Best way to track calories burned

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RespectTheKitty
RespectTheKitty Posts: 1,667 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
This has probably been talked about before, if so I apologize...
I'm very confused about how much I'm burning during a workout. The machine will say one thing, Google Fit will say something else, and MFP will say something totally different. Usually the differences between the numbers are pretty large, so I don't know which one to use. As a result, I'm terrified to eat back any exercise calories because I don't know how much I have available to eat!
Would using something like a Fitbit be better? Any advice appreciated.

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  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    While I have a Fitbit, I very strongly believe that they are unnecessary. Before having one, when I used MFP's calorie goal I would just use the MFP calories for exercise. I ate them all and that worked for me. Since many people claim they are too high, my general suggestion is to eat a certain percentage of them for four weeks (100%, 75%, 50%, etc.) After that assess your progress and tweak your calories from there. Losing too quickly? Eat more. Too slowly? Eat less. Just right? Don't change.
  • drachfit
    drachfit Posts: 217 Member
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    Fitbit is being sued because their heart rate is inaccurate. Furthermore, heart rate to calories conversion only works for long slow cardio, where it is pretty easy to calculate anyway. Any kind of Strength, sprints, interval cardio will be far less accurate.

    Just weigh yourself often, take an average every week, if it's not going the direction you want then eat a few hundred less calories. Takes out all the guesswork from calculating calories.

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