Calories Burned Map My Fitness vs My Fitness Pal

JonnyHicks
JonnyHicks Posts: 8 Member
edited June 2016 in Fitness and Exercise
Anyone that uses these two apps will notice that there's a huge calorie difference in most exercises, for example a 40 minute Road bike ride on MMF is 1200ish for me and my fitness pal is 800. Which one is more accurate and why?
I done interval running today My fitness pal said 420 calories vs MMF over 800.

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    I'm not a runner so will just comment on the cycling estimates....

    Both those numbers are exceptionally high but you don't give many clues to get a comparison.

    What speed?
    What kind of course? (flat or climbing the Col du Tourmalet?)
    What bike?
    What standard of rider are you? (leisure rider/enthusiast/racer?)
    How heavy/tall are you?

    For me to get over 800 for an hour is pretty close to flat out on an indoor power meter trainer - I've got a very high VO2 max and cycle a lot. A mate who is a club record holder for 24hr races could break the 1000 cals barrier for an hour (700'ish for 40 minutes).

    So my complete guess is that MFP is more accurate but still very inaccurate and high. :)

    Try the Strava app for cycling perhaps?
  • JonnyHicks
    JonnyHicks Posts: 8 Member
    edited June 2016
    sijomial wrote: »
    I'm not a runner so will just comment on the cycling estimates....

    Both those numbers are exceptionally high but you don't give many clues to get a comparison.

    What speed?
    What kind of course? (flat or climbing the Col du Tourmalet?)
    What bike?
    What standard of rider are you? (leisure rider/enthusiast/racer?)
    How heavy/tall are you?

    For me to get over 800 for an hour is pretty close to flat out on an indoor power meter trainer - I've got a very high VO2 max and cycle a lot. A mate who is a club record holder for 24hr races could break the 1000 cals barrier for an hour (700'ish for 40 minutes).

    So my complete guess is that MFP is more accurate but still very inaccurate and high. :)

    Try the Strava app for cycling perhaps?

    I tried Strava today seems much better.
    36.6km ride home from work
    1 hour 15mins
    Says I burned 1100 calories. MMF said almost 2000 I've now deleted that app it's crap.

    I'm 185 cm tall 100kg
    Road bike, mostly flat, novice rider.
    Seem rightish calorie wise?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    That's a decent speed, I had to convert it to 18mph though!

    My most recent ride at that pace gave me about 800 cals for 1 hour 24 mins but I'm significantly smaller than you (75kg and 175cm).

    Your estimate seems reasonable to me. Strava mostly seems in the ballpark although do get a few anomalies from time to time. Obviously it's just an estimate - doesn't know things like head wind, riding position etc. but should be useable level of accuracy.

    The MyFitnessPal category for that speed ("Bicycling, 16-20 mph, very fast (cycling, biking, bike riding") is far too wide a range to be useable IMHO as there's an enormous difference in effort between 16 & 20mph.
  • JonnyHicks
    JonnyHicks Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks for your help, I think I'll stick with the Strava App from now on.