Starts and Stops

TimothyFish

Yesterday I rode my bicycle over hilly terrain but with very few stops. Today I rode on less hilly terrain for about the same length of time, but with a stop sign about every five minutes and plenty of kids and cars to look out for. My calorie burn was 40% less for the same length of time. I find that interesting because many people think the MFP calorie burn estimates are off by as much as 50%, so they eat only 50% of exercise calories to stay in their deficit. I wonder if maybe the real problem is that they are recording their exercise as if they were fully active for the whole time when in fact they have many "starts and stops" along the way.

Alatariel75

I too have often wondered that. When I was going to TKD, the classes were 1 hour. But much of that hour is spent between exercises, or watching a demonstration. The calorie burn for a 1 hour class is very high. I used to log a 1 hour class as 30 minutes, and felt that was quite reasonable. I have no doubt many people log 1 hour exercise classes and the like as the full hour, not taking into consideration that they aren't working out for that full hour.

BabyBearFrigon

Unless I am on a rower or treadmill, I don't track anything else. Plus, the majority of my workouts are centered around powerlifting, and MFP doesn't do any calculations for any of that, so I don't bother. But I think you're right in the fact that different ways of performing the same exercise could affect logging in MFP. I only Log in here for my Nutritionist. She gives me my Macro goals for the week, and I stick to them, doesn't matter what MFP says, as it's only a guideline to the general public, and I use a different form from her to log average macros a week and weight. Both are like a game foe me.

HeliumIsNoble

I've thought the same about stops and starts. I can well believe the stuff I do would meet MFP's projected burn, if I went full pelt for 60 consecutive minutes, which of course I don't. So I log the full hour under "low impact aerobics" as a catch-all instead, as it has about half the projected calorie burn in the database. I just assume it'll all average out in the end.

cross2bear

Yes, I have considered that, so in the summer when I am swimming, I record 60 minutes of casual swimming, meaning that I do not touch down during that time - around and around the pool.....................

LessCookiess

Good post.