Endomondo Or MFP for calorie burns?

MFP's calorie burns are an estimation. they don't have any accurate data to base it on. an accurate burn is based on your heart rate, vo2max, etc.

Simply put which calculations are more accurate?

For what? Running, cycling weight lifting?
For Running and cycling buy a Heart Rate monitor, they are more accurate, not 100% accurate, more like 80% accurate for most of the people who use them. to be more accurate you need one that is designed for the sport you use it for.

For me the best way to use MFP is to set my daily weight loss goal to be 0, but not eat back exercise calories. Exercise creates deficit and weight loss. I eat at least the base number of calories.

I find that MFP's numbers are generally within a hundred calories of other methods. If that 100 calories is the difference between weight loss and not, then I'm doing it wrong

the problem with endomondo is that it relies on the accuracy of the GPS signal. yesterday, according to endomondo my run included a short dip in the river i was running next to...

i think possibly the best thing to do is go for an average figure between the two. or use something mapmyrun and plot your route out manually. time yourself, work out your speed (i find fingers are useful here) and then fiddle around with the exercise entry thing until you get something that probably represents your burn with some degree of accuracy

slightly frustrating scenario!

Thanks for all the comments, all taken in and will work from them.

I do however have to ask with all these fitness apps and such - why is it so hard to calculate an accurate burn of calories? what factors need to be looked at that arent?

also - I have a watch and strap HRM would that help if i manually add the info into endomondo? will the 2 figures together provide a better result?

It's hard to calculate because every workout is different, and every person is different. If I go for a run, it's not the same as you going for a run. The course might be different. The intensity might be different. Our body weight might be different. I might be sprinting hill repeats, you could be jogging a flat course. There are too many variables. In actuality, the only variables that affect calorie burn are workload and the person's weight. Weight is pretty straight forward, but workload can vary HUUUGELY depending on the workout, and that's the crux of the problem when people start wanting accurate calorie burns.

Most people think HRMs are more accurate than almost any other method. While there is some degree of truth to it (assuming the HRM is setup correctly), it's still just an esimate that can be just as far off as any other estimate.

I go back to what I said before. Pick one way of estimating and do that consistently. Measure your results after a month or so then adjust as necessary.

Can you recommend a bluetooth HRM that works? all of the ones on endomondo store are excruciatingly painfully priced I may have given up the unhealthy foods, but healthy ones cost enough not to mention spending 60£ on a HRM lol

I honestly only have experience with the one on the endomondo website, but there are other on Amazon you can look into. They typically tell you in the ad if the bluetooth will work with your current phone and also if it will sync with endomondo. But, you could just get a decent HRM without bluetooth and manually enter the numbers. I started out doing it that way.