looking for honest users

24

Replies

  • niftyafterfifty
    niftyafterfifty Posts: 338 Member
    If the calories burned on the MFP website are greatly exaggerated, I don't know how I managed to lose 40 pounds in a little over a year and have been maintaining since December. I'm a 57 year old woman without a fitbit or any other way to guage my burns other than this and other websites. It's worked for me.
  • getbackto12
    getbackto12 Posts: 2
    Totally with you on that!
    If I'm unsure, then I up the calories to be on the safe side - as at the end of the day you're only kidding yourself if you abuse the idea of the website. Which is to aid in the monitoring of your fitness goals!
  • OnShiplessOceans
    OnShiplessOceans Posts: 2
    I am honest about the things I eat, and I just made a new account. I rarely exercise, though. I walk up and down my street about twice a week, sometimes three times a week. Mostly, I just watch my calories and that seems to work for me. It might not work for others, but it works for my body. I just think it is important not to criticize others and just support them. But I do see something wrong if you are taking diet pills and throwing up after you eat. I would not be able to support that.

    Hello, everyone! I hope your diets are going well!
  • erinsueburns
    erinsueburns Posts: 865 Member
    Since they are only truly accurate for steady state cardio, I would say it depends on how much steady state cardio you do. If your exercise consists of things like weight lifting and HIIT they still aren't especially accurate. They also aren't accurate for daily wear. But if you are doing long sessions of steady state cardio several times per week, it may be a good investment.
    I agree, some people are putting ridiculous numbers. I want to get an HRM to see the exact amount of calories I burn, but they're so pricey :/ Anyways, agreed! Only a couple of my friends exaggerate the amount of calories burned.

    Walmart. $50. Love mine :)

    Cheapest price I've seen yet, Walmart it is. Thank you! :)

    Also, I'm a college student (in other words, I'm kinda broke), but I'm really committed to losing weight. $50 would usually be too much for me, but should I get it anyways? Is it a wise investment into my weight loss journey?
  • LilithNoor
    LilithNoor Posts: 42
    My hackles really don't get raised until cleaning the house gets logged. Then I raise my hackles.

    I don't log anything that I count as part of a standard day (so no logging cooking, walks to and from the water cooler, laundry, bleaching the loo etc).

    However, I clean house about once in a blue moon, so when I do do it, I feel it deserves logging, because it's bloody hard work when you have that much dust to evict!
  • pineapple_jojo
    pineapple_jojo Posts: 440 Member
    Oh yep, i'm with you on this - i do an epic clean once in a blue moon too! Its definely getting logged!
  • LiftBigtoGetFit
    LiftBigtoGetFit Posts: 3,399 Member
    anyone, feel free to add me. i eat normal foods and exercise in spurts. when i start playing basketball in the fall i will have bigger burns but normally i don't log my exercise. good luck to you!
  • Kayden1986
    Kayden1986 Posts: 189 Member
    im honest in my logging :) and very active!! or I try to be
  • quiltlovinlisa
    quiltlovinlisa Posts: 1,710 Member
    Hard to figure out if I'm doing something wrong if I'm not honest in my logging.
  • eazy_
    eazy_ Posts: 516 Member
    The numbers don't lie as long as you don't lie about your numbers.--KG
  • mahoneygum
    mahoneygum Posts: 3
    Totally agree why lie about your weight and what you eat. sometimes I go a little over what im supposed to be eating but I still log it.
    You have to be honest with yourself on this prograsm if not it will never work and you will become depressed
  • slim4health56
    slim4health56 Posts: 439 Member
    My hackles really don't get raised until cleaning the house gets logged. Then I raise my hackles.

    The funniest log I saw was: Smoking 1 cigarette = 20 calories
  • AleciaG724
    AleciaG724 Posts: 705 Member
    I'm using the livestrong site to calculate my burns until my HRM comes in the mail & I agree that MFP overestimates. I still have a lot to lose therefore I burn more calories during workouts than a fit person would. I can easily burn 600-700 calories just walking for a couple of hours, and 800-900 hiking but that may seem inflated to some people. I can see how really high burns in the thousands could be discouraging, and seem unrealistic, but I guess I'm an optimist. I don't ever see myself being an elite athlete or running a marathon, so those huge burns whether real or exaggerated don't affect me one way or the other. I really only work out so I can eat a little more :-).

    I've been losing 2 - 2 1/2#/week consistently for 16 weeks and am highly motivated to meet my mini goals and ultimate long-term goal. I log everything I eat as honestly as possible. I only eat back about half my exercise calories & tend to underestimate my burns to be on the safe side. My diary is open to the public, but feel free to friend me!
  • My0WNinspiration
    My0WNinspiration Posts: 1,146 Member
    I understand the ridiculousness, but when MFP users lie on their diaries, they only to themselves. It doesn't affect you really, does it?

    It can be discouraging to some.

    Very discouraging....I'm proud of my little 200 calorie burns!!
  • My0WNinspiration
    My0WNinspiration Posts: 1,146 Member
    My hackles really don't get raised until cleaning the house gets logged. Then I raise my hackles.

    The funniest log I saw was: Smoking 1 cigarette = 20 calories

    Someone logged folding laundry
  • mark1978mark
    mark1978mark Posts: 30 Member
    I burnt 3500 calories yesterday on a bike ride now I need a week to recover lol!
  • A_Warrior_Princess
    A_Warrior_Princess Posts: 344 Member
    I wear a BodyMedia, which I consider to be pretty accurate, so I never need to worry about overestimating.

