excercise calorie accuracy question

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monoxidechick
monoxidechick Posts: 339
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok, so I know that I should get a heart rate monitor, but as of now I do not have one. I usually just use the amount that this site gives me for calories burned. I also use machines like the elliptical at the gym that calculates the calories. Usually they are pretty close to the sites amount, and if not I choose something in between the two.

Well I have been using a machine that is like an eliptical but not exactly the same. It has a bit of a different leg movement with longer strides. The calorie amount that this machine gives me is a bit higher than the actual elliptical.

So tonight I rode it for 40 minutes with the setting at weight loss so it rotates between a higher and a lower setting every minute or minute and a half. I had it on nearly the highest setting for the higher interval. I was riding at a moderate pace overall, and then I was pushing myself to go as fast as possible for 30 seconds every minute or minute and a half. I was definately working it hard.

The question I have is that the machine says that I burned 640 calories in 40 minutes, which I think sounds crazy. I dont know exactly what that machine is called so I put it in as elliptical and it wants to give me 464. I have heard that working out hard one can predict to burn around 10 cals a minute. WIth that I would have burned 400 cals. I put it in as 500 cals this time since there was such a difference.

I also did a few other things today and I am just about to eat a late dinner and I have over 1000 cals left it says. So Im not really worried about the cals that I have left today, but I am curious to what to do in the future. I do love to eat back my cals, and sometimes I excercise just because I am nearly over and do not have anything left for dinner. THese are the times that I take what MFP says and use every calorie that I am given.

I would just like some ideas about what others do in this situation. I dont want to over do my excercise cals by much, because I usually will eat them back. But I also like to have them if I earn them, for the same reason. What do you do?

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  • Atleast40
    Atleast40 Posts: 62 Member
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    Sorry I don't think that I will be much help. I often do exactly what you did when I am in that situation. Or sometimes I just choose the lower number as an extra precaution (I know it's not good to do this all of the time, but I do it sometimes anyway). Keep up the good work:smile:
  • pandafoo
    pandafoo Posts: 367 Member
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    until you get a HRM, i'd recommend recording a lower amount than what MFP tells you (maybe 20% less?). i have a HRM but when i enter my minutes exercised, MFP is usually overestimating by at least 100-200 calories.

    also, one thing i started doing recently to ensure accuracy with my exercise calories is to subtract the number of calories i would have burned at rest from the number of exercise calories burned. basically, if you had been doing nothing all day and just sitting on the couch, you would still be burning calories every hour (to figure out yours, go to Goals, and see what your daily activity level is, and divide that by 24).

    so let's say that i burned 500 calories in a 30 minute workout, and my resting caloric rate is 80 calories/hour. since I worked out for 30 min, I'd subtract 40 from 500 and record 460. this method will give you an estimate of true exercise calories burned, which is on top of the calories burned from normal daily activities. i know, a bit nerdy, huh? :) but this way, i have one more measure of assurance that i'm not eating more calories than I should.

    to avoid doing math everytime tho, just eat back half or more of your exercise calories, but not all of them. there are lots of threads about this topic, but most people on them seem to agree that it's important to subtract the calories that you would have burned from rest

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