The Problem With Calories Burned Calculators
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TimothyFish
Posts: 4,925 Member
This image is from the WebMD Fit-O-Meter. As far as I can tell, they're using the same database of activities that everyone else is. But notice the problem. According to this, if I sleep for six hours, sit in front of a computer for most of the day, and then ride a bicycle 20 miles, I will burn 4254 calories. Given that my estimated BMR is 2000 calories, I find this highly unlikely. Using the TDEE calculators, even if I exercise at an intense level, my TDEE should be 3450. And based on the rate I'm losing weight, my daily calorie consumption is nowhere near 4254 calories.
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This is the first I've ever seen that calculator. It is interesting, for sure. I searched for "cooking" and the only option was home activities, cooking Indian bread outside Then I searched for "washing" and the only option was religious activities, washing dishes at church.0
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There used to be a caloriesperhour website that had a list of all kinds of activites, but LiveStrong took it over and ruined it.0
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Trial and error is the only thing that worked for me. I don't exercise per say, I just move a lot through work and chasing three kids and a dog. Turned out I have to use the active setting for mfp and I'm still losing 2lbs a week at that0
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Why are you attending 16.67 hours of meetings a day? That seems like a lot. Take a break dude.0
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Wow, 16 cals per min biking for 80mins.... I highly doubt that. If you could burn 16 cals/min I doubt you could maintain that for more than 5-10 minutes.0
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16.6 hours of meetings? None of us are as dumb as all of us I guess.
The full activity description is "Occupation, attending meetings, sitting, general." I didn't bother adding stuff like walking in the parking lot and getting up to use the restroom, etc. because I figured that would all burn more calories than sitting.0 -
I had the best luck with fat loss when I ditched the HRM's and all that.
Of course any movement burns some caloires. And of course there is overlap between diet and exercise.
But if you focus on food intake amount (food energy) for body fat level control up or down, then
Exercise primarily for health and building the lean body mass.
It works.
The other technology and such is fun, but it can get you side tracked.
Best of luck!
Roberta0 -
californiagirl2012 wrote: »I had the best luck with fat loss when I ditched the HRM's and all that.
Of course any movement burns some caloires. And of course there is overlap between diet and exercise.
But if you focus on food intake amount (food energy) for body fat level control up or down, then
Exercise primarily for health and building the lean body mass.
It works.
The other technology and such is fun, but it can get you side tracked.
Best of luck!
Roberta
This is why I hesitate to get a tracker in the first place.
You're a source of inspiration for me, so you've just made my mind up for me. No tracker.
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I've been using a fitbit for over two years and it has been accurate enough for me to gain/lose/maintain by eating according to the number it calculates. Maybe stop being cheap and get a calculator that doesn't suck.TimothyFish wrote: »This image is from the WebMD Fit-O-Meter. As far as I can tell, they're using the same database of activities that everyone else is. But notice the problem. According to this, if I sleep for six hours, sit in front of a computer for most of the day, and then ride a bicycle 20 miles, I will burn 4254 calories. Given that my estimated BMR is 2000 calories, I find this highly unlikely. Using the TDEE calculators, even if I exercise at an intense level, my TDEE should be 3450. And based on the rate I'm losing weight, my daily calorie consumption is nowhere near 4254 calories.
Last Saturday I ran 6.5 miles and burned 17 calories per minute for just over an hour.Wow, 16 cals per min biking for 80mins.... I highly doubt that. If you could burn 16 cals/min I doubt you could maintain that for more than 5-10 minutes.
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Walking is the only exercise I can safely do at this point, so I walk over 20,000 steps a day. I have the very basic Fitbit (Zip) which simply tracks my steps and transfers the info automatically to MFP. Then it's up to me to decide whether or not to eat back those calories. But I do like that my Fitbit keeps track of it for me so I can make informed decisions as to what and how much to eat.0
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californiagirl2012 wrote: »I had the best luck with fat loss when I ditched the HRM's and all that.
Of course any movement burns some caloires. And of course there is overlap between diet and exercise.
But if you focus on food intake amount (food energy) for body fat level control up or down, then
Exercise primarily for health and building the lean body mass.
It works.
The other technology and such is fun, but it can get you side tracked.
Best of luck!
Roberta
The thing is people seem to forget these things are all estimates and a guide they are not set in stone. Also it depends what your goals are. As a long distance runner an estimate of calories burned is a useful tool to help me estimate my intake on long runs. You're right to say focus on your food intake but focusing on food intake you also need to have some idea of your energy expenditure. It's difficult to focus on your food intake if you're clueless to expenditure.
Devices can be useful especially if used correctly. I constantly hear and see of people using HRMs for things other than steady state cardio (which most are designed for) then get shocked when they start gaining weight because they are eating calories stated which were not accurate.
A lot depends on your reasoning for doing what you're doing.0 -
I like tracking my movements and sleep...that's what I use my tracker for...not calories burned...I am very careful with what I eat back (since moving over to NEAT Sunday)0
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TimothyFish wrote: »
This image is from the WebMD Fit-O-Meter. As far as I can tell, they're using the same database of activities that everyone else is. But notice the problem. According to this, if I sleep for six hours, sit in front of a computer for most of the day, and then ride a bicycle 20 miles, I will burn 4254 calories. Given that my estimated BMR is 2000 calories, I find this highly unlikely. Using the TDEE calculators, even if I exercise at an intense level, my TDEE should be 3450. And based on the rate I'm losing weight, my daily calorie consumption is nowhere near 4254 calories.
see it's kind of funny when I enter my activites in that same tracker (it will only let me add 5 things...weight lifting 34calories plus the walking I do everyday)
total is about what my TDEE is based on my own data...I must be one of those people who these calculations are built for...
