truth be told....

Mezzack

So, in other peoples experience how "truthful" is this site/app in calculating the exercise calories burned. I feel they are way off and not truthful at all. Even some of the things they list; when you list them don't even calculate how many calories are burned. (ex: push-ups, leg exercises, squats, etc). Can someone explain because it's nerve-racking not feeling confident how many calories (even estimated) are lost during each of my workouts.

tcunbeliever

I try to eat back not more than half of what the site calculates for exercise calories, and doing so I have been able to continue with weight loss. Everyone is different so the calorie burns are very individual, some people eat back all their exercise calories and maintain weight loss, some people won't lose if they eat back any of them.

Machka9

For strength training, select Strength Training out of the Cardio area. If I do strength training for, say 30 minutes, I'll enter 10 minutes into MFP and go with those calories because I figure I rested between sets and 10 minutes is likely more accurate.

Otherwise, I tend to go with the slow or light options, even if I feel like I had a really good workout. So I'll go with a medium walking pace even though I walk quite briskly, and a slow cycling speed, etc.

jemhh

When using an MFP-provided calorie goal, I have logged and eaten exercise calories and found them to be accurate for my goals, whether they were to lose or maintain weight.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of websites that provide info and/or calculators to help you calculate estimated calorie burns. I would suggest logging your exercise on MFP and then checking 2 or 3 other sites to see if the calories are reasonably accurate. IMO, within 100 calories either way is reasonably accurate. Eat your exercise calories for 4 weeks and then assess your progress. Even if your exercise calories were overstated by 100 calories a day for 4 weeks, you would be risking only 2800 calories (a possible .8 lb difference in fat loss) altogether. At that point if you are losing too slowly you can eat less. If you are losing too quickly you can eat more. If you are doing fine, stay the course.

rainbowbow

jemhh wrote: »

When using an MFP-provided calorie goal, I have logged and eaten exercise calories and found them to be accurate for my goals, whether they were to lose or maintain weight.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of websites that provide info and/or calculators to help you calculate estimated calorie burns. I would suggest logging your exercise on MFP and then checking 2 or 3 other sites to see if the calories are reasonably accurate. IMO, within 100 calories either way is reasonably accurate. Eat your exercise calories for 4 weeks and then assess your progress. Even if your exercise calories were overstated by 100 calories a day for 4 weeks, you would be risking only 2800 calories (a possible .8 lb difference in fat loss) altogether. At that point if you are losing too slowly you can eat less. If you are losing too quickly you can eat more. If you are doing fine, stay the course.

This, except for weight training calories of course.

Spliner1969

I honestly do not think it's accurate for anyone. The problem is that everyone has a different weight, different fitness level, etc. etc. The only way to judge whether or not it's accurate is to use it, choose a percentage of those calories you feel comfortable with eating back, and then, judging that estimate over a period of a month or two, see if you lost or gained the amount of weight you expected. If you lost less than you expected, drop that percentage a tad and go for another couple of months to see what happens.

Early on I purchased a HR strap to pair with my phone, chose an app I liked (in my case Endomondo), and I use it for all exercise and it calculates calories burned by my heart rate. For me, it's been accurate up to 90%. I can easily eat back 90% of the calories it says I have burned and not gain weight. If I drop back to eating back say 80% of the calories I'll lose about a quarter pound a month on average. That was the only way I could be more accurate with my calculations, but even then, it might not be 90% accurate for you if you use the same hardware and app. You have to monitor and adjust. That's why most people will tell you to start at eating back 50% of your exercise calories and adjust monthly from there until you're comfortable that it's accurate for you.

Then there's the fact that every 5 lbs you lose or so, you will probably burn less calories doing the same exercise. Also, as your cardiovascular system becomes more fit, it works less hard to do the same amount of work. So you have to adjust every time you lose a few pounds. For me, I simply adjust my weight in my app every time I've lost 5 lbs and it takes that into account.

Good luck!

rainbowbow

Spliner1969 wrote: »

I honestly do not think it's accurate for anyone. The problem is that everyone has a different weight, different fitness level, etc. etc. The only way to judge whether or not it's accurate is to use it, choose a percentage of those calories you feel comfortable with eating back, and then judging that estimate over a period of a month or two to see if you lost or gained the amount of weight you expected. If you lost less than you expected, drop that percentage a tad and go for another couple of months to see what happens.

