Calorie budget on myfitnesspal

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henryo11
henryo11 Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi guys,

Just found myfitnesspal today and am impressed that it actually has some Korean foods in its database (looked up kalbi and kimchi which the app found).

Was wondering though if the daily calorie budget and calories burned from cardiovasuclar activities is accurate.

I also have the loseit app on my phone and it comes up with some vastly different numbers.

I'm currently about 245lb. (was 190-200 for most of my life) and 25 years old and myfitnesspal says my calories remaining goal for one day is 1630 if I want to lose 2 pounds a week. Loseit tells me my goal should be 2050 a day if I want to lose 2 pounds a week. In myfitnesspal I put my activity level at sedentary (I work in an office), even though I have been doing 35-38 minutes of cardio (trying to increase this every day little by little) at the gym and a small amount of lifting. I noticed that if I changed myfitness pal to "active" it gave me a 2050 daily calorie budget. Which number is accurate?

I also checked some calculator on webmd about my calorie budget and while I don't remember the exact number I remember it being closer to 2000 or 2100. In fact I think it actually said my resting metabolism rate (the number of calories you burn just by living and breathing but doing thing else) was around 2000. That sounds like a high number to me, but it may be accurate as I put on a significant amount of weight.

I also noticed myfitness pal gives me much higher numbers for number of calories burned for elliptical machine and running.
While loseit gave me numbers almost exactly the same as the cardio machines themselves did, myfitnesspal was higher.
For example, 15 minutes on the elliptical in MFP burns 250 calories but loseit said 205 or so and at the gym it was exactly 200 calories today. For running, MFP said 370 calories burned for a 25 minute run at 5MPH, loseit said around 330 or 340 for the same run, and at the gym, the machine said 325 or 330 (on average I ran slightly slower than 5MPH for 25 minutes, actually I do intervals, running at 7MPH and walking at 3MPH and started a very modest 1.0 incline today).

So which do you guys think is right?

Replies

  • jimmydeanbakker
    jimmydeanbakker Posts: 333
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    It's an estimate. If you stuck only with the losingit app, you'd lose weight or if you stuck only with the myfitnesspal app you'd lose weight. If I did all those calculations by hand, my numbers would be different too. I eat kimchi most days of the week, and I was shocked to find it in the database.
  • scottbhf
    scottbhf Posts: 4
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    It's not a contest. There aren't any loopholes. Eat less, move more. 2,100 calories or 1,900- choose one. Eat less, move more. 200 calories here or there are FAR less important than: Eat less, move more. We don't care, MyFitnessPal doesn't care, LoseIt doesn't care... the only one that this matters to is YOU. So, eat less and move more.
  • henryo11
    henryo11 Posts: 6 Member
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    Well if my calorie budget is 1600/day that sounds like it's getting close to that 1200/day or so number that doctors recommend not going below since and correct me if I am wrong, is the point at which your weight loss will slow since your body goes into "starvation mode". I also don't want to overeat/underexercise if that number is indeed correct.

    Anyway, glad that you like kimchi. How did you acquire the taste for it?
  • crystallayne
    crystallayne Posts: 109 Member
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    Bulgogi is on there to and suprisingly not to bad for us! I was pretty happy after living in Korea for 2 years I am pretty addicted to the food!
  • henryo11
    henryo11 Posts: 6 Member
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    I wasn't looking for loopholes, just trying to find the ideal calorie budget so that I know I will hit measureable progress. Also want to make sure you don't overexert yourself either as doctors are always recommending 2 pounds a week max (I know you easily lose more than 2 pounds a week at the beginning of your weight loss regime)
  • rays785
    rays785 Posts: 1
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    Hey Henry011,

    I too just joined MFP and I think this site is awesome! I wanted to give you some insight to a few of your questions. Let me start off by saying that I used to be a personal fitness trainer (in my younger days) and I also used to own a fitness equipment sales and service company for over 11 years. The fitness equipment today is very accurate but you must enter in your exact weight every workout. If you do not enter your weight in each time the fitness machines will just use an average which is determined by the manufacturer, which is usually under 200lbs. This will give you a much smaller number of calories burned since you are actually 245lbs. Same concept with MFP and any other site, if you do not enter in your exact weight/measurements then your numbers will be skewed. I am not familiar with "loseit" but I would start off by making sure it is calculating your numbers base on your exact weight and not from an "average" weight. Good Luck!
  • Cake_Fiend
    Cake_Fiend Posts: 5 Member
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    I would say, for your calorie budget if the other app hasn't asked for your activity levels then MFP is correct. Even with the amount of cardio you are doing, you do not qualify as active as you have an office job. An active lifestyle is someone who is on their feet all day, and continually moving about. The calorie budget is your baseline for how many calories you need during the day. 1200 calories is the minimum for you even if you're just lying in bed all day so sitting at a desk won't require much more than this. MFP may not be spot on for exactly what you need but it seems closer.

