UPDATED: I can trust the numbers. Leaving this post as is otherwise.

I can’t trust the calorie counts that RunKeeper generates for my walks anymore.

Yesterday, I took a walk for my lunch break. It took about an hour, and I walked 4.01 miles. I laughed to myself, as RunKeeper said I burned 401 calories doing so. Today, my walk was 4.23 miles, which was a bit brisker, as it was still just an hour, but RunKeeper told me I had burned 750+ calories. I flipped back to yesterday’s walk to see what differences there were – perhaps RunKeeper and the GPS hadn’t agreed on something… but no. Yesterday’s walk now shows up as 706 calories. I flipped back to today’s walk, and it had changed again – now reading 735 calories.

Trying to figure out which number was right, I went to an online calorie counter, in which I put my weight, the distance I walked, and the time I took walking that distance. It told me I had burned 573 calories. Checking two other calculators, they gave me numbers right at 570. So, that’s what I’m going to go with. And I’m going to have to find a better way to track burned calories. A FitBit, perhaps?