MapMyFitness - exercise calories way too high

lord_emperor
lord_emperor Posts: 10 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Looks like Under Armor recently acquired or partnered with MapMyFitness, so I thought it was a good time to bring this up. The MapMy______ apps seriously over-estimate calorie burn for exercises. My examples will be specific to cycling.

This is an activity I recorded with MapMyFitness as a bike ride (I tried changing the specific cycling activity and it doesn't matter if it is "Generic bike ride", "Mountain bike, commute" or "Road bike, race" the calculation is always the same.

Distance
41.69km

Duration
1:48:59

Avg Speed
23.0 km/h

kCal
1895

If I upload the same GPX data to a different app like Runtastic or Strava I get a much more realistic 1100± KCal estimate. If I just manually enter the speed and duration into MFP it estimates 1100± KCal. Further, if I run this information manually through the cycling power equation from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_performance#Total_power) I can backup the 1100± KCal number within a fair degree of accuracy.

I have brought this issue up with MapMyFitness in the past and my ticket was dismissed without any changes.

Considering that MyFitnessPal is built in the NEAT principle to achieve weight loss, accuracy with the MapMyFitness apps should be a serious concern. For those of us engaging in this kind of exercise daily, blindly following the numbers output by these apps would often result in a complete failure to realize any progress.

I currently use Runtastic and I'm happy it retains its ability to sync with MFP but it would obviously be preferable to stay within the Under Armor ecosystem.

Replies

  • orangegato
    orangegato Posts: 6,572 Member
    This is why some people will only eat back half the calories the app says they burn through exercise. If we’re talking about trying to lose weight....
  • lord_emperor
    lord_emperor Posts: 10 Member
    orangegato wrote: »
    This is why some people will only eat back half the calories the app says they burn through exercise. If we’re talking about trying to lose weight....

    Yeah, ignoring about half the estimate of MapMyFitness would be right. On the other hand I've been completely successful taking the estimates from Runtastic or Strava for the purpose of both loss and gains - seeing progress both ways completely consistent with the net calories after exercise.

    We should really prefer a more accurate estimate, rather than "users should know to ignore half the estimate".
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    I just checked the exercise database. The various "bicycling" activities do give different calorie burns.
    Of note is that none of the database entries which respond to a search for "bicycling" have descriptions which
    match those in your second paragraph.
  • lord_emperor
    lord_emperor Posts: 10 Member
    edited April 2018
    Those activities names are how they are listed in MapMyFitness. If you log an activity in MapMyFitness, regardless of which activity you choose, the same calorie count is provided and it syncs to MyFitnessPal as "Bicycling".

    To demonstrate, I just manually entered a ride as "Bike Ride: Cyclocross Event/Race" on the MapMyFitness website with the same details as the one I logged by GPS and the Calorie count was (not surprisingly) 1895, it synced over to MyFitnessPal as "Bicycling".

    Even though I thought I was perfectly clear in my OP, I bolded the app names for extra emphasis.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Thank you for taking the time to do that. All I know to say is that if filing a ticket gets ignored, "Houston, we have a problem."
  • kayak4water
    kayak4water Posts: 155 Member
    I use MapMyFitness on my phone. When I ride my bike, I get this:
    a4y0grwmuzd9.jpg

    It syncs to MyFitnessPal as "Bicycling, road cycle" .

    I had a 60 minute ride last week that MMF said burned 734 cal. Ave speed 13.6 mph, 13.39 miles, elevation gain 690 ft. 1% grade (my calculation) My rate of cal burn per minute was 12.23

    Your rate of calorie burn per minute was 1985/109= 17.38. The difference puzzles me. When I'm in weight loss mode, I don't want to eat more calories than I work out, but when I'm in maintenance I don't want to eat too little as that would force my body to start eating muscle protein.

    The gross inaccuracy is another reason I haven't upgraded to "Premium"
  • girlreadingbook
    girlreadingbook Posts: 22 Member
    Thanks for this post - and that of others - confirming the suspicions I had all along. When I started tracking calories burnt I used both the Map my Ride app on my phone (not synced with MFP) and the option to manually enter the data in MFP (the latter always being lower), and over time it was clear something was amiss with MapmyRide. When I saw this post I immediately switched to Strava (now synced with MFP) and while calories burnt for my rides are significantly lower, it's reassuring to know that they are more reliable.
    So this info has been very helpful indeed!
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    it is entirely feasible that for others the 1700cal is a legit calorie burn - if you take into account weight of the person working out; plus distance etc - MFP isn't a customizable calorie burn based on your individual stats like you can get from strava/garmin etc - its a generic number based on a static equation

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