My pedometer or MFP exercise calculator??

breannatrevs
breannatrevs Posts: 114
edited October 1 in Health and Weight Loss
Yesterday I went for a loooooong 2 hour and 30 minute walk. My pedometer on my ipod counted my steps and told me how many calories i had burned. I was walking quite briskly and sweating like crazy. In all that time it said that I only burned just about 290 calories?!!?

But when I went on MFP to tack my activity, it said 2 hours of mod. pace walking burns almost 700 calories (i think more actually).

So which is right for the amount of calories that i burned? Which is more accurate?

Replies

  • beccarockslife
    beccarockslife Posts: 816 Member
    MFP doesn't take in to account your weight when calculating calories burned, I'd go with pedometer then you'll not over eat.
  • laureneva15
    laureneva15 Posts: 280
    MFP doesn't take in to account your weight when calculating calories burned, I'd go with pedometer then you'll not over eat.

    MFP does that into account your weight when calculating calories burned. or else it totally wouldn't work
  • McKayMachina
    McKayMachina Posts: 2,670 Member
    This:

    http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm

    Take your HR manually for 15-second intervals. Do that a few times. Like 3-5. Then average them and multiply by 4 to get your bpm. Enter it in that calculator for a sweet, accurate burn. Awwww yeah.
  • noogie98
    noogie98 Posts: 449 Member
    I am curious to see what others say about this ~ if it were me, I would take the lower amount of calories burned & use it just to make sure I didn't go over my allotted calories for the day. :wink:
  • mowu
    mowu Posts: 245 Member
    Yesterday I went for a loooooong 2 hour and 30 minute walk. My pedometer on my ipod counted my steps and told me how many calories i had burned. I was walking quite briskly and sweating like crazy. In all that time it said that I only burned just about 290 calories?!!?

    But when I went on MFP to tack my activity, it said 2 hours of mod. pace walking burns almost 700 calories (i think more actually).

    So which is right for the amount of calories that i burned? Which is more accurate?

    I think your pedometer is probably faulty - how many steps did it record? What is your stride length? How many kilometers does it add up to? If you take an online measurement of your route how long does that say you walked?

    I walked for 1 hour 40 minutes at a brisk pace yesterday. MFP said ~540 calories, the route planner I use say ~560 calories and my GPS says about 550 calories.

    I know the route is 9.5 kilometers but my pedometer only registered steps to add up to 5.5 kilometers so it was WAY lower - and in general pedometers are not the most reliable devices around.
  • sgrinavi
    sgrinavi Posts: 80
    An HRM would give you a better idea, but I would think that walking at a brisk pace for 2.5 hours would be closer to 700 calories than 300......
  • Keefypoos
    Keefypoos Posts: 231 Member
    well now lets see if I can help
    I walked 5.35 miles this morning and my HRM gave me 950 Kcals for the 1hour and 18 minutes that it took me thats brisk walking

    Last night I walked with my wife 3.25 miles in 58 minutes a more moderate pace and burned 485 Kcals my wife who is 5' 0" burned 350 Kcals.

    regards
  • kandire
    kandire Posts: 87
    MFP doesn't take in to account your weight when calculating calories burned, I'd go with pedometer then you'll not over eat.

    MFP does account for your weight. If you check calories burned for an activity and then go change your weight and check again you will have burned a different amount of calories!
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
    Honestly, neither.... unless your not planning on eating back your exercise calories or only half of them.

    The only way to get an accurate calorie estimation is with an HRM, and one that has a chest strap and lets you enter age, weight, height and gender.
  • cantcatchup
    cantcatchup Posts: 4
    I'll never forget spending an entire evening planning a walking route on evening using a walking route planner - plenty of details about the roads and local areas. Good places to start are WalkIt and Google Maps. Hope that helps!

    http://www.walkingrouteplanner.co.uk
  • cantcatchup
    cantcatchup Posts: 4
    I'll never forget spending an entire evening planning a walking route on evening using a walking route planner - plenty of details about the roads and local areas. Good places to start are WalkIt and Google Maps. Hope that helps!

    http://www.walkingrouteplanner.co.uk
  • beccarockslife
    beccarockslife Posts: 816 Member
    MFP doesn't take in to account your weight when calculating calories burned, I'd go with pedometer then you'll not over eat.

    MFP does account for your weight. If you check calories burned for an activity and then go change your weight and check again you will have burned a different amount of calories!

    I did this. It didn't change. I changed my height and went back it didn't change.
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