Snap! I have been wrong about Calorie Burns!

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Replies

  • hkristine1
    hkristine1 Posts: 950 Member
    I had the same thing happen to me - was logging about 500 calories for an hour of spin class and eating them back, and the weight just wasn't coming off (even though I really am pretty accurate about my caloric intake) so I figured something MUST be wrong with the calories I thought I was burning.

    I got really tired/confused at trying to figure out my caloric burn but wanted a calorie "reward" for working out. So, I have made up my own method which I've been using for a couple of months now and it's really working for me: I give myself 100 extra calories to eat for every 30 minutes of exercise, no matter what I'm doing. So, whether I'm walking or lifting weights or running or yoga or spin class - doesn't matter. I get 100 calories for every 30 minutes. (I do NOT count activity which is not designated exercise - e.g. I don't count cleaning or walking around the grocery store or climbing the stairs to my office). With yoga, I might be overestimating the burn, but on the whole, I know that I'm very much underestimating my burn and I am losing weight at a decent pace now (about 1-1.5 lb/week on average).

    It is also nice because then I feel like I have a bit more freedom with my food - if I have 65 calories left but really want a cookie that is 110 calories, I feel OK about eating it because I know that (on the whole) I have underestimated my calorie burn at the gym - so I don't have to "deprive" myself (I don't plan my meals in advance).
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    @Janie

    I used to do fitday.com and It was really hard to figure out how much you could eat. I workout more so that I can reward myself and enjoy this journey and then maintenance. (Then maybe bulk and cut - gulp)
    It is so cool that you are making it work! :smile:
    Yup. I do the eat back because I find those numbers motivating and want to play around with them as often as possible. Once the output - weekly weight loss - started tracking with all my food and exercise inputs, then I knew I'd found the way for me. I just cranked up my max heart rate on the HRM to 197 and eat back 100% of the calorie numbers I get from that. However if someone seems truly frustrated with chasing exercise calories burned, I do suggest TDEE method.
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    @hkristine1

    What a great and simple method. Part of the fun of all of this is "rewarding" myself if I exercise extra.
    You have a great plan going there! :smile:
    ...Yoga or spin class - doesn't matter. I get 100 calories for every 30 minutes. (I do NOT count activity which is not designated exercise - e.g. I don't count cleaning or walking around the grocery store or climbing the stairs to my office). With yoga, I might be overestimating the burn, but on the whole, I know that I'm very much underestimating my burn and I am losing weight at a decent pace now (about 1-1.5 lb/week on average).

    It is also nice because then I feel like I have a bit more freedom with my food - if I have 65 calories left but really want a cookie that is 110 calories, I feel OK about eating it because I know that (on the whole) I have underestimated my calorie burn at the gym - so I don't have to "deprive" myself (I don't plan my meals in advance).
  • SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish
    SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish Posts: 831 Member
    Look if you are
    - Counting 950 calories for a round of miniature golf wearing snowshoes
    - Counting 1270 calories for watchin "Dukes of Hazzard" reruns while dressed up as Vanilla Ice
    - Counting 2000 calories for spearfishing in Loch Ness

    You might want to reconsider your burns!

    Good luck on your fitness journey - Keep Learning and keep "Self - correcting"!

    I dont know, I was with you till the last one, if you are spearfishing Nessy, you are going to be burning a hell of a lot of calories, in fact scuba to spearfish Nessy is probably going to be a few 1k cals short on burn actually ;)

    I find mine have been getting very accurate as I'm hiking more elevation gain, but for me, the food logging is my biggest error source since I don't weigh and its relatively common to remember the next day I forgot to log this or that snack. When I log my 3,000+ calorie hikes, I try to leave at least around 7-800 cal deficit to make up for the snacking and portion issues, and it works out well for me that way.
  • janatarnhem
    janatarnhem Posts: 669 Member
    More reason to not try to 'eat back'. Use a TDEE method, see what happens, adjust as needed.
    Makes sense to me!
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member


