Calories Burned: Discrepancy between MFP & Workout Machine?

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Brittypop
Brittypop Posts: 67
in Fitness and Exercise
What do you rely on more; the calories burned on your workout machine or the calories burned suggested by MyFitnessPal? There seems to be a HUGE discrepancy. I usually go with the workout machine's calculations.

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  • 2fit4fat
    2fit4fat Posts: 559 Member
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    Neither. Both were way Off for me and I wanted to get really serious about all this.. That's why I bought a hrm. So glad I did too. Both machines and mfp weren't even close to what the hrm said.
  • mmocarr
    mmocarr Posts: 108 Member
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    I tend to go somewhere in the middle. Today is a good example I ran at 6.5 mph for 55 mins the machine said that I burned 750 cals MFP said I only burned 537. I think running at almost a 9 minute mile pace burns at least 10 cals a minute so I averaged it and entered in 60 mins at a 6.7 mph for 614 calorie burn.

    moral of the story is everyone is different. most will say mfp is more accurate because it takes into account your height and weight.
  • jillica
    jillica Posts: 554 Member
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    HRM needed totally! Any internet calculations here or other webiste, are going to be off because they don't take in account for your intensity. And machines even though they take in account your weight and pace are only estimating.
  • lsilly15
    lsilly15 Posts: 137 Member
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    Get a heart rate monitor! My husband and I just bought the MIO brand, its great! I even use a pedometor that tracks my calories with each step.
  • dbrightwell1270
    dbrightwell1270 Posts: 1,732 Member
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    I think that some of the differences is that MFP probably uses net Calories and the machine uses gross Calories. (I am not sure of this though). Part of my intuition comes frm the fact that Calories attributed to exercise count as additional Calories you can consume within your day. If you use the gross Calories from the machine you are counting some Calories that were already attributed to your lifestyle. For example if on an average day you need to consume 2400 Calories to maintain your current weight then the average hour you would consume 100 Calories. If the machine tells you you burned 400 Calories from the hour you need to subtract out the 100 that would have been burned just by being alive. That being said, Blubberblaste is correct that either is just an approximation based on averages and any person can be way different from the average for numerous reasons.

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