WHOS TELLING THE TRUTH?

It depends how far out it is. I tend to go with the lower one. That way I don't end up eating far more calories which I may not be entitled to.

If you're still losing weight following what MFP shows, don't worry about it. If you aren't losing weight, then you might want to think about adjusting stuff. For example, only eating back half of the exercise calories instead of all of them.

The only way to really know is to wear a heart rate monitor. And actually when I put in my elliptical time it always says LESS on MFP. One thing to keep in mind is MFP is using your weight to calculate the calories burned. It doesn't take into account resistance. I trust my elliptical machine number because it's taking into account my weight, age, resistance level, speed and time. MFP only looks at age, weight and time.

Hey MFP. I've noticed when adding a cardio entry it almost always says I burned more calories than what the machine displayed. ie; elliptical machine 35mins burned 348 calories, MFP 35 mins burned 445 calories. So my ? To you guys is which one is right I don't want to cheat myself nor do I want to add more calories than I actually did. Thanks for reading and I KNW if anybody can help you guys can. (well I'm sure google can but I rather hear it from you guys lol)

You just need to experiment, because everybody is different.
I always go with the higher number first - hehe

For me MFP burn rates were a bit too high, and I needed to tweak it to find my zone.

I'm more inclined to trust the machine itself. The machine knows how much actual "distance" you covered according to how hard you actually worked, whereas MFP is estimating it on the assumption that you worked at X level while doing it.

The machine is always way higher than MFP estimates for me, for what it's worth. MFP doesn't take into account things like the resistance setting of the machine.

There's always a lot of debate about this. If you don't have a HRM, it's difficult to know for sure. I know some machines have a HRM built into them and you can input your weight and age, but if you don't do that, it's set to 150 lbs by default. The numbers on MFP move with your weight, which I know because my friend is on here too, and when we do the same exercise, she burns less calories because she weighs less than I do. What I do is just go by MFP. If you want to make sure you're not going over by too much by using MFP, you can cut off a few minutes but that's totally up to you.

I actually checked this out! The ellipticals base their calories on speed, time and distance only. The do not base it on weight and age. So regardless if you are 500 pound person or 125 pound person...if you both did an elliptical at the same speed/time/distance...it will show the same calories burned. But in reality a 500 pound person is going burn more calores and exert much more energy in that same amount of time as a skinny fit person.

I personally go by what MFP tells me......it has my weight and age factored in! I even went on a web site that said to get a "true" accurate calories burned you have to factor in the weight and age! I hope this helps!

I can add into MFP walking up the stairs on my hands for 3 mins burning 576 calories.
The next time you put in walking up the stairs youll probably get my numbers.
So...make your own numbers!

The elliptical entry is probably the worst one on here. It has no variables. Someone going 8mph at high resistance is going to burn more than someone with the resistance all the way down going 3mph. MFP will be right about as often as a broken clock.

I typically go by the machine, but treadmill and bike are usually pretty close to MFP anyway.

I wore a bodymedia arm band and a heart rate monitor for a month and averaged the two sources. They were always way lower than MFP. Now I know what I burn so I manually change the calories burned to what I believe is correct. For my size and fitness level there is no way I burn what MFP says I do.

My HRM gives me numbers way lower than MFP and a good 30-100 cal lower than the eliptical machine says, even with entering age/weight.

Both MFP and machines WAY overestimate calories burned.