    I dont know, I was with you till the last one, if you are spearfishing Nessy, you are going to be burning a hell of a lot of calories, in fact scuba to spearfish Nessy is probably going to be a few 1k cals short on burn actually ;)

    I find mine have been getting very accurate as I'm hiking more elevation gain, but for me, the food logging is my biggest error source since I don't weigh and its relatively common to remember the next day I forgot to log this or that snack. When I log my 3,000+ calorie hikes, I try to leave at least around 7-800 cal deficit to make up for the snacking and portion issues, and it works out well for me that way.

    LOL @solongandthan -
    You know you are right - went back to mythicalmonstercalorieburns.com and found out that i did not compensate for flipper rate

    Your plan for hiking elevation gain is cool. I have learned so many useful methods and "outlooks". Thanks again!
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    Not trying to self promote, but I wanted a quick link in:

    Message Boards » Last 25 Topics Chevy_Smart Has Posted In

    I am just lazy..:drinker:

    (Well I did make a bookmark, save the url to another file, and but a link in my blog)
  • meridianova
    meridianova Posts: 438 Member
    Look if you are
    - Counting 950 calories for a round of miniature golf wearing snowshoes
    - Counting 1270 calories for watchin "Dukes of Hazzard" reruns while dressed up as Vanilla Ice
    - Counting 2000 calories for spearfishing in Loch Ness

    You might want to reconsider your burns!

    Good luck on your fitness journey - Keep Learning and keep "Self - correcting"!
    Funny I have done this a few times. Especially this week

    you went spearfishing for the loch ness monster too?
  • Momjogger
    Momjogger Posts: 750 Member
    Love this. Very informative. I looked up riding my bike on MFP at 20 MPH for 45 minutes (which is what my spin class bike said). This sounds impressive, right? But, that's what we do every spin class and I've been doing spin for a couple of years now, so I am sure that my body is more efficient at this exercise with practice. MFP said I burned 945 calories??? No way. If that were true, I'd be losing an extra pound a week, and THAT"S NOT happening. LOL. I estimate I can eat an extra 150 to 300 calories after exercising for an hour or so depending on my level of exertion and I try not to over think it.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
    More reason to not try to 'eat back'. Use a TDEE method, see what happens, adjust as needed.
    Or do the MFP method, see what happens and adjust as needed. TDEE method isn't going to be any more accurate by estimating in advance rather than after the event!

    I was going to say this...how could an online calculator be more accurate than any other online calculators...
  • levitateme
    levitateme Posts: 999 Member
    I'm pretty sure that 95% of people who are stalled out are either eating more than they think, burning less than they think or some combination of both.

    Now it's just a matter of convincing people of this fact.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
    I'm pretty sure that 95% of people who are stalled out are either eating more than they think, burning less than they think or some combination of both.

    Now it's just a matter of convincing people of this fact.

    we are all human beings and inconsistency is something almost impossible to avoid completely hence various results on different individuals...Some are more consistent than others for a longer period of time so they didn't see the stall as others did but it doesn't mean they will never stall...
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
    Cool! Love the graphs, too. Very helpful for us visual learners. :drinker:
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    [/quote]
    Funny I have done this a few times. Especially this week

    you went spearfishing for the loch ness monster too?
    [/quote]

    @plerf - I thought that was you... sorry I didn't "wave" :laugh:
  • cingle87
    cingle87 Posts: 717 Member
    How dare you come here with all your graphs, maths and fancy words, how dare you :)

    Great post, I use the 50% method for cardio, and most time I don't count lifting calories because they go on my post lifting banana
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    . I estimate I can eat an extra 150 to 300 calories after exercising for an hour or so depending on my level of exertion and I try not to over think it.