    Even when I ran a marathon, my burn for the day was only 4,640. :laugh:

    Me too. Whatever it inputs I go with. I don't use MFP's exercise tab at all. I think it grossly over exaggerates on burn on most of the activity.
  • honeysprinkles
    honeysprinkles Posts: 1,757 Member
    325 minutes of cardio is insanely long and could easily burn 3000+ calories for someone who is tall or weighs a lot. Also, some machines and mfp entries overestimate calorie burns, so maybe the people just aren't aware of that. I don't think that makes anyoen dishonest.

    I use a heart rate monitor to log my workouts though.
  • DocMarr
    DocMarr Posts: 132 Member
    Are you taking into account that people who are extremely heavy burn more calories doing the same activity than someone who is a lot lighter? My daughter and I have both measured our calorie burn doing the same exercise on several occasions using our HRMs. I'm quite short and on maintenance, she's taller and 40lbs heavier than me. She burns almost double what I burn doing exactly the same workout. This could be a factor as to why people look like they burn so much?
  • honeysprinkles
    honeysprinkles Posts: 1,757 Member
    If the calories burned on the MFP website are greatly exaggerated, I don't know how I managed to lose 40 pounds in a little over a year and have been maintaining since December. I'm a 57 year old woman without a fitbit or any other way to guage my burns other than this and other websites. It's worked for me.
    it's not that far off, it's definitely better than not logging anything and I'm sure the difference isn't enough to prevent weight loss! nice job btw :)
  • honeysprinkles
    honeysprinkles Posts: 1,757 Member
    Are you taking into account that people who are extremely heavy burn more calories doing the same activity than someone who is a lot lighter? My daughter and I have both measured our calorie burn doing the same exercise on several occasions using our HRMs. I'm quite short and on maintenance, she's taller and 40lbs heavier than me. She burns almost double what I burn doing exactly the same workout. This could be a factor as to why people look like they burn so much?
    I've even exercised with a friend who weighs the same as me but is 2" shorter and she burned way more calories than I did doing the exact same thing! I was a little jealous lol but I think it's because I've been regularly exercising for a long time now and she just started.
  • podgeford123
    podgeford123 Posts: 29
    Maybe it is the calculator at MFP; I bike to work and back every day; its a good work out, but says in 1 hour I use 900 or so calories; there are days that we bike to the coast here, about 60 kilometers, 5 hour round trip...so that would burn at least 4000 cals...I am loosing a lot of weight, so maybe it is accurate that you can loose 5000 cals in a day if you for example bike ride for 8 hours...why not?
  • DocMarr
    DocMarr Posts: 132 Member
    Are you taking into account that people who are extremely heavy burn more calories doing the same activity than someone who is a lot lighter? My daughter and I have both measured our calorie burn doing the same exercise on several occasions using our HRMs. I'm quite short and on maintenance, she's taller and 40lbs heavier than me. She burns almost double what I burn doing exactly the same workout. This could be a factor as to why people look like they burn so much?
    I've even exercised with a friend who weighs the same as me but is 2" shorter and she burned way more calories than I did doing the exact same thing! I was a little jealous lol but I think it's because I've been regularly exercising for a long time now and she just started.

    Indeed. I used to get a 700 calorie burn for an hour of zumba. 18 months later I have to work out twice as hard to get a burn of around 530. The price of fitness - the body becomes more adept at saving energy. So someone who is 200lbs over weight may well burn a lot of calories not working out as hard. Not something to get discouraged about, I don't think. :-)
  • podgeford123
    podgeford123 Posts: 29
    If the calories burned on the MFP website are greatly exaggerated, I don't know how I managed to lose 40 pounds in a little over a year and have been maintaining since December. I'm a 57 year old woman without a fitbit or any other way to guage my burns other than this and other websites. It's worked for me.

    I am with you on that....it is working for me too
  • HeadsPoppingOutOfCups
    HeadsPoppingOutOfCups Posts: 115
    I always post what the cardio equipment at the gym claims, which averages about to 500 calories an hour about 5 days a week. I also record the squats I do in the bathroom at the work but they don't have any calories attached. I figure the gym equipment probably overestimates calories burned so I just try to go a bit under on the calories consumed.
  • Alderaic
    Alderaic Posts: 294 Member
    bike rides with my garmin HRM is consistent at giving me a 1000k burn per hour. cross verified with my stats + weight (185) on other bike related websites.
    A year ago I was discarding such numbers on MFP as well, today I understand more the logic behind it (my HRM numbers were giving an average 550/600 cal per hour when doing P90X/Asylum last november)
  • MyProgressISYour1Proof
    MyProgressISYour1Proof Posts: 376 Member
    I keep my posts as real as possible. Honesty is the best policy :)
  • bepeejaye
    bepeejaye Posts: 775 Member
    Luckily, mi HRM + Body Composition Analyzer help me with the numbers :)
  • emaren
    emaren Posts: 934 Member
    A combination of a HRM, Fitbit and Endomondo tracks my burns.

    This morning I burned 1650 calories riding a mountain bike just under 20 miles in two hours.
  • bepeejaye
    bepeejaye Posts: 775 Member
    I keep my posts as real as possible. Honesty is the best policy :)


    Indeed! :)
This discussion has been closed.

Categories