Exercise Calories

JustMe

What method is used in calculating the calories burned for a given exercise at a certain weight... duration... etc... I have usually used MET values and it seems that those numbers and your numbers are not even close. For example... walking, 3.5 mph, level, brisk, firm surface, walking for exercise... 157 lbs... 30 minutes... 123.38 calories. If I use my MET values it comes out to 161.10 calories. Just curious what method of calculation you use. Thanks.

JustMe

I think I've figured it out.

Karen_Cronometer

Hello @JustMe

We use published MET values for the exercises in our database.
I am glad to hear you figured out the discrepancy!

Best,

ibi

can you elaborate, I am also trying to figure this out. I used the METs from 2011. does it by any chance have something to do with the activity level?

Karen_Cronometer

Hi ibi,

The activity level you have chosen can affect the calories reported for your exercise. For example, if you have entered an exercise over an hour, Cronometer will subtract one hour's worth of calories from your activity calories and use your exercise calories instead.

You can learn about corrected MET values here: https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/corrected-mets

Best,

ibi

@Karen_Cronometer so that means that the calories burned by a specific exercise should coincide with my calculations since the activity level has no influence on the result. To my understanding what happens is:

• You log an hour of exercise;
• Cronometer subtracts 1 hour of burned calories by activity level (based on the level you have chosen);
• Cronometer calculates the calories burned by said exercise based on the MET values using the formula - MET value * weight in kgs.
• Cronometer adds the result of the last calculation to your burned calories total.

If the above is correct then my calculations of burned calories by specific activities should coincide with those of cronometer, unless I am missing something. Could it be that cronometer is using the MET values from 1998? It's the only thing I can think of since I am using the updated values from 2011.

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Ibi,

The MET values used are the corrected MET values for your gender, height, weight and age rather than simply the listed MET values - that might account for the difference?

Best,

ibi

Thank you Karen, this post can be marked as answered.