are a lot of different factors (age, weight, intensity) but if I set an elliptical machine at a level 5 and my strides are quick enough, I'm usually burning 90-100 cals every 10 min. Hope this helps! :)
  • hpilon27
    hpilon27 Posts: 43
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    MFP numbers are close to what you would find with other online calculators. Your weight is taken into consideration. For instance, several different calculators say I burn about 4 calories per minute walking 4.0 mph, while a friend 40lbs heavier than me burns at least 6 calories per minute walking.
  • judykat7
    judykat7 Posts: 576 Member
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    You should get an HRM if possible. The burn not only would depend on your body but the incline you use, the resistance you use, arm use, the speed you work at, etc. I am 5'4, 162# and per my HRM in 16 minutes, incline 2 working at resistance 2-3-4-3-2 and then backwards for 2 1/4 miles I will burn about 180, each day varies a little. So if you are doing 20 minutes flat with no resistance you may only be burning 100, maybe less. I found that for me the MFP burns way almost double what the HRM tells me. Walking especially and I get with it. I did 5K in 42 minutes and my HRM only showed 240 for a burn and MFP was over 2x that. Just my experience.
  • Briargrey
    Briargrey Posts: 498 Member
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    I've found mfp's calculations to be significantly higher than the calculations I get from the machines I use. When I've tried to calculate elsewhere, I tend to find the calorie burn to be closer to what the machines say than mfp. Because of that, I go off of the machines (and I round down to the nearest 25 - so if I did 215 calories, I put 200 into my diary). For me, excess calories are going to be my problem, so I want to ensure that I overestimate what I'm eating and underestimate what I'm burning, so I don't accidentally wind up eating too much when I try to eat back exercise burn.
  • TAsunder
    TAsunder Posts: 423 Member
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    It depends on your intensity level. 214 seems high to me for 20 minutes unless you were really pushing the pace.
  • rose228822
    rose228822 Posts: 186 Member
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    I'm new here and I've noticed a lot of you doing cardio workouts and burning tons of calories in 20-30 minute sessions. I work out using an elliptical at home and it tells me the calories I burn in 20 mins is only approx. 100 calories, but when I enter it into MFP it's default setting shows 214 calories. Do you all use MFP's calculations or your own?

    I found out that MFP is more accurate if I'm on the treadmill or elliptical and on incline walking at a speed not less than 3.0 (on treadmill staying between 13 to 15 incline) and on elliptical staying between 13 to 20 incline) otherwise I do not burn the amount of calories MFP states. Good luck to you:)
  • ernestbecker
    ernestbecker Posts: 232 Member
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    Hi, great question. Burning calories is a matter of intensity. I'm a firm believer in HIIT, which you can look up. the body responds to working hard, resting somewhat, and going after it again. Also, A huge recommendation if you're using this app, and serious about changing your body, buy a heart rate monitor and use it for all of your calorie burned measurements so you get some consistency. Machines can be accurate, but not very often and this way you'll get consistency.
  • Nell720
    Nell720 Posts: 7 Member
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    My elliptical tells me the same thing. My sensors are on the stationary bars and you must consistently hold it to get an accurate reading. I bought a heart rate monitor and confirmed the calories burned on the machine is considerably off.
  • ChantalD75
    ChantalD75 Posts: 680 Member
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    I find MFP calories are very exagerated... I use my HRM...
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    I'm new here and I've noticed a lot of you doing cardio workouts and burning tons of calories in 20-30 minute sessions. I work out using an elliptical at home and it tells me the calories I burn in 20 mins is only approx. 100 calories, but when I enter it into MFP it's default setting shows 214 calories. Do you all use MFP's calculations or your own?

    I never use MFP numbers ......

    Calorie burns are dependent upon many factors including: height, weight, age, gender, exertion level (among others) .......

    MFP CANNOT know your exertion level (the same workout maybe easy for you & difficult for someone else) - cardio machines may have a default gender set .... how much info does your machine ask for? The more info, the better. Does your machine ask for your heart rate sometimes or not at all?
  • iamkass
    iamkass Posts: 122 Member
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    I probably way wrong lol ... But what appears To Me is that MFP uses the data from the person that first enters the exercise and extrapolates cal burn based on time ... If I am even remotely correct then if I as a 200 lb 40 year old man initially enters an exercise and then a 20 year old 110 lb woman selects that exercise would grossly overstate cal burn and vice versa ... Again ... Only making assumptions based on exercises I have added to the database. Might be 100% incorrect

    I actually think they calculate more on a curve because as I'm losing weight I'm realizing the the MFP calories burned are dropping too (like they do on the cardio machines when you enter your weight but to the same exercise). I think, like cardio machines, there's one benchmark and variations are calculated by mathematical equations.

    While nothing is as accurate as your own heart rate monitor, if you have to use the numbers MFP give, you need to be honest with yourself. Did you really give a "vigorous effort", were you really walking at 4mph?
  • cdjs77
    cdjs77 Posts: 176 Member
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    I've found the MFP calculations to be fairly accurate for most exercises and close to my HRM and machine calorie counts. However, the elliptical is probably one of the most off in terms of calories burned, as the MFP entry doesn't have options for how hard or fast you worked on the elliptical (like it does for jogging, biking, etc.). I burn about 500-600 calories per hour on the elliptical according to MFP, machine and HRM, but I am usually on a resistance level of at least 5 and never go below 140 rpm. If you were on a lower resistance level or only kept a low rpm when "pedaling" you probably burned a lot less. I would go with the calorie count of your machine as it takes into account your intensity level.

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