Tracking Calories Burned

commoncents101

What is the best way to track how many calories you are really burning per day? I need to know what my outtake is, in order to better understand what my intake should be. I have looked into fitbit a little bit, but that doesn't track how many calories I am burning during my workouts. Or, maybe it does and I am missing something. Then again, maybe I should just look at a heart rate monitor that would maybe track both. I really don't know, as I am pretty new to the whole fitness/weight loss world. Help, please!?!

WBB55

Depends on your workouts, I suppose.

I've found my FitBit to be about right calorie-wise, though it logs stairs while I bike and roller skate. The calories seem to work out, though. I hardly ever manually log anything and my calories seem to be within +/-70 each day based on my long term charts and changes in weight.

psuLemon

Body media is supposed to be the best approach, but you can truly figure out yoru average daily burn (to include metabolic functions) without any media. All you have to do is eat the same amount of calories daily for 4-6 weeks, figure in how much you lost on average and then extrapolate the lost to figure out TDEE. For example, I eat 2500 calories daily, I lose 1 lb per week, that means I burn on average 3000 calories a day.

chivalryder

The best and most accurate way to track how much you burn everyday:

Pick a caloric intake that you believe may be around 1 lb loss per week. Eat that amount every day for a month.

After a month, weigh yourself? Have you lost 4 lbs? If yes, great. Keep at it. If you lost less than 4 lbs, lower your intake by 100 calories/day. If you lost more, increase your intake by 100 cals/day.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

The entire procress of traking calories, logging burns,logging what you eat, is entirely an estimate. You will never get an accurate number. The only way to truely know what your caloie output is and how much you need to eat is to acurately track everything you eat and see what the results are. It's trial and error. don't focus too hard on the little details or you'll miss the big picture: A healthier, happier you.

3dogsrunning

There is no one way outside of a lab to know exactly. All of those gadgets and formulas are estimates. But then again, so will your food intake regardless of how carefully you log food.

The good thing is, you don't need precision. Consistency is far better.

Some people start with a formula and find their TDEE, the amount they neither gain nor lose (you needs to track this over a number of weeks, not 2 or 3) and then go from there.
Others use a FitBit. Some use a HRM. Some use both. Some use nothing but MFP or other formulas.

A HRM will not track daily activity accurately. Most activity monitors that I am aware of do a poor job of monitoring workouts.

erickirb

I vote starting with TDEE calculator and use trial and error to adjust from there.

acaciamavro

I don't know if it's best, or even if it's much more accurate than any other methods, but I have the Polar Loop and HRM and love them, and my tracked calories seem to be very accurate (based on my amount lost per week since I got it).
What I like about the Loop, as opposed to many of the other activity trackers out there, is that it works without the HRM, as an activity tracker, and seems pretty accurate for daily use (I wear it pretty much 24/7), showing steps, calories, and general activity level for the day. But then it also syncs with the HRM, and actually changes its algorithm for calculating calories burned when your heart rate is available, so it calculates correctly for workouts too.
Plus, it functions as a watch, which I find I really like having, since I don't bring my phone in to the gym with me. Also, it's waterproof, so I can wear it to shower, and even swim (and track those calories too!), and not worry about it getting wet. It has an iphone app, and an android app (only some androids, I think they're still working on improving it) so you can see your info whenever you want.
The only drawback I find is that the app and web interface kind of suck, and it doesn't sync with MFP at all, so you have to enter everything manually.

StaciMarie1974

Fitbit tracks your total daily burn based on BMR & step-based activity. It won't automatically recognize biking, swimming and such - you can log that.

Fitbit syncs w/ MFP and GPS tracking apps. I've found Fitbit to be more conservative in its calorie counts than MapMyFitness. For a 45 minute, 3.15 mile walk (with some jogging) last night MMF gave me 386 burned, Fitbit only 272. Fitbit can't tell intensity. I didn't use a HRM so don't know the real # but would rather use the more conservative estimate.