Activity calorie frustration?
 

I just started this today. I LOVE IT! But, I'm very confused/stupid about figuring out activity calorie burn. I do the eliptical for 30 min and can't find it on the activity list. Why is there no "custom activity" like there is for "add custom food." I just want to type in the calories/distance that the eliptical machine told me I did. Also, does anyone agree with the metabolism burn formulas? Mine says I burn like 2400 a day....that can not be right! Just looking for accuracy...please help.

Check the other thread called "Fitday Admin!!" IT covers this topic. Several people use treadmill/ergometer.

Based on other calculators and experience with losing/not losing weight, I estimate that fitday's calculations for calories burned, both for sitting around and most exercise activities, is about 50% more than (i.e. 1 1/2 times) what I actually burn. So if I subtract about 1/3 from whatever they say my daily calorie burn is, the math adds up better for what I'm seeing on the scale. I don't think I have an abnormally slow metabolism, their figures just seem high, like you said. So maybe try 1800 as your starting point and see how that works.

a few years ago when I used this site I put the elliptical under cross country ski or something of that sort, and it seemed to be pretty accurate. Now on the calorie counter business, I felt that when I entered my time in on the treadmill on this site it seemed about 50 cal. low. It was the lowest from what the treadmill said, and two other sites.

i run with scissors;
I totally agree my treadmill said I burned 189, the activities counter on here said 122 calories, a 67 calorie deficit. I sweat hard for those burned calories, & I want every one of them. LOL!!

Fitday calories are on the low side for me, too. I wear a heart rate monitor that calculates the burn and it is always higher. I hope the monitor is right :)

bur rates....
 

I find the burn rates to be low here too, by about 50 cals each method. My bike tells me how many burned for an avg person, and because I am almost 250 lbs I actually burn more than that... but this site tells me less than my bike!

from 18 jan through 30 jan i ate 32,540 cals and burned 40,352 according to fitday. that would give me a 7812 cal deficit, or 2.2 lbs according to their 3500 cal per pound estimate. according to my bathroom scale i dropped 2 lbs.

so far then, fitday seems to be right on with my input vs. output. i run, and the calories it lists for my runs seem to be about 30% higher than what i get from my heart-rate monitor (hrm says about 80 cals/mi, fitday about 110).

it's just one data point so far, and i'll know more in another two - three weeks. but since the calculator here seems to make sense, i'm inspired to keep using it now.

almost hit 5000 cals burned yesterday, with a 10mi run and 8mi hike... no wonder i slept 11 hours! :)