For some reason I got it in me to compare the "suggested" calorie ranges from the various online trackers. I set my activity level in all cases to sedentary so in theory I should get something that isn't too far off from each other. I'm shocked at the variation I got!
I only know of 4... This is the WIDE range of calories I got. The first # is my calories for the day before exercise. The middle # is what it says I burned today for 40 minutes low impact aerobics and 50mins walking 2mph and the last # is what I theoretically could eat because of the exercise calories I burned off all in order to lose 2lbs a week (1000calore deficit)
1,244/552/1,800 MyFoodDiary (my current tracker)
1,822/937/2,180 DP (DailyPlate)
1,322/347/1,669 (FitDay)
And SP (the name that will get censored) wouldn't even give me a definate # it just said 1380 - 1730 and I burned 552
I know that none of this can be exactly right after all, they are all estimates, but according to these #'s if I ate back all my exercise calories (ignoring SP's confusing range) I could eat 1,669-2,180 thats a difference of 500 calories or 1lb a week. 1lb makes a big difference when you have 115 to go. Thats a differnce of losing it all in 1 year or 2 years. I was especially shocked at how much higher the DailyPlate estimate was.
So... my questions:
- Has anyone done a comparison of them all and gotten such a wide range or is it just me?
- Has anyone used more then one of them, and why do you prefer one over the other?
I have my own personal preference just for ease of use, but the one I use also costs 9 bucks a month so I wanted to test it aginst the free ones but for now I guess I'll stick with what I have. Sigh.
How interesting! I use the downloaded FitDay, and when I plugged in your exercise, I got 280 cals burned, so there's another difference. But my FitDay is a few years old--numbered may have been updated.
I use FitDay because after tweaking the numbers a bit, using only the sedentary setting and adding exercise, it gives me consistent results that reflect my actual weight loss. I don't know about the others.
I'm a little confused about your method, though. My daily burn is my "metabolism" (resting plus activity at sedentary) plus my exercise, and to lose a pound a week I have to eat 500 cals less than that per day. So typically, when I was losing weight, my daily burn was 1,950 and my daily intake was 1,350. ?? So it looks like you deducted the 1000 calories--from the baseline metabolism?
I just go by how my tracker sets things up for me which is:
(using rounded example #s) If my baseline was 2000 (maintenece) - 1000(lose2lbs) = 1000 without exercise. If my exercise was 500 calories it would ask me to eat 1500 to stay in the "lose2pounds" range.
My tracker seems fairly accurate for my body, so I guess it works out. I've been eatting slightly under my included exercise calories for the day and losing about 2.5 a week.
Wow fitday really would under estimate my calorie burn... but then again for me that only matters because I do eat those exercise calories. Most people don't.
Whatever works right? I was just hoping one of the free ones would work for me. I'm cheap I guess.
Was curious why people liked the trackers they use.
I have often wondered how accurate the trackers are. I use the downloaded version of Fitday and I like it because there are so many tracking features (not just the standard food and exercise, but also moods, a diary function) and soooo many reports. I take the numbers it gives with a grain of salt. I think any tracker is good as long as you use the same one consistently so that you can sort of measure your progress.
Yeah you definatly can't take every # to heart they are always just estimates. If you were really anal you could wear a HR for exercise and subtract your daily living calories from that exercise #, then get your RMR tested regularly, but that's wayyyyy too much work. I like to keep it easy!
Even those BodyBugg things have a large margin of error.
Mine gives reports and cute little graphs and charts too and keep weights, Body measurements, and all that motivational stuff. So it keeps me happy.
I'll have to check out the downloadable fitday though thanks.
I don't know how the numbers can be so far off, at least for Fitday, as that's the one I am familiar with. Everything I've checked against package labels has been consistent. For items not in the database I make a custom. For homemade items I'll use either the Fitday number if it is close (say, for spaghetti sauce) or I'll get stats from plugging the recipe into calorie-count.com first and making a custom food from that. For very simple recipes like sandwiches I just put in the ingredients separately (bread, peanut butter, jam, for example) and it comes out fine.
Perhaps the discrepancies are arising in their numbers for recipes. A "turkey club sandwich" may vary greatly from site to site for cals and nutrition info. Same for "pizza with vegetables and cheese" and things like that.
Lum I'm not talking about the food databases. Those seem fairly consistent between the sites for the few items I've looked at. I bet you some of them work off the same database.
Dont know why the exercise #s are so different though!
When there isn't a food listed mine also lets you enter them and keep them in your "fridge" for later access and lets you break down recipies too.
Has anyone compared online calorie trackers?
