myfitnesspal question

I have found that when I enter the amount of time I've been on the treadmill for the day myfitnesspal gives me a different amount of calories burned than the treadmill does.  I am guessing that is because myfitnesspal has my current weight entered in it while I haven't updated things in my treadmill in a while.  Would more experienced myfitnesspal users be able to tell me if that is indeed the reason for the discrepancy?

Every treadmill will give a different number, and every website will give more different numbers. They are all wrong, and they are all very high. I wouldn't rely on any of them. The most accurate estimate you will get is from a heart rate monitor, but even that can be off by quite a bit.

I agree with Grim, I think all of those calculators are wildly inaccurate. I give myself credit for half the calories that MFP allows and never more than 200 calories credit per day no matter how much I exercise.

I agree with everyone above, the numbers are wildly inaccurate and you shouldn't rely on them for anything.  instead, just focus on increasing your time spent on the treadmill, speed, and incline ... make sure you increase one of these every month so you'll continue to improve and keep burning calories at a good rate with your lower weight.

That being said, I use an online calculator http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html to double check the stuff in MFP, its usually entered wrong and often doesnt auto update with weight changes ... jsut remember that these calculations are based on really fit people (i.e. marathon runners) who operate efficiently at 85% plus of their heart rate.  less fit and overweight people burn probably 2/3 to half as many calories (as calculated by the input parameters here)

The sad part is that the whole concept is flawed by assuming that the "calories in vs. calories out" forumula works.  It does not work, but will often appear to coorelate when your weight is higher if you're also eating better.  As your weight drops you should start to detect how the formula doesn't really work more and more. 

Think of this way... how many minutes will you need to spend on a treadmill to elminate the calories from one twinkie?  What would happen if you allocated all your daily calories to just twinkies?  Do you think that any amount of treadmill time directly affects the impact on your body of a twinkie?  Do you think that eating only twinkies is the same as eating a balanced diet?  Afterall, if it's "calories in vs calories out" what's the difference?  Have you ever heard the phrase "you can't outrun a bad diet"?

The time to spend on the treadmill is making you healthier by conditioning your heart and vascular systems through aerobic exercise.  Using it as an offset in myfitnesspal is basically adhereing to the "calories in vs. calories out" or calorie counting mentality.  For best results, use myfitnesspass to plan your meals so they are properly balanced on Fat/Protein/Carbs/Sugars and ignore whatever it says about calories.

Huh? 

I have pretty much quit entering exercise into MFP because the range varied so greatly and I don't eat back the calories anyway.  None of them.  I just do my thing and know that I do it and have gotten over the need for logging it.