Fitbit, HRM & MFP database, Which is accurate?!

Madmadammich
Madmadammich Posts: 3 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
OK. So my Heart Rate Monitor says that I only burned 230 calories in an hour workout today. Fit Bit says even less!! (185 calories). My Fitness Pal calculates an hour workout as 703 calories. I've always felt, and have seen others say the same on forums on here, that the calorie calculator for exercise on here is a little generous, and I don't trust the calories burned on cardio machines anyways. I'm so confused! Which is more of an accurate calculation? Should I just adjust the average between the 3 mediums of counting calories burned during exercise? Perhaps this is why I feel I am not losing as much weight, when I workout SO HARD, and don't see results.... maybe I am eating TOO MUCH calories due to the exaggerated estimations? Or perhaps NOT ENOUGH, therefore putting my body unwittingly into starvation mode? The whole reason I bought the HRM, was because I wanted the most accurate count for calories burned, based on my own body, and because I enjoy weight training, and there is no way of knowing how many calories I am burning, without a machine giving me an estimation. IDK. I'm thinking as long as I eat 1200 calories NO MATTER WHAT, and try my best not to eat my calories from exercise, or at least try not to eat them all... I should/could be alright? I wish I had a better idea of what I am actually burning, because working out this hard, makes me hungrier... so it feels like I will inevitably eat my exercise calories anyways. Sigh. HELP!

Replies

  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    Probably none are completely accurate. HRM is for steady elevated heart rate - not weight training. FitBit only tracks steps based activity. MFP over estimates. I switched to TDEE - don't have to worry about inaccurate exercise calories. But if you don't want to go that route I'd just pick the lowest or an average of the lowest 2...
  • mrprytania
    mrprytania Posts: 17 Member
    Hi. You mention cardio machines but you also mention weight training. Weight training is not going to be detected by a FitBit very accurately so nix that idea. A HRM like polar would be the most accurate regardless of a cardio machine or doing free weights. I've seen on the Polar community state that its calorie calculations could be 10% generous. So don't eat all your workout calories to avoid these errors of calculation from stalling your progress if you're trying to lose. A neat thing about my HRM is that I can set it to notify me if my HR drops below a certain threshold (118 at this moment) and get moving. So this way when I'm working out I'm working out and not daydreaming or socializing. Those don't burn much energy but do burn time.
  • Jesssamesssa
    Jesssamesssa Posts: 116 Member
    I would say if your HRM is programmed to you Heart rate modes the HRM is correct. If its not programmed specific to you, then probably the fitbit.
  • Oxmarqt
    Oxmarqt Posts: 378 Member
    This is a bit tedious but it works for me and after a week or so it becomes quite quick.

    I enter my info from my HRM: Avg HR and time into this website to get the GROSS calorie burn.

    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

    Take that number and put it into this website to get the NET calorie burn,

    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/net-versus-gross-calorie-burn-conversion-calculator.aspx

    I then take that calorie burn number and make a manual entry on the fitbit website under "Log" then "Activity". You can also create a manual activity entry on the fitbit app by pressing on the active minutes reading.

    It really only takes less than 5 minutes and you will have good solid info and logging.

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