Majorly overestimating calorie burn!

kendragetshealthy
kendragetshealthy Posts: 87
in Fitness and Exercise
This is my experience. I am not saying anything like I know it all or I know anything at all. I am just saying that this is what happened to me...

There is so much emphasis on eating back exercise calories burned. In my case for the past several weeks I haven 't lost or I have barely lost. I was eating back those calories. Those calories burned I calculated on two things- my Jawbone UP and the estimated calorie burn on MFP. Turns out I was WAY overestimating-- I know this because my Polar FT4 arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to put it to work. I noticed after my first workout that I was actually burning about half as much as I thought. So... I was probably eating back enough calories to maintain but not lose.

So I am just saying if you are exercising a bunch and don't seem to be losing, check out what numbers you're putting in for your calorie burn. It's probably too much. I'll post again next week after another weighin and let you guys know how it turned out for my first week with the Polar, but I am hoping for a loss... :)

Again, I don't claim to know anything at all. Just sharing my experience. I say this because a lot of people on here jump on you if you claim any knowledge at all haha...

Replies

  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    While I don't doubt what you're saying is true, I just want to caution people again assuming an HRM is automatically going to be more accurate than any other method of estimating calorie burns. It won't always be the case, and in some situation it can actually be far LESS accurate.
  • TechOutside
    TechOutside Posts: 101 Member
    Were you adding your Jawbone expenditure and adding the MFP value? OR Did you choose one or the other? How did you determine the value of the calories between the two references?

    What I mean is, is the Jawbone updating MFP and then you added your exercise to MFP? Doubling the calories expended?

    It should all be close, within a 100 calories is my experience with an HRM one way or the other, but I don't know anything about a Jawbone other than its a really cool pedometer.
  • kendragetshealthy
    kendragetshealthy Posts: 87
    I chose the lower of the two numbers between what my UP said and what MFP said. I wasn't doubling.

    And there is nothing that is going to be 100% accurate, but my two days of using an HRM is telling me that I was eating back too many calories. Just saying...

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