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LiftAllThePizzas wrote: »
I've been using a fitbit for over two years and it has been accurate enough for me to gain/lose/maintain by eating according to the number it calculates. Maybe stop being cheap and get a calculator that doesn't suck.TimothyFish wrote: »This image is from the WebMD Fit-O-Meter. As far as I can tell, they're using the same database of activities that everyone else is. But notice the problem. According to this, if I sleep for six hours, sit in front of a computer for most of the day, and then ride a bicycle 20 miles, I will burn 4254 calories. Given that my estimated BMR is 2000 calories, I find this highly unlikely. Using the TDEE calculators, even if I exercise at an intense level, my TDEE should be 3450. And based on the rate I'm losing weight, my daily calorie consumption is nowhere near 4254 calories.
Last Saturday I ran 6.5 miles and burned 17 calories per minute for just over an hour.Wow, 16 cals per min biking for 80mins.... I highly doubt that. If you could burn 16 cals/min I doubt you could maintain that for more than 5-10 minutes.
I'm impressed. I'm not much of a runner, so I don't know what to compare it to, but on a bicycle, I would have to ride 22mph to burn 16 calories per minute. I can get up to that speed, but I can't sustain it very long.0 -
LiftAllThePizzas wrote: »
I've been using a fitbit for over two years and it has been accurate enough for me to gain/lose/maintain by eating according to the number it calculates. Maybe stop being cheap and get a calculator that doesn't suck.TimothyFish wrote: »This image is from the WebMD Fit-O-Meter. As far as I can tell, they're using the same database of activities that everyone else is. But notice the problem. According to this, if I sleep for six hours, sit in front of a computer for most of the day, and then ride a bicycle 20 miles, I will burn 4254 calories. Given that my estimated BMR is 2000 calories, I find this highly unlikely. Using the TDEE calculators, even if I exercise at an intense level, my TDEE should be 3450. And based on the rate I'm losing weight, my daily calorie consumption is nowhere near 4254 calories.
Last Saturday I ran 6.5 miles and burned 17 calories per minute for just over an hour.Wow, 16 cals per min biking for 80mins.... I highly doubt that. If you could burn 16 cals/min I doubt you could maintain that for more than 5-10 minutes.
Based on what? Did you use a HRM? If so what Brand? Unless you are 300+ lbs I doubt you burned any more than 10-13 cals/minute over that duration.0 -
TimothyFish wrote: »
This image is from the WebMD Fit-O-Meter. As far as I can tell, they're using the same database of activities that everyone else is. But notice the problem. According to this, if I sleep for six hours, sit in front of a computer for most of the day, and then ride a bicycle 20 miles, I will burn 4254 calories. Given that my estimated BMR is 2000 calories, I find this highly unlikely. Using the TDEE calculators, even if I exercise at an intense level, my TDEE should be 3450. And based on the rate I'm losing weight, my daily calorie consumption is nowhere near 4254 calories.
The above has you burning 2.4 calories per minute while sitting down. Do you weigh 800 pounds?0 -
LiftAllThePizzas wrote: »TimothyFish wrote: »
This image is from the WebMD Fit-O-Meter. As far as I can tell, they're using the same database of activities that everyone else is. But notice the problem. According to this, if I sleep for six hours, sit in front of a computer for most of the day, and then ride a bicycle 20 miles, I will burn 4254 calories. Given that my estimated BMR is 2000 calories, I find this highly unlikely. Using the TDEE calculators, even if I exercise at an intense level, my TDEE should be 3450. And based on the rate I'm losing weight, my daily calorie consumption is nowhere near 4254 calories.
The above has you burning 2.4 calories per minute while sitting down. Do you weigh 800 pounds?
No, the weight I entered into the tool was 214 lbs.0 -
TimothyFish wrote: »LiftAllThePizzas wrote: »TimothyFish wrote: »
This image is from the WebMD Fit-O-Meter. As far as I can tell, they're using the same database of activities that everyone else is. But notice the problem. According to this, if I sleep for six hours, sit in front of a computer for most of the day, and then ride a bicycle 20 miles, I will burn 4254 calories. Given that my estimated BMR is 2000 calories, I find this highly unlikely. Using the TDEE calculators, even if I exercise at an intense level, my TDEE should be 3450. And based on the rate I'm losing weight, my daily calorie consumption is nowhere near 4254 calories.
The above has you burning 2.4 calories per minute while sitting down. Do you weigh 800 pounds?
No, the weight I entered into the tool was 214 lbs.
mine has it at 1.7 calories a min @151lbs...but as I said mine is pretty close to my day and my TDEE0 -
It's not likely accurate but it's physically very possible. I have a 290 watt threshold, which if I were to go all out for an hour I could theoretically push about 1004kj's (calories) an hour. No one really does that though because it is very taxing. But you can look at the guys doing the hour record and they are easily pushing 420+ watts for the hour to do 30+mph.Wow, 16 cals per min biking for 80mins.... I highly doubt that. If you could burn 16 cals/min I doubt you could maintain that for more than 5-10 minutes.
Keep in mind though I ride with a power meter as do many cyclists, so I know exactly what my kilojoule work output is.0
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