    @Kpederson - I am starting to do that a lot more now and it takes a lot of the "headache" out of things - good call! :smile:
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    How dare you come here with all your graphs, maths and fancy words, how dare you :)

    Great post, I use the 50% method for cardio, and most time I don't count lifting calories because they go on my post lifting banana

    @cingle87 - ha ha ha ha - You are right I stopped counting lifting calories a long time ago after reading a lot of threads here - love the feedback ! :drinker:
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    Cool! Love the graphs, too. Very helpful for us visual learners. :drinker:

    @alloutof_bubbles - thanks - a good MFP friend here suggested it and I said "why not" :smile:
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    I'm pretty sure that 95% of people who are stalled out are either eating more than they think, burning less than they think or some combination of both.

    Now it's just a matter of convincing people of this fact.

    @levitatame - You are soooo right :drinker: . it's usually a combination and then when they get that suggested to them (fireworks!!):explode:
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member

    I was going to say this...how could an online calculator be more accurate than any other online calculators...

    @allbayin - Maybe I misread.. but I think the reason is that different online calculators use different formulas. For example with bodyfat I found at least 4 different methods. Plus some of the calorie burning ones didn't even account for VO2 Max and that is a big piece of the puzzle.thanks! :smile:
  • jtrack3d
    jtrack3d Posts: 91
    This is why I tend to eat a very fixed diet during the week... I know my breakfast and lunch every day. Dinner is the only variable and if I am bad estimating a little under I can just only estimate a little high on it. I do tend to eat back half my exercise estimate.
  • markiend
    markiend Posts: 461 Member
    Good informative stuff , another point that eludes many people is net and gross calorie burns

    ie.. the number you would have burned vegging in front of the computer trying to find an accurate calories burned website
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member

    I was going to say this...how could an online calculator be more accurate than any other online calculators...

    @allbayin - Maybe I misread.. but I think the reason is that different online calculators use different formulas. For example with bodyfat I found at least 4 different methods. Plus some of the calorie burning ones didn't even account for VO2 Max and that is a big piece of the puzzle.thanks! :smile:

    you know I always thought these online tools like going to see a doctor but without being seen by the doctor...like using WebMD to self diagnose. :)
  • cingle87
    cingle87 Posts: 717 Member
    How dare you come here with all your graphs, maths and fancy words, how dare you :)

    Great post, I use the 50% method for cardio, and most time I don't count lifting calories because they go on my post lifting banana

    @cingle87 - ha ha ha ha - You are right I stopped counting lifting calories a long time ago after reading a lot of threads here - love the feedback ! :drinker:

    No problems mate, the more useful information on here the better. It was really an eye opener when I realised how little calories I was burning in 1hr of lifting, I was loging 300/400 where I was really 200max. At the time 200 calorie difference didn't have much affect on my overall dficit because I was larger and the deficit was larger a couple of hundred calories made not difference. Now Im getting close to maintenace running a 250 deficit a few miscalculated calroies could destroy my daily deficit.
  • pursuittofit
    pursuittofit Posts: 97 Member
    Thank you very much!
  • Unknown
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  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    Soooooo what's the easy way to get info like this?

    @BFdeal - I am still relatively "new"
    I just keep reading all these different links and putting pieces together.
    The forums here are really helpful and I like all the animated gifs (no really :drinker: )

    Here are some links I have read - Can't guarantee how good they are however:

    Weight Stuff

    http://weightloss.about.com/od/caloriecounting/qt/calcbmr.htm
    http://www.calculator.net/ideal-weight-calculator.html
    http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/body.htm
    http://www.healthdiscovery.net/links/calculators/ideal_bw_men.htm

    Burn Calculators

    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

    TDEE
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    Exercise
    http://forum.bodybuilding.com/
    http://www.fitnessblender.com/
  • donyellemoniquex3
    donyellemoniquex3 Posts: 2,384 Member
    Fitbit ftw !
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
    Fitbit ftw !

    @donyellemonique - Right That! :drinker: :drinker:

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