MFP and WHOOP, again!

favabean1982
favabean1982 Posts: 28 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I’ve put this question out there before but am still curious-I have a WHOOP strap but my oh my, the daily calories burned according to the ol’ WHOOP couldn’t be more different than the calories listed in MFP-I know WHOOP starts at zero calories each day, whereas MFP starts with a calorie number/limit that goes up as I workout throughout the day thanks to the various fitness tracking apps I have synced to MFP. We’re talking a difference of thousands of calories, with MFP showing more and WHOOP showing less. I know the WHOOP tracks literally everything and is more real time, but really, how could they be so drastically different? I’m just curious!

Replies

  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    Are both set to the same gender, height, age, weight?
  • favabean1982
    favabean1982 Posts: 28 Member
    Indeed! I do my best to make sure they’re both updated with any weight changes as well.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Does looking at your WHOOP account not show you details on how they're calculating your overall calorie burn? When I go into Fitbit, I can see exactly what's being attributed to my BMR and different activities.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,409 Member
    "thousands"? Really?

    That doesn't sound like your device is working properly. I can see maybe 200-400 calories.

    You've been at this a while. I would suggest starting a spreadsheet and tracking manually, that way you will have an actual trending data set.

    They are all estimates, and your own numbers are your best guide.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    You have various tracking devices synced to MFP?

    What exactly on MFP are you looking at that you think is allowing you to compare the daily burn to WHOOP?

    And are you sure of that figure on WHOOP that you think is daily burn?

    Apple for instance doesn't make it easy to see a daily burn.
    Base, yes. Daily Activity, yes. Exercise, yes kind of.
    Daily burn, not as easy.

    What are the other trackers you sync to MFP, are they not on you also seeing everything like WHOOP?

    Oh - screen shots mighty valuable if you can take and attach them for what you are referring to.
  • tkalert
    tkalert Posts: 1 Member
    There are other documents on this topic. Whoop publicly says there calculation for calories is more conservative than others maybe. That said, all apps are using different frames of reference for there calculation that could make it more aggressive or different (i.e. Apple Watch, Oura Ring, etc.). There is not a standard calculation.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    "I know the WHOOP tracks literally everything" and "WHOOP starts at zero calories each day"

    I'm having real problems reconciling these two statements which seem to be in direct conflict unless you are talking about the very first second of the day.
    Are you sure your WHOOP is actually including your BMR/RMR in a total daily burn? If you are waking up and it's showing zero then I'm not seeing how it can be tracking everything.

    Actual numbers would help as would some context about you and your day-to-day routine.
    At the moment you are a male of an unknown size with unknown activity and exercise with a calorie difference of thousands but without knowing what that number is.


  • wesleyyoung400
    wesleyyoung400 Posts: 1 Member
    I just bought a whoop band and my calories burned throughout the day is very big. It’s not even 9:45 and I’ve already burned 800. Should I track this in my fitness pal? Or only track workouts, etc.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,805 Member
    If you've got a calorie burn of 800 at 9:45AM and you haven't done any long/intense exercise, it sounds like Whoop is giving you your total calories burned (including BMR/RMR), not just your active/exercise calories.
    If that's the case, you certainly shouldn't be logging all of those calories in MFP, only tracking/entering workouts would be best.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    wesleyyoung400 wrote: »
    I just bought a whoop band and my calories burned throughout the day is very big. It’s not even 9:45 and I’ve already burned 800. Should I track this in my fitness pal? Or only track workouts, etc.

    Besides advice above - on non-exercise typical days you can also use it to inform your selection of correct activity level in MFP.

    Like perhaps you selected Not Very Active (Sedentary), but the device estimates higher calorie burn than that.
    You are likely not really sedentary, and would be served better with higher activity level.

    How would you know?
    Find your BMR in the MFP calcs.
    Divide some typical non-exercise day total calorie burn by your BMR - that's your activity factor.
    On MFP, sedentary is 1.25.
    Lightly-Active 1.4
    Active 1.6
    Very Active 1.75

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