Question about calories burned

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giorgioc722
giorgioc722 Posts: 65 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So I have recently been using my HRM to track the amount of calories that I burn. Today kinda had me second guessing tho. I went on a 12mile hike, 5:30hr long that was pretty difficult and here were my results.

HRM - 4100kcal
Runkeeper - 1500kcal
MFP - 3100kcal

My issue is I'm not sure what one to go with. Any input would be great. If I actually burned over a pound worth of cal in that amount of time I would like to be sure.

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  • giorgioc722
    giorgioc722 Posts: 65 Member
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    bump!
  • fitfreakymom
    fitfreakymom Posts: 1,400 Member
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    I would go with the run keeper one and just add a few extra calories and maybe instead of going by the miles just go by the hr. and did you hike with a back pack? were you going through the bush or on a trail? bush whacking will burn more calories due to the terrain. when I did the E2C challenge I marked myself down for an 8 hr hike with no pack ( even though I had one) and there was a lot of bush whacking and swamp walking and I believe it was about a 4000 cal burn
  • giorgioc722
    giorgioc722 Posts: 65 Member
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    Yeah pack and most of it was on a trail. I was just curious because it was a pretty difficult hike, but 4k just seems like alot. Would be nice tho.


    Trying to get a feel for my HRM, because I want to see if I can trust it for all my other work outs.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    Your HRM is recording all the time so if you took rest breaks, etc it was still carrying on. Also your HRM doesn't deduct your BMR from it's numbers so it will give more. That said, it was monitoring your HR the whole time and has a better idea of the exertion level you had. This whole dilemma is why it's never a good idea to eat back all of your exercise calories.
  • fitfreakymom
    fitfreakymom Posts: 1,400 Member
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    when I typed in hiking with a pack cross country for 5.5 hrs it gave me a calorie burn of just over 2300 cal burned.
  • fitfreakymom
    fitfreakymom Posts: 1,400 Member
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    if most of it was done on a trail them maybe use walking at a fast pace as your guide line for a calorie burn.
  • wilsoje74
    wilsoje74 Posts: 1,720 Member
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    I know I burn around 1100-1200 on an 11 mile run. Hiking could be more but not sure? Not 4100!
  • ChrisM32205
    ChrisM32205 Posts: 218 Member
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    It'd say the Runkeeper is probably the most accurate one.
  • giorgioc722
    giorgioc722 Posts: 65 Member
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    So i'll use run keeper for that cal count. Say I was going to use the HRM for lifting or tred running, would it be better to go based off MFP or HRM? Obv not eating all my exercise cals back.

    Trying to justify useing a HRM or return it and buy something else :3

    Thanks helpful peoples :D
  • Stage14
    Stage14 Posts: 1,046 Member
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    HRM lose their accuracy when you aren't doing steady state cardio. So if you varied your pace often or a great deal, took rest breaks, etc, it's going to be less accurate on the calories burned than if you get on a treadmill and run for
    30 minutes where your heartrate is fairly steady.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    If this was a walking trail, it'll be around 600-700 net calories for a 180 pound individual (900-1000 gross calories). If it's off-trail hiking, you'll just have to guess at a multiplier, I could see something like 1.5x to 2x.

    So call it 600-1400 net calories, depending on terrain roughness. Looks like RunKeeper is the closest.
  • giorgioc722
    giorgioc722 Posts: 65 Member
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    I guess with my current needs I don't have much use for a HRM. Might only do me harm. Well it'll be nice to have one less thing strapped to me.

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