Working out on Peloton, tracks “active calories” vs “total calories” per workout. Which to use?

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6g5h8nfnpy
6g5h8nfnpy Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Active calories vs total calories. Which is best to track?

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  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,675 Member
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    Active, but even then, they may be inflated. Total calories include the calories you burn just breathing, so if you include those you would be double counting. Your base calorie goal includes them already. i.e. in my case, my maintenance level as a sedentary person is 1600 calories. Walking burns about 40 calories per mile, so an hour would burn about 120. If I add the 50 calories per hour that I burn just existing, that would be pretty significant, since it's already included in the 1600.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,154 Member
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    Active calories should be closest to the net calories, if Peloton defines "active calories" in the way that fitness trackers do. Yes, there's a little bit of extra in there, but for any relatively short duration (hour or less) moderately intense (or more) exercise, it's not enough to matter.

    Explanation of theory: Your MFP base calorie goal includes your basal metabolic rate (BMR) plus an allowance for some daily life movement. Using active rather than total calories removes the double-counting of the BMR. You'd still be double counting that daily life movement calorie allowance twice, but it's typically not a big enough fraction of the total to worry about. (The BMR often is.) Only in lengthy, low intensity exercise is the double-count of the daily life movement likely to be significant enough to consider (maybe).

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