Does anyone else feel that the calories are overstated??

If you know what you burned due to the machine or a HR monitor then adjust it. The site is an estimate based on the exercise and your weight, but has know way of knowing how hard you were pushing yourself, which affects your burn.

I've found that the calories my treadmill says I burn is much HIGHER than what MFP says -- but I go with what MFP says because I'd rather underestimate calories burned by exercising, just in case I also underestimate calories from food. That being said....either I truly didn't ever know how many calories were in certain foods, or whatever, but I sometimes feel like the calorie estimates for the foods are high. Again, I'd rather equal out what I thought were over and under estimates in the right way so that my remaining calories for the day is close to 0.

I use RunKeeper to track my walks (and occasionally my pathetic, short-lived attempts at jogging!) and I find that it gives me much higher calories burned than MFP does when I input the same time/speed. I usually double-check with a website like http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc and I find that MFP is typically very accurate when it comes to walking/running.

On the other hand, MFP does tend to overestimate how much I burn on the elliptical, about 12-13 calories a minute. According to the readout on the actual machine, I COULD burn calories at that rate if I really pushed myself... but I wouldn't be able to sustain that pace for more than a few minutes. Usually I burn around 9-10 calories a minute. In that case I definitely adjust so that the calories burned match. If I do 20 minutes on the elliptical I'll log it as 15.

It's always better to underestimate how much you burn than to overestimate!

From my experience MFP waaay overestimates calories burned. What i do like however is the way that it remembers what you change it to, and then takes an average. Now when i enter my circuit training time, MFP is getting pretty accurate as i've been putting in my HRM value for about 5 months now, and it's almost exactly right now!

I doubt that MFP takes your current weight into account when they calculate calories burned for a certain activity. If you remember from high-school physics it takes more energy to move a 200lb body "x" miles than it does to move a 100lb body the same distance.

The machines I use at the gym ask for my weight and calculate calories burned based on my weight. I've found that the machines give me larger calorie burn than MFP does. However, as I am losing weight the gap between MFP estimate of my calorie burn and what my exercise machine tells me I'm burning is narrowing.

I don't know why MFP doesn't adjust calories burned per activity by your weight (or even if they do), since they combine your current weight with your weight-loss goal to formulate a target daily net calorie intake. My guess it would take a much larger database to adjust each individual exercise for all of the possible weights.

I just keep calories consistent daily and exercise consistent weekly. If progress is not where I want it, I make adjustments. Estimating calories burned is unnecessary for most people.

If you know what you burned due to the machine or a HR monitor then adjust it. The site is an estimate based on the exercise and your weight, but has know way of knowing how hard you were pushing yourself, which affects your burn.

i wouldnt trust what the machines say either. best to invest in a hrm and use that instead. getting a hrm was a wake up call for me as since then i have noticed that the machines in my gym are always incorrect. when i use the elliptical for 30 minutes for example, the calorie burn on the machine is usually about 100 more than what my hrm says. similarly when i use the stationary bike it is way under what the hrm is showing.

I always log 5-10 minutes less than what I did, unless I'm on a machine that actually gives me a reading. Can't wait to get my HRM!

Anything but a HRM is a guesstimate. However, I have found MFP to be quite accurate. I wouldn't say "wayy" over.

For example, if I run 5.5 miles iMayMyRun software on my iPhone says 664 calories, MFP says 694. I generally go by MFPs numbers.

MFP says 2 hours of competitive badminton is around 1400 cals. My HRM says I've burned 800-900. It's because the definition of some activities varies wildly. Does this mean singles? doubles? Rest time between points? Between games? Good nights? Slow nights? It's probably ok on things that have very little variables like running.

Much better to get an HRM. Takes out the guesswork, especially if you eat back your exercise calories.

My HRM will be here in a couple days. I know that will help me be more accurate as far as what I'm burning during my workouts. Then I can adjust MFP accordingly. So far MFP must be working because I'm losing....