Early on I purchased a HR strap to pair with my phone, chose an app I liked (in my case Endomondo), and I use it for all exercise and it calculates calories burned by my heart rate. For me, it's been accurate up to 90%. I can easily eat back 90% of the calories it says I have burned and not gain weight. If I drop back to eating back say 80% of the calories I'll lose about a quarter pound a month on average. That was the only way I could be more accurate with my calculations, but even then, it might not be 90% accurate for you if you use the same hardware and app. You have to monitor and adjust. That's why most people will tell you to start at eating back 50% of your exercise calories and adjust monthly from there until you're comfortable that it's accurate for you.

Then there's the fact that every 5 lbs you lose or so, you will probably burn less calories doing the same exercise. Also, as you cardiovascular system becomes more fit, it works less hard to do the same amount of work. So you have to adjust every time you lose a few pounds. For me, I simply adjust my weight in my app every time I've lost 5 lbs and it takes that into account.

Good luck!

I could be wrong, but i think MyFitnessPal does take into account your weight and specific information (including adjusting for lower BMR as you lose weight) when calculating calories burned.

The main issue i see is when performing something like strength training where your heart-rate is elevated even when you're standing around resting in-between sets. Your workout may last 45 minutes, but you're only actively lifting 15-20 minutes of that. etc.

TavistockToad

i've been on here for 5 years and always eaten back exercise cals and have been successful in losing and maintaining

Spliner1969

rainbowbow wrote: »

The main issue i see is when performing something like strength training where your heart-rate is elevated even when you're standing around resting in-between sets. Your workout may last 45 minutes, but you're only actively lifting 15-20 minutes of that. etc.

Correct, strength training (weight lifting only) should not be gauged using an app if at all possible. It'll over calculate the calories to an extent. I, however, do cross training instead and keep my heart rate in the 120 range the whole time while incorporating body weight training with different muscle groups with no or very very little rest. It keeps my counts accurate as the app slows down the burn rate if the heart rate drops. But if my heart rate drops below say 100bpm I pause the app unless I'm speed walking/jogging (which I will also sometimes incorporate into my cross training routine to keep the HR up). Keeping the HR above 110 or so doesn't seem to be a problem for me.

The problem with weight training is you'll see spikes up to your max heart rate, then while resting for 1-5 minutes it'll drop down to a low heart rate. You can compensate by pausing your app during these rest periods, but it's hard to remember to do that.

jjpptt2

All the approximating, estimating, rounding, and assuming that are built into MFP have worked very well for me. When I do what I'm supposed to do, and follow what the app and the numbers tell me, I've had good success both losing weight and gaining weight.

My lack of success has never been because of the app, a website, or any other technology.

TR0berts

Back when I was tracking everything, I input exercise and ate back all of them. My weight tracked almost exactly like it should have - within 0.1 lb loss/gain like I should have seen.

I think a big part of using MFP is setting your activity level properly. There are probably quite a few people that don't have it set properly - so they have incorrect Calorie goals in the first place and then think the exercise Calories are off.

rsclause

I use a fitbit to track general activity. Runtastic app tracks my runs or power walks. I think that both are accurate enough for me to track and eat back most of the calories. They both sync back to MFP so I don't need to enter anything. When using these and logging I would consistently lose weight so that somewhat confirms that they are close enough. Anything that has been manually entered into the MFP database by users is suspect. It is for this reason that for both foods and exercise I deliberately scan through several entries choose the number within reason that is the least likely to be favorable to my goals. This seems to weed out the way off entries. I also don't log anything that is not an actual exercise. Things like mowing the lawn, gardening or housework I leave for my fitbit to enter as activity. I was able to lose all of my extra weight, 53 pounds, this way.

lorrpb

All CI and CO is an estimate. It's not about "truthfulness" per se. Personally, I choose a calorie goal, eat to it, and consider most exercise "bonus burn."

Machka9

TavistockToad wrote: »

i've been on here for 5 years and always eaten back exercise cals and have been successful in losing and maintaining

What has worked well for me is ...

-- rounding down the exercise I log.
-- if I'm only exercising for maybe an hour or so, I will likely only eat about half my exercise calories back.
-- if I'm exercising for, say, 2 or 3 hours, I might eat about 75% of my exercise calories back.
-- if I'm putting in a good effort for the day, like a 4 or 5 or 10 hour bicycle ride, I will eat most of my exercise calories back.

I lost the weigh I wanted to lose and have maintained that loss for a year.

pebble4321

I don't think it's about being "truthful" or not - these numbers are just estimates.
I used MFP exercise numbers exclusively about four years ago and they worked fine for me.
The next time around (yes I lost the plot in the middle there) I used my Apple Watch numbers and they worked out for me too.
I don't think the whole "only eat 50%" advise makes much sense, why not try them as they are and see what results you get?

In reality, all you can do is pick one set of numbers, try them for a month or so and then adjust your numbers in or out until you get the balance that is right for you.