You may be burning less calories than you think (calculator

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  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    Well, I accept that the exercise calories are an estimate, as are the food calories (no one is ever going to know precisely how many calories are in the portion of that medium fuji apple I ate, there are too many variables like how much of it I left,.. etc)

    But, I'm using MFP to estimate food and exercise calories, eating the exercise cals and happily losing weight, so I'm not going to get stressed about it.
    According to a website I found that gives you the mathmatical formulas for calculating VO2 (i think that's it) based on weight, speed etc, MFP is actually underestimating for me, but I use these numbers anyway and will continue to do so as it makes it easy to track.
  • hayley_m
    hayley_m Posts: 61 Member
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    MFP does reduce calories burned as you lose weight though. I started at 242lbs and MFP said I burned quite a bit more than I do now at 181.

    It's still a huge estimation but there is a slope as you lose weight.

    Like I said, i tested it. I am not sure what exercises you're putting in, but it might be possible, if you're doing somethinglike running, you're running faster,,, which in turn burns more calories. I don't know your situation.


    It does change it for some exercises.. Swimming for example.. My friend and I go together, she weighs more than me, we put exactly the same 60 minutes swimming moderate effort.. It gives me 586 cal burn and her 736 cal burn.
    I do completely agree with you then, it's well over estimated!! I bought a heart rate monitor and although disheartened at the drop in cal burn I feel better knowing themore acurate number than the way off one mfp gives!!
  • Black_Swan
    Black_Swan Posts: 770 Member
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    It has kind of worked for me, so until Im financially more capable Ill just stick with mfp:)
  • cbs1974
    cbs1974 Posts: 98 Member
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    all the estimates have worked for me !

    and think its a good thing ! i did find my hrm was higher than the estimates !

    if your worried its over estimating eat half your calories back it should work out near enough !!
    its not an exact science! even your brm is an estimate!!

    : )
  • makena78
    makena78 Posts: 162 Member
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    I tried out my new Polar FT7 and i was way off on my calories while using my elliptical. It said I was at 500 but really I was only at 350. That's a huge difference. I highly recommend getting a HRM to get the correct data. How are you supposed to judge your calorie intake for the day if you to high or too low with your fitness calories? Best investment ever!

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