to say ...inaccurate calorie and exercise counts.....

2»

Replies

  • snazzyjazzy21
    snazzyjazzy21 Posts: 1,298 Member
    3000 calories burned when you walk 7000 steps? That's 3 1/2 miles.....

    I'm assuming she's talking about a calorie burn logged with a fitbit, which includes your BMR in the total.
  • lsorci919
    lsorci919 Posts: 772 Member
    Typically I would say leave it alone buttttttttttt I had a friend on here that pointed out my calorie burns were highly inflated and gave me advice on how to get a more accurate idea of what I was burning. I'm glad she did.
  • krawhitham
    krawhitham Posts: 831 Member
    Honestly, everyone on this site is a stranger to me. If a stranger PMs me and says "nonono you're doing it all wrong" and tells me my runs don't burn 300+ calories and that I'm mis counting calories, I'd probably visit their profile and their food diary and make an educated choice to listen to them.

    I could
    1 - decide they're doing it wrong and I'm fine with the way I do things and ignore them
    2- notice that they're very diligent and informative and change my behavior and thank them for correcting me
    3- get totally offended and PM them back with a string of insults

    Either way, who cares? I would tell someone if I saw them doing something wrong. If they get mad at me, so be it, they're a stranger on a weight loss web site and it's no skin off my back. I never put anyone down, I only try to help, and so I don't feel bad about it.

    We wouldn't all be on this site if we all didn't want/need help.
  • blytheandbonnie
    blytheandbonnie Posts: 3,275 Member
    Good rule of thumb: If a person is not asking for input or advice on their diary, you should probably not give it.

    MFP doesn't display current weight unless you set your ticker to show it. Without knowing the height and weight of a person, it is impossible to say whether their 45 minute walk burned 600 calories or not.
    I've had people give me a hard time about my burns, even when I use a calorimeter to track them. Why? Because I regularly register burns of over 1000 calories for an hour's worth of aerobic exercise. They can't conceive of the possibility that it's even possible, let alone that my sedentary TDEE average was/is over 3400 calories. It boils down to a general lack of understanding when it comes to bigger people and their burns.

    A standard pat of butter is 36 calories. However, a small pat of butter can very well be 20 calories. Sometimes people amend their entries so that it's only counting .66 of one unit, or they are electing a selection that better matches what they actually ate. Without knowing the details, it's impossible to say.

    People use the logs here for all sorts of reasons. I know many who don't count any of the exercise calories, so it really doesn't matter whether it says 50 or 1000, they aren't eating them back. Same with food... some people are just writing down the food, but not concentrating on the calories so much as building a logging habit. If inaccuracy bothers you, it's your prerogative to delete them, but there's no rule that requires diary accuracy.

    Basically, do it at your own risk, I guess.

    Editing to add that if you're paying such close attention to a particular person that you can see with relative certainty that they are actually manually changing their calorie goals, I think it's time to back off and move on. However, getting under goal can be due to exercise and things as well... and frankly, if a person wants to see if today's calories would fit under a .5lb/week loss as opposed to their 1lb/week loss original goal, who cares?
    ETA: I like you.

Categories