How many calories did I REALLY burn?

wmcmurray61

According to mfp, a person of my height and weight (5'6" 153lbs) burns 115 calories walking for 30 min. at 3mph. According to livestrong and a couple of other places it's closer to 180. That's a pretty big difference. Big enough that I am questioning this and wondering about it, mainly because I have a history of doing crash dieting to the point that I effed up my metabolism. I am concerned about getting ENOUGH calories to keep losing. I don't want my body to go into starvation mode. Does anybody know what the deal is?

TeaBea

Lower number.

This is per mile and has a nice chart. At 3 mph you walked 1.5 miles.

http://walking.about.com/cs/howtoloseweight/a/howcalburn.htm

Starvation mode is grossly exaggerated. Anorexics can damage their metabolism....but you've got to work pretty hard.

shadowofender

MFP grossly overestimates most of the time. Most people only count 50-75% of workout calories to acct for margin of error.

You're not going to go into starvation mode, but if you aren't losing by eating back your calories (and you're logging 100% accurately by weighing portions otherwise) than experiment with eating back different percentages for a few weeks to see where you should be at.

(edited because my spelling sucks)

brianpperkins

http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/how-many-calories-are-you-really-burning?page=single

You probably netted less than either calculator you checked. Most calculators, HRMs, and machines report gross rather than net calories expended.

wmcmurray61

Thanks you guys.