Calorie count on exercise equipment vs myfitnesspal

VickiLynnKendall
VickiLynnKendall Posts: 1 Member
edited February 27 in Fitness and Exercise
I am wondering why there is such a big difference in the amount of calories burned that is registered on the exercise bike as opposed to how many it says one burns with the same workout on myfitnesspal. I use the recumbent exercise bike at the gym. It is a Precor bike with automatic calorie counting. There is as much as a 200 calorie difference--the bike saying a lot less calories are burned than the leisurely or slow ride count on myfitnesspal. Any ideas or thoughts?

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  • Mykaelous
    Mykaelous Posts: 231 Member
    I am wondering why there is such a big difference in the amount of calories burned that is registered on the exercise bike as opposed to how many it says one burns with the same workout on myfitnesspal. I use the recumbent exercise bike at the gym. It is a Precor bike with automatic calorie counting. There is as much as a 200 calorie difference--the bike saying a lot less calories are burned than the leisurely or slow ride count on myfitnesspal. Any ideas or thoughts?

    In general it's better to trust the equipment than MFP. I don't believe that MFP scales exercises to your weight and it certainly can't track your heart rate. If the machine asks your body fat percentage, weight, height, gender and tracks your heart rate its probably accurate within a margin of 10%. If it doesn't account for all of those metrics it can be as far off as 50%.

    This is why in general I never subtract calories burned from cardio equipment from my caloric intake while I am trying to burn fat. Machine produces like to take the most optimistic measurements when calculating calories burned because it encourages gyms and consumers to buy/use them.

    I reccommend reading this. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1348299-snap-i-have-been-wrong-about-calorie-burns
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,165 Member
    I am wondering why there is such a big difference in the amount of calories burned that is registered on the exercise bike as opposed to how many it says one burns with the same workout on myfitnesspal. I use the recumbent exercise bike at the gym. It is a Precor bike with automatic calorie counting. There is as much as a 200 calorie difference--the bike saying a lot less calories are burned than the leisurely or slow ride count on myfitnesspal. Any ideas or thoughts?

    In general it's better to trust the equipment than MFP. I don't believe that MFP scales exercises to your weight and it certainly can't track your heart rate. If the machine asks your body fat percentage, weight, height, gender and tracks your heart rate its probably accurate within a margin of 10%. If it doesn't account for all of those metrics it can be as far off as 50%.

    This is why in general I never subtract calories burned from cardio equipment from my caloric intake while I am trying to burn fat. Machine produces like to take the most optimistic measurements when calculating calories burned because it encourages gyms and consumers to buy/use them.

    I reccommend reading this. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1348299-snap-i-have-been-wrong-about-calorie-burns


    MFP does account for weight.

    A couple more interesting reads that you may find helpful
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/exercise-calories-sometimes-the-cardio-machines-are-more-accurate-404739

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/estimating-calories-activity-databases-198041
  • Mykaelous
    Mykaelous Posts: 231 Member
    Thanks for the info 3dogsrunning.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    MFP doesn't account for your exertion level, it can't. It can estimate and many categories do have the option but it can't really know. It's always better to go with what the machine tells you if you've given it your personal data. Even that I would take with a grain of salt and underestimate the total. Best of all is to have your own heart rate monitor which will be the most accurate.

    The one thing to remember, if you choose to use a higher, inflated calorie count, you are only hurting yourself and your weight loss efforts.
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