Do you believe in "Calorie Math"?

Options
2»

Replies

  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    edited October 2016
    Options
    The GIANT error in your OP is that you are using the term "exact" when it can not be applied to something that is solely based on estimates.

    The key is consistency. Consistently using the same estimates from the same places is as close to "exact" as it's gonna get.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
    Options
    michael_hatten wrote: »
    I keep track of my eating and exercise on MFP to have a general idea how many calories I eat and how much exercise I do but I have to be honest. I don't believe the calorie numbers are very accurate -- especially for exercise calories. I also take the idea that you can work calories off in the gym with a great grain of salt. For sure, working out helps you maintain your weight but I doubt that you can work off 3500 excess calories and thereby lose exactly one pound. And I especially doubt that you can work out an exact one-for-one exchange of a gym exercise for some food indulgence.

    Trackers are valuable. They can keep you motivated and perhaps give you a way to compare one workout to another as long as they are on the same machine using the same calorie measurement device. But I think the idea that they are anything more than rough measures is just nuts.

    1. Calorie burns are estimates...there are also numerous other sources to determine calorie burn...it's easy enough to get a reasonably good estimate.

    2. You don't need to work off 3,500 calories to lose 1 Lb...you just need a deficit of 3,500 calories...MFP builds that into your diet without any exercise whatsoever.

    3. Every single one of these calculators is an estimate and provide for a reasonably good starting point...they aren't gospel...nobody needs exactly XXXX calories...you have to make adjustments as per your actual results.

    4. Nothing is exact...it's all estimates...you don't have to workout an exact one for one...you have to work it out to be good enough.

    I lost 40 Lbs pretty easily following MFP's methodology and so have countless others...you need to get over "exacts" and other absolutes...
  • rosebarnalice
    rosebarnalice Posts: 3,488 Member
    Options
    I kept a detailed spreadsheet of my MFP CI-CO for about 9 months, with the express purpose of determining the margin of error between its predictions of my weight loss and my actual weight loss.

    I think the calorie counts are, for the most part, accurate. I concluded, though, that MFP overestimated my calorie burn during exercise, so through several weeks of experimentation, I now log my regular 73-minute swim at what I consider to be moderate effort into MFP as a 60-minute swim at "light" effort.

    Once I made that correction in my logging, my spreadsheet math of actual weight lost and MFP's predicted weight loss evened to less than a 2% difference.

    I don't keep the spreadsheet anymore, but my nine-month experiment has made me more confident in MFP's numbers.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Options
    The underlying math yes
    The concept of balancing estimates over time yes
    Data geek so I like seeing the numbers

    But do you need to be consciously aware of the numbers? no

    As the poster upthread who increased his calories out while maintaining calories in demonstrates it works even if you refuse to believe it does

    So even though he doesn't agree conceptually and likes to wrap it up in "calories don't matter" he still benefitted from the underlying maths

    Beauty of maths isn't it? It works whether you believe is not

Categories