Question about exercise calories

HippyGalore

Don't worry it isn't the same old "do I eat them?" question.... rather, my baseline level of calories is about 75 an hour (1800 a day) but surely that is closer to 100 when awake - should I subtract that from every hour I exercise as they are essentially being counted as extra? This is important to me as I often spend about 6 hours a day doing something active at the weekends - I'm just not sure if my HRM or MFP takes that into account as the extra calories you earn from exercise seem to be exactly the ones you put in.

JulzR1

I"m not really understanding your question, but don't think you should consider your calories per hour in any circumstance.

Basically, if your base rate is 1800 calories then that is what you need to survive and function during a normal day (awake 16hrs), with a reasonable weight loss without doing any exercise.

If you are doing exercise, you need to increase your calorific intake so you have the energy to make it through the day doing the normal and additional activities. MFP will add on the calories for you when you fill in your exercise diary, and increase your allowance for that day.

If you are away from the computer at the weekends, i suggest putting in your exercise for the day in advance and then you will be able to plan your meals better too.

Hope that helps, :happy:

sarahliftsUP

If you are using a HRM to calculate your calorie burn, then you should be taking off either 75 or 100 calories for each hour you exercise. If you want to you can go with the higher limit of 100. So, yes, you should be taking off 1.66 calories per minute of exercise that you do. This is because you would be backing up calories due to MFP calculations vs. your HRM.

I hope that makes sense!

HippyGalore

Thank you Asteroid - that is exactly what I was thinking, I only just got a HRM, so I'm just adapting to it. Before I got it, I thought that I was overestimating my exercise but the HRM has veto-ed that theory, this one makes more sense - I just didn't think it through before.

Sorry if I didn't make it too clear R6JT, I'm not too strict and have similar sized meals most days, so don't do too much planning anyway (extra oat bars and bananas to top up on my more hardcore days).

SHBoss1673

Hippy, it depends on your HRM. Some do factor in resting calorie burn, but some don't. Polar doesn't (or didn't when I asked them about 2 years ago, I don't believe that's changed), but I believe the garmin models do (for instance). What you need to do is email or call the support line of your HRM manufacturer and ask them. Or check and see if they have that information on their website.

sarahliftsUP

Thank you Asteroid - that is exactly what I was thinking, I only just got a HRM, so I'm just adapting to it. Before I got it, I thought that I was overestimating my exercise but the HRM has veto-ed that theory, this one makes more sense - I just didn't think it through before.

Sorry if I didn't make it too clear R6JT, I'm not too strict and have similar sized meals most days, so don't do too much planning anyway (extra oat bars and bananas to top up on my more hardcore days).

When I first got my HRM I didn't even think about backing out my resting heart rate or anything. Having a HRM makes things so much easier though.. definitely more accurate for knowing how many calories you have actually burned. I get in the habit now too of when I am looking at my calories burned to subtract 40 calories or so, depending on how many minutes I have worked out. That way if it says 402 calories, and I want to burn a total of 400.. I know I need to keep on trucking for a bit longer!