    As for the exercise calories, unless you are wearing a heart rate monitor, neither will be accurate. MFP does allow you to alter the calories burned though, so if you think you should be putting what the machine says you can. The trick is to eat when you're hungry, stop when you're not (as long as you get at least 1200 a day). Some days you'll barely touch your exercise calories, other days you'll want them all. It's all about listening to your body and eating what you need. As long as you don't use your time on the elliptical trainer as a reason to go and stuff your face, and stay close to your calorie limit you'll be fine.

    And remember, to lose 2lbs of fat you need to consume 1000 less calories a day than you would to maintain your weight. So as long as you're not massively over your limit if you do go over, you'll still lose albeit at a slower rate.
  • henryo11
    henryo11 Posts: 6 Member
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    Hi, I actually put in my weight everytime at the gym and have used the same weight and height measurements in both loseit and MFP and come up with the different numbers, hence my confusion and curiousity.
  • trimmingup
    trimmingup Posts: 8
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    My fitness pal is pretty accurate on the calories, 1600 is quite a few calories when eating healthy. The calories you burn from exercizing equate into extra calories allowed for the day so this might be the difference between the two plans.

    As far as the calories burned while doing cardio activiites, use what is on your machine, calories burned depends on height/weight/age so there is no telling what the variables are for the numbers in this system.

    And for your activity level, leave it at sedentary, this is based on what you do day to day during the day, not the exercize you add on. The more exercize you do, the more calories you will gain per day and the more you can eat. If you skip a day and don't workout, stay close to the 1600 calories, never do less because you wont lose the weight, its very important you give your body fuel. Food and exercize go hand in hand, you need to eat healthy to lose.

    Hope this helps.
  • henryo11
    henryo11 Posts: 6 Member
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    Hmm I just looked up some info on loseit!.

    It says it bases its numbers on height, weight, age, and gender to calculate your RMR.
    You can made adjustments to this if you feel or have verified with a doctor that your RMR is different than the average.

    It also says loseit assumes your personal activity level is sedentary to light (typical office worker) and in "more technical terms", it corresponds to a PAL of 1.45, which corresponds to

    Sleeping 8 hours
    Personal care (dressing, showering - 1 hour)
    Eating 1 hour
    Cooking 1 hour
    Sitting (office work, etc.) - 8 hours
    Driving to/from work - 1 hour
    Leight leisure activities (TV, chatting) - 3 hours.

    I'd say my PAL is more like

    Sleeping 5 hours
    Personal care - 45 minutes
    Eating - 45 minutes
    Cooking - 30 minutes
    Sitting - 8 hours
    Driving - 2.5 hours
    Studying (for the Series 7 General Securities Representative Exam) - 2-3 hours

    Loseit says dedicated execises like jogging or running are not included in daily PAL.
  • trimmingup
    trimmingup Posts: 8
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    Interesting....Id send your question to my fitness pal and see what they say. I have a formula here at home that personal trainers use and I typed in your info(assuming your about 5'5) and it said you should eat 1784 to lose 1 pound a week and to loose 2 pounds per week it says you should eat 1600 calories so I would say myfitnesspal is pretty darn close. Of course eating more if you workout, healthy food only!
  • henryo11
    henryo11 Posts: 6 Member
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    Interesting....Id send your question to my fitness pal and see what they say. I have a formula here at home that personal trainers use and I typed in your info(assuming your about 5'5) and it said you should eat 1784 to lose 1 pound a week and to loose 2 pounds per week it says you should eat 1600 calories so I would say myfitnesspal is pretty darn close. Of course eating more if you workout, healthy food only!

    hmm I will do that

    you were a bit off on the height though, I am about 5'10"
  • JACarpenter
    JACarpenter Posts: 2
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    I was wondering the same thing. (I know this was from a while back and you may not be wondering anymore) I like both of the apps (loseit and myfitnesspal) but was really confused by the difference in the calories it gave me each day. I THINK (not sure) that it might have something to do with the fact that loseit is calculating the weekly calorie deficit required to lose the pounds and MFP is doing it by the daily budget.

    I started out on Loseit and lost 30lbs even though it says I can eat more. I like some of the functionality better with MFP so am switching over and was shocked by how much less it said I needed to consume to meet my goal in comparison.

    The weekly vs. daily thing is the only thing I can think of. I guess it is true, as long as we are logging it and "moving more, eating less" and being consistent...we will see results.

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