Total Calorie Burn vs. Net Calorie Burn

MinimalistShoeAddict

Total Calorie Burn vs. Net Calorie Burn for Running and Walking

I think both running and walking are great! That being said, if you run and/or walk a lot and can't figure out why you are seeing unexpected results on the scale this article is worth a look. It addresses the Total Calorie Burn vs. Net Calorie Burn disparities of both running and walking.

http://m.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/how-many-calories-are-you-really-burning?page=single

"We mislead ourselves when we talk about the total calorie burn (TCB) of exercise rather than the net calorie burn (NCB). To figure the NCB of any activity, you must subtract the resting metabolic calories your body would have burned, during the time of the workout, even if you had never gotten off the sofa."

zornig

I have always wondered about this, and whether we shouldn't be subtracting BMR from "calories" burned" in order to get an accurate count of what the additional effort is doing for us. Thanks for posting.

ayalowich

This dawned on me last Saturday and realize it is kind of a no brainer, but rather than worrying about this, I've just adjusted my daily burn about 200 calories and then I don't even have to give it a 2nd thought.

If working out for an hour, I burn about 90-100 hrs just being alive. Even 4-5 times per week, the difference just isn't that large to worry about. Easier to just hose yourself by reducing your daily burn.

salladeve

I have always been suspicious about the eating back of your exercise calories, therefore I never have. My first thought was you need to be really sure of how many calories you are burning AND what you would have burned even if you hadn't done any exercise. So I guess I was on the right track after all.

snookumss

Which is why when you log your calories, you aren't supposed to log all of the ones that show up on your HRM. Total calories - BMR = Excess calories burned...

If you use MFP or other estimations, these are already supposed to be including this.

doctorsookie

I was just about to post about this. I learned about only Sunday and I wondered it MFP used total or Net and it turns out total. So what to do...I mean is MFP giving us credit to calories burned to function daily twice?