Hiking...calories burned?

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Hope4Beth
Hope4Beth Posts: 23 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
The hubs and I went hiking today. It was a pretty tough hike. My heart rate was up and I was huffing. MFP calculated my calories burned at over 500. The app on my phone calculated my calories burned at 68. This seems like a pretty big difference to me. We hiked for 54 minutes and climbed a lot of hills. I'm confused....any input is appreciated!

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  • JoshuaMcAllister
    JoshuaMcAllister Posts: 500 Member
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    MFP will generally overestimate calories burned but you are right 68kcal is a huge difference! I can safely say you've definitely burned more than 68kcal. If your intention is to eat back the calories burned, I would say 200kcal would be acceptable. You will have probably burned somewhere in the region of 350/450kcal but with the inaccuracy it would be better to stay low in order not to go into a calorie surplus.
  • Hope4Beth
    Hope4Beth Posts: 23 Member
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    I usually don't eat back the calories but I over did my dinner tonight. Thanks for your response Joshua!
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
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    Beth, you might find it helpful to look at these burns for assorted sized people from Harvard Medical. They put a cross country hike at 223 calories per half hour for a 155 lb person. Of course any chart is an estimate but I have found this to be very accurate over the past half year and 25 lb weight loss journey.

    http://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-weight-loss/calories-burned-in-30-minutes-of-leisure-and-routine-activities
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    Another very hiking-specific calorie calculator is here. It lets you put in details about your specific hike as well as your weight plus your pack weight.

    But yeah, estimates vary wildly. According to MapMyFitness, today I burned a whopping 3k calories in only 3 hours of hiking (I highly doubt that, that would be a calorie burn rate at a level of a world-class athlete). Per the site above, I burned only 800, which I also doubt, as I think that calculator underestimates on steep downslopes, like I had today - it definitely was a lot of extra work carefully picking my way down the section of trail where I lost 500 feet of elevation over 1500 feet of distance.
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
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    rankinsect wrote: »
    Another very hiking-specific calorie calculator is here. It lets you put in details about your specific hike as well as your weight plus your pack weight.

    But yeah, estimates vary wildly. According to MapMyFitness, today I burned a whopping 3k calories in only 3 hours of hiking (I highly doubt that, that would be a calorie burn rate at a level of a world-class athlete). Per the site above, I burned only 800, which I also doubt, as I think that calculator underestimates on steep downslopes, like I had today - it definitely was a lot of extra work carefully picking my way down the section of trail where I lost 500 feet of elevation over 1500 feet of distance.

    I agree on the downhills. I learned this the hard way last year when I climbed The Chimneys in Great Smoky Mtns Natl Park while completely out of shape and all my extraneous weight still on. "Crap! Even the downhill is hard nowadays!"

    That looks like a good hiking calculator but I agree the burn seems low for how much effort is going in both up and down on rugged terrain. 800 is not much more than casual walking at a moderate pace.
  • asmlpkg
    asmlpkg Posts: 4 Member
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    Hiking is a great motivator for me. Hope you and hubs continue if you enjoy. As for downhill, I've found that stepping sideways helps a lot with knee relief.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    edited April 2016
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    jmbmilholland wrote: »
    rankinsect wrote: »
    Another very hiking-specific calorie calculator is here. It lets you put in details about your specific hike as well as your weight plus your pack weight.

    But yeah, estimates vary wildly. According to MapMyFitness, today I burned a whopping 3k calories in only 3 hours of hiking (I highly doubt that, that would be a calorie burn rate at a level of a world-class athlete). Per the site above, I burned only 800, which I also doubt, as I think that calculator underestimates on steep downslopes, like I had today - it definitely was a lot of extra work carefully picking my way down the section of trail where I lost 500 feet of elevation over 1500 feet of distance.

    I agree on the downhills. I learned this the hard way last year when I climbed The Chimneys in Great Smoky Mtns Natl Park while completely out of shape and all my extraneous weight still on. "Crap! Even the downhill is hard nowadays!"

    That looks like a good hiking calculator but I agree the burn seems low for how much effort is going in both up and down on rugged terrain. 800 is not much more than casual walking at a moderate pace.

    I think the main reason it reads so low is the downhill portion dramatically dropped my average pace; on flat terrain for that distance I should have finished in under 2 hours if I didn't stop.

    I'd bet I would have a better reading had I taken the longer path around the steepest part of the bluff, which would probably have been faster, easier, and given me more mileage too.

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