About the tracking of exercise calories

Retroguy2000
Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,891 Member
in Getting Started
So I add the calories from exercise, and things have been going well for many months. I was thinking about this scenario today:

Let's say I burn 250 calories in half an hour on the exercise bike. And say my TDEE is around 2200 calories, which is about 90 per hour on average, to make it easy let's call that 100 per waking hour which is 50 per half hour.

Therefore I may have done 250 calories on the bike, but isn't that just 200 more than watching Netflix? Why then do we add the full 250 exercise estimate to get a new daily goal, instead of the 200 delta?

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,908 Member
    Retroguy2000 wrote: »
    So I add the calories from exercise, and things have been going well for many months. I was thinking about this scenario today:

    Let's say I burn 250 calories in half an hour on the exercise bike. And say my TDEE is around 2200 calories, which is about 90 per hour on average, to make it easy let's call that 100 per waking hour which is 50 per half hour.

    Therefore I may have done 250 calories on the bike, but isn't that just 200 more than watching Netflix? Why then do we add the full 250 exercise estimate to get a new daily goal, instead of the 200 delta?

    That is the difference between gross and net exercise calories. Gross includes your BMR and net doesn't. So when estimating exercise calories, it's the net calories burned you want to add to MFP. It's really going to depend on what your source is for those 250 calories.
    I don't use the MFP exercise database (I have a synced fitness tracker) but from what I've read MFP estimates for exercise sometimes (or always?) include BMR calories. Not a problem for shorter exercise sessions, but for longer periods (for example going for a walk for a few hours) it can become problematic.

    If you've been losing weight at your intended rate of loss, it obviously can't be far off for you 🙂
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    It depends on how you / your bike are getting that estimate.

    Most commonly bikes and apps (and the MFP database) give people gross calorie estimates which as you point out includes the calories you would have burned anyway.
    But if your bike has a power meter and is using that data correctly it's giving a very accurate net calorie estimate of JUST the actual effort you are putting through the pedals.

    If your bike tells you your average watts were close to 140w then you have a very good net calorie estimate.

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