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How To Track Accurate Calories Burned?

Nishiix

Hello,

New to the game of keeping things tracked. I want to know how you guys are tracking your calories burned from cardio exercises, weight lifting or other activites.

So far I have been inputting them as what I see on the machine I am using (treadmill, elliptical, etc). I use a step tracker app, but that fails due to the fact I do not run with it on me nor do I know how accurate it is overall.

When it comes to weights I would not know if it is necessary to or how to even track that. I feel the machines when it comes to cardio I go on tend to overcalculate the burn too.

Any tips or suggestions are helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Replies

janejellyroll

I have a Fitbit and I synced it to my MFP account. This takes care of cardio and I don't do adjustments for resistance training.

MegaMooseEsq

A lot of people say that machines tend to overestimate your total burn, which is why the common advice is not to eat back all of those calories at first, but start with 50% or 75% and adjust depending on your rate of weight loss (or gain). I use an apple watch because I enjoy gameifying my life, but it's not really necessary. You could also compare the machine's number to the MFP algorithms and see which works better for you over time.

There is a cardio entry for strength training, but pretty much everyone I've seen here says not to bother tracking weight lifting. I do bodyweight circuits and track it as calisthenics.

Spliner1969

Figure on the estimates on those machines as being overrated. The only way to really know for sure how accurate they are is to eat those calories back consistently over a period of a few weeks and compare it to your expected weight loss. For instance if you have yourself set at 1lb/wk loss, and you eat back all your exercise calories and your weight loss stops over the next few weeks they they are over estimated. If you lose more than 1 lb per week then they are under estimated. For this reason, most people like myself started out eating back 50% of those calories. Then over the next couple months or so if our weight loss accelerated we'd allow ourselves to eat a little more of them. I have the same app/hrm combo I've used over the last three years or so. I know that it's about 80% accurate for me because, well, I've adjusted those calorie intakes over the last three years up and down. I always try to be consistent with the effort I put into my exercise and stick to that 80% rule and I get along just fine.

As far as weight training, unless you spend hours doing it, you probably aren't burning much. Strength/resistance training can be used as a way to burn calories but only if you keep moving (no rest). What I do is switch from muscle group to muscle group with no rest in between in circuits. It keeps my heart rate up, and keeps me moving so I can log it as circuit training and burn more calories. But if I simply lift weights, then rest in between sets, I don't even bother to log it most of the time.

jjpptt2

There is no accurate, only reasonable.

I use a Garmin for some activities, but not all. I use the MFP database for some, but not all. The numbers they give me have always been pretty reasonable, and have worked well for me. I know people claim they overestimate and whatever else, but I've had good luck/experiences using those numbers.

Ultimately though, everything gets a sanity check.

Cardio-
- Fairly steady state, high(ish) intensity... ~10 cals per minute
- Fairly steady state, moderate intenisty... ~5 cals per minute
- Interval-type work, high intensity... ~7 cals per minute
- Interval type work, moderate intenisty... ~4 cals per minute

Strength training... ~3 cals per minute

Ultimately, the best thing you can do is choose an approach and be consistent with it. Then compare you actual results to your expected results, and make slow, small changes until those results match.

sijomial

Strength training - I use the estimate on here (it's for total duration of your workout based on your weight and METS). It's not a lot of calories though, not enough to expend more effort in trying to improve the accuracy even if it were possible. I do feel it's worth recording though, if I was still logging my food I would log a 233cal food item so why not do the same for exercise?

Circuit training - I use the estimate on here. (I feel it's a bit high.)

Cycling outdoors - combination of Garmin and Strava. (A bit variable but it evens out. The speed related estimates on here are very high if you ride a decent road bike.)

Indoor cycle training - mostly I use a power meter equipped bike which is pretty accurate.

Concept2 rower - I use its calorie estimate (I'm close enough to their "175lb standard sized rower" not to have to bother fine tuning using their online calculator.)

Various other cardio - Polar FT60 heart rate monitor customised with my own settings.

Other bits & pieces - I make an educated guess.

I've always eaten back all my exercise calories, really I have to as I have a lot of 1,000+ calories burned days, and never had a problem losing or maintaining my weight as desired.

PolarBearBob

I like jjpptt2 estimate, 3 calories for every minute of sustained strength work. Beautiful now all I need is how to log it in MFP.
I still want to find a really good weight training app so I can customize my workouts and track my progress, BMI, Measurements.
Any suggestions for a good app?
PBB

keithbkscty24

I use a TomTom Spark fitness watch and heart rate chest strap to keep track of my calories burned when not on the treadmill or bicycles. The estimates seem to be a bit on the high side in my opinion. We well see as I continue to work out and start to lose weight.

NorthCascades

I use a power meter to measure how much work I've done.