The apps activity tracker sucks.

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Nogorn
Nogorn Posts: 2
in Fitness and Exercise
So i have been doing 15 mile bike rides and according to the app i burn between 1,200 - 1,500 calories. Been doing this for months and making sure i didn't eat more than 1,800 calories a day. Turns out the app is complete bull**** and i'm actually only burning 675 calories. Thanks for ****ing my weight loss up for the past 6 months myfitnesspal.
Reference this post:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/626931-cycling-how-many-calories-burned

Replies

  • Cindyinpg
    Cindyinpg Posts: 3,902 Member
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    It can be high on cycling, for sure. It used to give me 1,000 cals an hour for moderate cycling on a recumbent bike. :noway: Which is why you have to judge by your own results if you are eating your calories back, or buy an HRM.
  • flumi_f
    flumi_f Posts: 1,888 Member
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    It's high on everything I have tracked.

    I normally use and HRM and correct the MFP cals manually. If you are logging MFP burned cals directly...only eat 50% back. :wink:

    MFP > Runtastic > Gym equipment > HRM! I only eat back about 50-75% of my HRM cals and MFP cals are often double what my HRM says.
  • harminzer
    harminzer Posts: 10
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    You could attach it to the wheel. Just kidding, I only walk 2.5 MPH and tested the fitbbit against my aged pedometer and an HRM results were too close to call. But, everybody is different. Just for fun, I shook it WOW........I didn't even move. Good luck.
  • SumoH
    SumoH Posts: 23 Member
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    I find using Strava and a heart rate montior to be pretty accurate. Things like hills and the riding surface do affect the amout of calories you burn. If I could affort a powermeter, I would add that too.
  • 1princesswarrior
    1princesswarrior Posts: 1,242 Member
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    Okay, the app being way off aside, if you're an 18 yr old man, you should be eating at net intake of 1800 calories/day anyway, not 1175 calories. MFP is designed so that you eat back your exercise calories so the only way that the app per se is sabotaging your weight loss is if you are eating back 1200-1500 calories a day.

    If you are not eating back those exercise calories then I would guess you are probably not fueling your body enough, you are not eating enough and your body is holding onto everything you eat/drink.

    So I would suggest you, get a heart rate monitor or activity tracker, weigh everything solid that you eat with a food scale and measure your liquids with a liquid measuring cup, learn about and understand your BMR and TDEE to figure out what you need to fuel your body, and tweak your macros until you find what works best for you.
  • Thomasm198
    Thomasm198 Posts: 3,189 Member
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    1.Buy a HRM
    2.Stop blaming MFP
    3.Don't blame MFP.

    :flowerforyou:
  • sathor
    sathor Posts: 202 Member
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    Actually, for me, it is right on per my HRM. Here is the caveat though, do you REALLY know how fast you are going? Really? There is more to it as well, such as gearing (my fixie takes a lot more power than my multispeed, not a big difference in a short ride, but a long ride can be brutal) as well as hills, wind, your weight, in theory, the weight of the bike, the temperature outside, and so on.

    Really, a HRM will help, I use one almost every day.

    One ride last week was about 40 minutes, and 613 Cal per HRM. I weighed between 195# and 200# that day. I averaged 11.8 MPH, on a fixie. I have done that same route much faster in the past though. Distance was 7.8 Miles.

    So, based on that, I would expect at 15 miles to burn at least 1200 Cal, if not more. (And if I am going faster, more would be expected.)
  • Nogorn
    Nogorn Posts: 2
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    I weigh 268 so i guess i am burning around that many calories. i dont know why that study says otherwise though.
  • Leaping_Lemur
    Leaping_Lemur Posts: 121 Member
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    I bought an HRM a month ago. I find that cycling is the one activity that MFP consistently *under*-estimates my caloric burn. That's probably because it's very windy where I live, so that adds a lot of resistance when I bike. Most other activities MFP within 30-40 cals of what my HRM tells me. (Mowing the law, on the other hand, is overestimated by MFP.) But I knew from day one that the MFP calculator wasn't necessarily accurate, because of the dozens upon dozens of posts here telling you that. Not sure why it took you months to find that out?

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