Tracking outdoor activities

RealWorldStrengthLLC

How do you guys track things like dirt-biking, snowboarding, shoveling rock (construction), and the like. I know MFP has an option for these under cardio but it is ENTIRELY too generous on calories burned. I also found their "strength training" calculator to be way too generous.

I'm at a point where I've set my activity level as "lightly active" even though I'm probably above that and just call everything 45 minutes of strength training. So far it seems to be fairly on point but is there a better way to track these things?

earlnabby

I don't track them. I count them as part of my daily activities. Better to underestimate your burn.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

Problem is, I don't do them every day so I can't up my activity level, and at a certain point I do need to eat back the cals or I seriously suffer the next day in the gym. I'm already at a 1000 deficit - if I trail ride my dirtbike for 80 miles or snowboard 25 runs in a day, that is a significant burn - just not nearly as intense as MFP calculates. It's leaving me with some guesswork.

earlnabby

youcantflexcardio wrote: »

Problem is, I don't do them every day so I can't up my activity level, and at a certain point I do need to eat back the cals or I seriously suffer the next day in the gym. I'm already at a 1000 deficit - if I trail ride my dirtbike for 80 miles or snowboard 25 runs in a day, that is a significant burn - just not nearly as intense as MFP calculates. It's leaving me with some guesswork.

Again, don't track them. Better to underestimate burn.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

Again, when I don't, I suffer in the gym. Bad.

Example - I worked a bit of part time construction after school this week - shoveling rock for around 1.5 hrs. As a result of not eating those calories back, I had to take 2 days off from lifting in a row AND eat a 700 deficit instead of 1000 on those days in order to get my energy levels and strength back to where they should be. I would like to accurately track things like this so that I don't have to take extra rest days.

Lillymoo01

earlnabby wrote: »

youcantflexcardio wrote: »

Problem is, I don't do them every day so I can't up my activity level, and at a certain point I do need to eat back the cals or I seriously suffer the next day in the gym. I'm already at a 1000 deficit - if I trail ride my dirtbike for 80 miles or snowboard 25 runs in a day, that is a significant burn - just not nearly as intense as MFP calculates. It's leaving me with some guesswork.

Again, don't track them. Better to underestimate burn.

Yes and no. Getting some accuracy with your burn will make maintenance much easier when you get there. If it were me I'd add the exercise calories given to you by MFP and eat back somewhere between 50-75% of the calories given as they are often overinflated. I'd do this over changing my activity level because you stated that each day is different. Do this for a month while monitoring your weight loss. Once you have a trend of how much weight you are losing (it is not linear so some weeks you will lose more and others less) you can then get a more accurate idea of how many calories you are actually burning. This is assuming you are correctly entering data for how much you are eating to begin with. There is always going to be some guesswork but your data will be the most accurate way of determining anything as we are all different and every calculator out there for burn is an estimation only for the general population.

On another note, I'd also question whether a 1000 calorie deficit is too large. Unless you are very large a smaller deficit is recommended. Normally no more than 1% of your body weight a week loss is the recommended healthy way of losing weight. If it is too quick you will lose more muscle and have other health issues arise. You are also likely to be more compliant with your loss if it is not too aggressive which leads to better long-term success.

Cahgetsfit

yeah i'm also wondering why a 1000 cal deficit?

if you are struggling to lift at the gym because you did stuff then maybe you need to rethink your deficit?

re tracking outdoor stuff? I don't. I don't even track my gym stuff and I set everything as 1 calorie burnt to not screw my macros.

However, I never go on an aggressive deficit. Slow and steady works best for me personally because if i get too hungry I have a tendency to binge eat.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

I really dont think it's too large, I'm still eating around 2400 cals a day. I'm at a 1000 cal deficit because I'm a 270lb 6'1 male, with a target range of 190-220. Setting my activity level as "lightly active", choosing a 1000 cal deficit, and calling every workout 45 minutes of "strength training" regardless of what it actually was has pretty much yielded a 2lb a week loss for +2 months after the initial 10lbs of water and glycogen drop. It works great on days I go to school (auto tech), go to the gym and lift, and then don't do much else.

My big problem as stated above is anything on top of that leads to a huge energy deficit the next day, IE days I work manual labor, snowboard, dirtbike, or do other physically demanding stuff. I want to know how to accurately eat these back.

