How to count & not to trust.

BrianSharpe

:sad: Now if this isn't the most confusing thing ever!
I bought myself a pedometer. I try & walk for at least 2 hours a night or broken up during the day.
Seems a good way to burn off some calories.
I come home at the end of the day & log everything in here & check to see how I did.
For the first time (tonight) I checked what My Fitness Pal "said" next to what my pedometer "said."

This is what happened:

My Fitness Pal readings:
Walked 1 hour @ 2.5 leisurely pace
Calories burned: 372

My Pedometer reading:
Walked 1 hour
Steps taken: 3,006
Miles recorded: 1.423
Calories burned: 81.1

81.1 VS. 372 calories burned. Which is right & which is wrong? Huge difference.
How do I know how to count them & which one not to trust? :grumble:

As a rule of thumb Runners World suggests estimating net caloric burn (ie that attributed directly to the activity) for walking using the following formula......

.30 x weight (in lbs) x distance (in miles)

so a 200lb person would expend an additional 60 cal for every mile walked

Chevy_Quest

I use the app runkeeper!

This gives me totally accurate pace and distance.

I purposely have set my fitbit stride to less to "sandbag" myself.

It is all about being consistent.

Janette3x4

I am 5'4" and my step is set to 26". If you are taller your stride will be longer. Measure your step and make sure your pedometer is set correctly. I use a pedometer and map my walk app. MFP always goes higher with calls burned than either of these other 2 for me.

blondageh

I would be heart broken if I only burned 81 calories after walking for an hour. No way that is right.

tlb1175

I am new to the whole dieting thing & I am still learning but, MFP has from what I understand my calorie intake set low (1200) so I do not log my daily exercise (which is not a lot, I walk a mile everyday, takes me anywhere from 15 to 20 mins. & then do a couple of sets of crunches, lunges, etc. in the morning & afternoon) I also do not eat back my exercise calories because I know what I am doing is not all that much. With that said, I am seeing weight loss & toning so what I am doing works for me. As for a pedometer the one I had was off because it said something different from the distance my husband & I both drove off.

missiontofitness

I would trust the pedometer over MFP in this case. If your pedometer was set up correctly, you were walking at a 1.4mph pace, which is pretty slow; 80 calories sounds about right. Since you inputted it as 2.5MPH in MFP (which is a faster speed), of course the burn is going to be higher, since it was a faster walk.

Regardless, good for you for getting over a mile in that day!

michelleepotter

If you set MFP to lose .5 pound a week (ie, a 500 calorie per day deficit), and then you use the MFP database to estimate your exercise burn (which tends to way overestimate), and then you eat back all of your exercise calories, and maybe go just a tiny bit over, then you could end up with a tiny (or non-existent) deficit. You won't lose weight that way.

A lot of what you say is right, but pound of fat is about 3500 calories, so if you wanted to lose half a pound a week you'd need a 250 calorie deficit.

3500 calories, divided by 7 days in a week, equals 500 per day. What am I missing there?

Edit: I see what I am missing. I said HALF a pound. Crap. Sometimes I no can math. :P

cwolfman13

Kazz -I asked a trainer/nutritionist I know for the answer.... Here you go. I know I was asking the same thing. Keep going strong!

You are right in saying if you don't eat back the calories you burn you will lose weight faster but you are also right in saying you should refuel. If you aren't eating appropriately after workouts your muscles won't repair or recover as fast which will leave you not being able to workout hard for your next workout.

So what do you do? You can eat only
Your allotted calories for the day but you need to make sure you are eating a good source of simple carbs and protein after workouts. This will take care of the muscle recovery and give you a good calorie deficit.

I would eat around 1400-1500 calories on the days you exercise. So your food column should say 1400-1500. Your net will probably be around 1000-1200 which is perfectly fine.

Finally someone who says what I have been thinking all along that eating back your calories was just kind of dumb (not your exact words but still). I made a decision to stop eating abck all my calories a while back! And yeah 13 pounds in two weeks, Ill take that! I know its not sustainable but it will still continue to go down!:bigsmile:

Most likely you were underestimating your intake and overestimating your output...when you're as accurate as possible with both, MFP's method works just fine. It also helps to understand how the tool works...if you and others truly did then you would see exactly why you're supposed to eat back exercise calories.

It's also pretty important when you really get into fitness as proper nutrients and calories are essential to fitness...also pretty essential to being able to maintain. It really does help to learn something about the tool you are using before you just go head first into using it. But hey...some people like driving screws with a hammer I suppose.