calories lost during workout help!!

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juggalotus
juggalotus Posts: 227
in Health and Weight Loss
Alright, so every time i exercise, i log it into My fitness pal using the app on my phone...But a little after i started using MFP, i found this app on my phone that can track your miles, time, number of steps and calories burned...and it shows a map of where you are and the streets you're walking on. It's called "cardio trainer". It's a great app and I highly recommend it. But, i always notice that the calories burned are always different on MFP and cardio trainer. Today, i busted my *kitten*. I walked 3.5 miles in one hour and my average speed was 3.5 mph obviously...So MFP told my i burned 376 calories and Cardio trainer told me i burned 520 calories! That's a huge difference!! Seems like I busted my *kitten* too much to only burn 376. But I am not sure. Which one should i believe?

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  • infamousmk
    infamousmk Posts: 6,033 Member
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    The only way to know for sure what you're burning is to get a HRM, so my best suggestion would be to go with the MFP numbers. I've done some comparisons with a few other calorie burn estimators online, and MFP usually comes pretty close.
  • Jesse13
    Jesse13 Posts: 72
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    Same concern as OP. My heart rate monitor say 900 for a 2 hour walk at 2.7, and MFP say 550. I walk with a friend that also uses a HRM and she gets 500. Why so much variance? Which is the true calories burned? Help?
  • hails62
    hails62 Posts: 16 Member
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    I'd go by your app and the calories it shows, because its actually tracking you outside and your walking up and down hills and against the wind etc so you burn much more calories. The one on MFP is just a generic one for those who use a treadmill and walk at this speed without going uphill etc. You can select this option and change the calories yourself to what you think you've done. Though to be honest over 500 calories from walking at 3.5 does sound like a lot, but then if you were doing this for an hour maybe its correct, hard to know, it all depends on your current weight and as I said if you were uphill much. Hope this helps!
  • kkova811
    kkova811 Posts: 89 Member
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    MFP doesnt take a lot of things like incline into it, so for example ill do like 4.5 miles at 4.5 mph, and it says it should be like 600 calories, but since I put my treadmill at the highest incline, I end up doing like 1000. It the app you has maps the route you walked and maybe knows if the streets or path you did has an incline, that could make it different.
  • MsCandyLynn
    MsCandyLynn Posts: 123
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    Same concern as OP. My heart rate monitor say 900 for a 2 hour walk at 2.7, and MFP say 550. I walk with a friend that also uses a HRM and she gets 500. Why so much variance? Which is the true calories burned? Help?

    bc you are different heights and weigth and your heart rate is different at different times..your calories burned are based off how much your body has to work and that is deteremined by how your fast/slow and how long at these levels! that is why a HRM is so important to be accurate!
  • mkingraham
    mkingraham Posts: 445 Member
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    Like other posters have said the only true way to know is using a HRM. There are lots of things that go into calculating calories burned. For example, how far from your resting heart rate you are able to increase you heart rate, how long you sustain your heart rate at a given level, you age, gender, height, weight- all of these things go into calculating how many calories you burn. It is definitely a unique number. I will say that since I have gotten a HRM my workouts have improved and I have felt better in control of the number of calories I eat. If a good HRM is not in your future $ wise, then I would always use the lower calorie amount- its better to underestimate then over estimate. But for example, today I used a similar app to track my run, it says I burned 306 cals because I ran just over 3 miles and the best average is 100 calories for every mile when in actuallity I burned almost 600 cals because of where my heart rate goes and stays.
  • juliapurpletoes
    juliapurpletoes Posts: 951 Member
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    Unfortunately neither may be accurate because unless your working heart rate is taken into account along with your age, height, weight, gender and resting heart rate, the calculators on this database and most likely your app, are using generalized data to calculate the calories burned.

    In short get a good heart rate monitor, that takes all the above into account. It will then give you a more accurate picture.
  • Flyntiggr
    Flyntiggr Posts: 898 Member
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    Your best bet is to get a HRM monitor. I'm more apt to believe MFP on this one. I burn around 600 calories in one hour doing high intensity boot camp
  • Hellbent_Heidi
    Hellbent_Heidi Posts: 3,669 Member
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    You might want to split the difference (if you're eating back exercise calories, its better to err on the lower side than to go over). I'd guess its somewhere in the middle, but as others have said...a good HRM would be a smart investment.
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    Same concern as OP. My heart rate monitor say 900 for a 2 hour walk at 2.7, and MFP say 550. I walk with a friend that also uses a HRM and she gets 500. Why so much variance? Which is the true calories burned? Help?

    There is so much variance because of all the different factors that play into it(IE. Heart rate, age, gender, height, weight, speed etc).

    A good HRM will have a chest strap and ask for height, weight, age and gender. Some ask for Vo2Max to be really accurate in estimating.. but from what I've read, they are shifting away from using that to determine estimations of calories burned.

    As far as what is the true calories burned, you'll never know because there is no way to truly measure calories burned.. you can only estimate calories burned and some HRM's are better at that then others. I know Polar is much better for estimating calories then a Timex.
  • Jesse13
    Jesse13 Posts: 72
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    Okay guys and gals, thanks a bunch, truly appreciate the insight. Yes, my HRM is a Polar one. It asks me for VO2Max, age, gender, height, and weight. I will assume that it is correct then. The same walk gives me 900 calories for 2 hours about 6 mile walk. My friend with diff. info. gets about 550. I started to doubt my calories since we have such a big variance, but it makes sense now....

    Thanks :wink:

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