EDIT: I'd be willing to open up my diary and answer any questions you have.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

Cahgetsfit wrote: »

yeah i'm also wondering why a 1000 cal deficit?

if you are struggling to lift at the gym because you did stuff then maybe you need to rethink your deficit?

re tracking outdoor stuff? I don't. I don't even track my gym stuff and I set everything as 1 calorie burnt to not screw my macros.

However, I never go on an aggressive deficit. Slow and steady works best for me personally because if i get too hungry I have a tendency to binge eat.

When I say "struggling to lift" I mean doing 90lb overhead DB presses for 3 reps instead of 6. I Mean I'm not performing at my peak, not that light weights become hard.

middlehaitch

You may want to work from a MET calculator/estimation.

You will probably find a better one than this (below) but it gives a general idea.

Use the estimate given consistently for 4 weeks then review your gathered data and adjust as needed by a consistent percentage.

Unless one is very consistent with activity and exercise it can take a while to work out your actual calorie burn as opposed to any web/device calculator.

Cheers, h.

https://www.topendsports.com/weight-loss/energy-met.htm

Machka9

youcantflexcardio wrote: »

How do you guys track things like dirt-biking, snowboarding, shoveling rock (construction), and the like. I know MFP has an option for these under cardio but it is ENTIRELY too generous on calories burned. I also found their "strength training" calculator to be way too generous.

Pick the light, low, slow options ... or enter less time.

In other words, if you shovelled rock for 1 hour, enter 45 minutes.

Same with strength training. If I do about 30 minutes of weightlifting, I enter 10 minutes.

Or you could just eat half your exercise calories back.

spiriteagle99

I would just eat half or 3/4 of the calories back. Then you have a record of what you did and if you find that you aren't losing weight as expected or you're losing more weight than expected, you can adjust.

Tacklewasher

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

I would just eat half or 3/4 of the calories back. Then you have a record of what you did and if you find that you aren't losing weight as expected or you're losing more weight than expected, you can adjust.

This is how I try to deal with it. Eat around half of the extra calculated if I have questions about it. Shoveled gravel Sunday, but it was thanksgiving so I kinda blew the theory away

cwolfman13

A lot of people just estimate by eating some % of exercise calories back. Ultimately as you go along, you just make adjustments as per real life results...ie if losing faster than anticipated or wanted then eat a little more...losing slower than anticipated or wanted then eat a little less.

How are you determining that MFP is overestimating your calories?

earlnabby wrote: »

youcantflexcardio wrote: »

Problem is, I don't do them every day so I can't up my activity level, and at a certain point I do need to eat back the cals or I seriously suffer the next day in the gym. I'm already at a 1000 deficit - if I trail ride my dirtbike for 80 miles or snowboard 25 runs in a day, that is a significant burn - just not nearly as intense as MFP calculates. It's leaving me with some guesswork.

Again, don't track them. Better to underestimate burn.

Not tracking them may work if you're just jumping on an elliptical or something for 30 minutes to get a little cardiovascular workout in...and 80 mile trail ride on a dirt bike is going to be a lot of work and burn a crap ton of calories...same for hitting the slopes all day.

cmriverside

I think the only way to know is to run the experiment. After two to three months you will know if the way you are doing it is working.

I set my Activity Level one level above my actual level. I'm retired, female, tiny condo and you'd think that would be Sedentary, but sedentary doesn't give me enough food to maintain the weight (or to lose when I choose that.)

Over TIME I gave up trying to estimate various exercises and their calories, but I still want that option to eat more on exercise days because it motivates me to get out there. So I just decided to use a flat number (for me that number is 300 calories per hour of moderate exercise.)

That gives me 100 calories per 20 minutes. It seems reasonable, right? It works for me over the long-term, I've tested it.

So over time you may find something like this will work for you, too.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

cwolfman13 wrote: »

A lot of people just estimate by eating some % of exercise calories back. Ultimately as you go along, you just make adjustments as per real life results...ie if losing faster than anticipated or wanted then eat a little more...losing slower than anticipated or wanted then eat a little less.

How are you determining that MFP is overestimating your calories?

earlnabby wrote: »

youcantflexcardio wrote: »

Problem is, I don't do them every day so I can't up my activity level, and at a certain point I do need to eat back the cals or I seriously suffer the next day in the gym. I'm already at a 1000 deficit - if I trail ride my dirtbike for 80 miles or snowboard 25 runs in a day, that is a significant burn - just not nearly as intense as MFP calculates. It's leaving me with some guesswork.

Again, don't track them. Better to underestimate burn.

