Exercise Calories | Alternative Routes?

Acacia_Evers
Acacia_Evers Posts: 263 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So we all know that MFP has a tendency to overestimate the calories burned during a work out, which is why I don't typically eat over my daily recommendation anyways. However I can't afford a HRM at the moment so that's a little out of the ball park. I would like to have a better idea of the results from the efforts I put in.

Is there an alternative route to counting exercise? What is all this about TDEE, BMR, and the rest of those terms? Is there another way to track without, I guess, tracking?

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    MFP database - people don't "know", often they just repeat something they have heard! In reality most don't actually know with any certainty the accuracy of their own estimates.
    There certainly are some exercise estimates in the database that are wildly inaccurate but that doesn't mean all are - just like the food database. Far more important to track your food accurately but you never hear people say to cut a random percentage off their food intake estimates!

    HRMs - mostly not as accurate as people believe. Great at measuring HR, can't actually measure calories - just another estimate which can be more accurate in certain circumstances, for certain people. Or wildly inaccurate when used for the wrong kind of exercise or by out of shape people.

    Alternative routes - yes there are lots. Formulae, machine readouts, HRM, phone apps, MFP database can all be suitable or best/most convenient depending on the specific exercise. They all have pros and cons.
    Rolling up your exercise into an estimated average (TDEE method) suits some people and not others, just two ways to get the same result of "a reasonable estimate".

    If you want ideas for your exercise then let us know what specifically you do.

    Overall the importance of accuracy is overstated anyway. Even for high exercisers like me (4hr hilly cycle ride yesterday for example) I don't need to be that accurate - just consistent over time. My Garmin with HRM (which actually gives a low estimate) went bonkers yesterday so I used my phone app (Strava) estimate instead - that tends to give a higher number. My custom calibrated Polar HRM may well have been in the middle somewhere.....
    Over an extended period of time it really won't matter in the slightest, my bathroom scales will tell me if I'm on target.


    If you want a really good explanation of terms and exercise calories issues in general have a read of this.....

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

  • mr_canoe_head
    mr_canoe_head Posts: 21 Member
    Before I got an activity tracker, I used a free phone app, RunKeeper, to log all my exercise. You can connect RunKeeper to MFP, so that all exercise logged in RunKeeper is automatically sent to MFP. I found that RunKeeper (especially for running and jogging) was much better at making realistic calorie estimates than the exercise database in MFP.

    I still use and like RunKeeper. However there are other free apps which do the same thing. I found though, that the same exercises logged in different apps (such as Strava, Map My Run, etc.) often have widely differing calorie estimates. Try them out and see which works best for you.

    Cheers.

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