Not tracking them may work if you're just jumping on an elliptical or something for 30 minutes to get a little cardiovascular workout in...and 80 mile trail ride on a dirt bike is going to be a lot of work and burn a crap ton of calories...same for hitting the slopes all day.

I've determined that MFP vastly overestimated calories based on experience and common sense.

For inststance, the closest thing to dirt biking is motocross on the counter. If I do a 4hr trail ride, it tells me I've burned 1900 calories. Riding a dirt bike is work, but its not that much work, nowhere close. I find a similar discrepancy with snowboarding - if I do 20 runs at 7 minutes average per run, its calling my calories burned close to 1800. That has got to be way off.

I've even found a discrepancy with weight training - it calls 1 hr of strength training almost 400calories. Really, I'd be lucky if it was half that.

I guess I'll just punch in the activities and call it a lot less time than I actually spent doing it to give it my best estimate.

hesn92

Just log it in your MFP diary and if you feel like it's too generous, maybe just eat back half the calories earned. Over time you will know if it's accurate or not based on how much you lose.

NorthCascades

earlnabby wrote: »

youcantflexcardio wrote: »

Problem is, I don't do them every day so I can't up my activity level, and at a certain point I do need to eat back the cals or I seriously suffer the next day in the gym. I'm already at a 1000 deficit - if I trail ride my dirtbike for 80 miles or snowboard 25 runs in a day, that is a significant burn - just not nearly as intense as MFP calculates. It's leaving me with some guesswork.

Again, don't track them. Better to underestimate burn.

Didn't you read what you were replying to? No, it's not better to suffer in the gym because you don't know how to estimate.

HoneyBadger302

I think you've found the best solution - enter them, but only enter 1/2 the time. Then you won't have to calculate your difference in calories.

I know I can definitely eat differently on a busy track weekend than I can during the week/on a lazy weekend, but I agree that it can be really hard to figure out that balance.

sijomial

When my activity (as opposed to exercise) was erratic I just made an estimate based on "feelings" for those times when activity became unusually long duration or high calorie burn - maybe 200cals/hr for unusually extended duration heavy duty gardening or wood sawing for example. Four hours of jungle clearance or cutting up trees clearly isn't a normal activity day and will have a significant but hard to estimate calorie burn.

Now since sort of retiring I just roll it up into my activity setting as it's more consistent.

The strength training estimate is difficult as it's based on METS and your body weight - but in reality the calorie burn is in relation to the amount of weight shifted rather than the weight of the person. A 300lb competitive powerlifter is going to have a far higher real calorie burn than a 300lb obese newbie lifter for example.
You might find as you get closer to goal weight the estimate become more reasonable or believable. There simply isn't a good way to estimate strength training burns for everyone without outrageously complex mass x distance calculations.

For your dirt biking - do you mean motorised or pedal powered? If the latter I would use Strava, If motorised then terrain makes a huge difference.

In the end you have the feedback loops of your actual weight loss over an extended period of time plus your gym performance, it's really good you are conscious of that as there will come a time when a 1000 cal deficit is too much. Estimating is as much an art as a science sometimes but strive to be reasonable. Deliberate under estimating is a really bad way to estimate so ignore that advice, do the best you can and be guided by your results.

RealWorldStrengthLLC

sijomial wrote: »

For your dirt biking - do you mean motorised or pedal powered? If the latter I would use Strava, If motorised then terrain makes a huge difference.

In the end you have the feedback loops of your actual weight loss over an extended period of time plus your gym performance, it's really good you are conscious of that as there will come a time when a 1000 cal deficit is too much. Estimating is as much an art as a science sometimes but strive to be reasonable. Deliberate under estimating is a really bad way to estimate so ignore that advice, do the best you can and be guided by your results.

Motorised - before anyone chimes in, the motor doesn't make it a light activity. If you've ever ridden a dirt bike you know what I mean - throwing around a 450cc, 250lb bike can get pretty exhausting especially in upper body. Not to mention the constantly switching between standing, sitting, standing, sitting - which essentially amounts to hundreds of BW squats throughout a ride.

You are right that terrain would make a pretty big difference, I guess it varies for me. Some trails are pretty easy, a lot of seat time, not a lot of cornering, some you are constantly in it and barely have a moment to sit. And sometimes you dump the bike off trail, have to drag that thing back up a hill through 40 feet of forest, and then try to kickstart it it for 10 minutes because it's flooded.

sbrooks0387

You can make your own entries. I just googled calories burned stacking firewood when I wanted to add that and averaged out a couple of the ones I found.