Overestimating Calories Burned

DawnOf1969

I always deduct what I call my "breathing" calories before I log my burn from my HRM. These are the calories I would burn just by sitting and breathing. After doing the math I burn right at 1 cal a minute just by being alive.

pandafoo

recently i also started subtracting from my HRM value the number of calories that i would have burned at rest. i want to be as accurate as possible and not end up overeating.

for the two people who asked about the MFP vs HRM values being different for calories burned at rest per minute, i'd just take the avg of the 2. each HRM company uses different formulas to calculate calories burned, and i don't know if BMR is taken into account.

sometimes i do wonder how people can burn so many calories. at first i thought only very overweight people could burn that much. but yesterday when i was taking part in a challenge at my gym to see which team could burn the most calories in one hour, there was one extremely fit woman on my team who burned 1150 calories! i was completely shocked. i burned 600+ calories in comparison.

but my trainer reminded me that the higher your VO2 level is (the amt of oxygen your body can consume while exercising at its highest intensity), the more calories you will burn. as people get more fit, they'll be able to exercise at higher intensities for longer. my V02 level is only in the 30th percentile, so i will burn much fewer calories than the woman on my team.

so maybe there are some people who can't possibly be burning as many calories as MFP or their HRM estimates, but perhaps there are others whose values are closer to reality.

CallMeMamaBoo

When I track my breastfeeding, I put it as 1 min of exercise. I can only imagine what people think when they see I burned 300 calories in 1 minute. Maybe it's not as simple as just reading the news feed.

And I wasn't offended by any means, I was just stating that sometimes, just sometimes, I see way too many postings on people questioning the abilities of others when maybe it's just best left alone and that time and energy can be focused on themselves instead of others. Just an observation. Not saying it's wrong to point these things out BUT....everyone is so different, I just don't waste time trying to understand them when it's hard enough crunching my own numbers!

melzteach

I usually burn 350 - 600 with my P90X workouts, it just depends on the workout. On days I do doubles it's over 1,000 but just by a little bit. On cardio days I push myself as far as I possibly can.
Now I have never had the misfortune of running from a bear but I imagine it would get your heart pumping and burning a lot of calories. Maybe there is a dvd out there about bears chasing you?

Dom_m

I've been using my HRM in conjunction with MFP for about a year. Typical cardio results for me are:

1 hour running = approx 900-950 calories
45min cycling = approx 650 calories

My heart rate usually averages about 80% and usually peaks around 93-95%
My calorie burn at rest is around 160 calories per hour with an average heart rate of 28% (sitting up, but still).

I record the total calories I burn when I exercise and ignore the double counting due to forgone resting. To balance that, I set my target deficit a little higher than it really needs to be. I typically do 2 hours exercise each day (at the moment I'm in training for an ultramarathon, so I do more intensity and more frequent rest days which makes things a bit difficult) and often burn around 1400. Usually 2/3 of that is from one hour of higher intensity work, and the other third from an hour of lower intensity work.

I stuck with this for about 9 months last year and my weight perfectly tracked my expectations (I recorded daily caloric deficits as well as weight, skinfold, girth etc) and am happy to provide the data if anyone cares.

I then stopped the routine for 3 months due to reasons I don't need to go into and ended up putting on about 10kg.
I've now resumed the above routine for 2.5 months and am observing exactly the same results as I did last year.

If I wasn't burning almost 1,000 calories per hour during cardio workouts, as you said, I wouldn't see the weight loss that I would expect from my calculations. But since I do see that weight loss, I have to conclude that I regularly burn around 1,000 calories per hour by putting in around 85% effort.

I can't say this is the same for everyone, but I'm quite sure its possible for some.

123456654321

**double post**

123456654321

We've been through this a few times with someone posting topics about this. I believe last time we came to the consensus .....who cares? If they are over estimating their calories they won't be losing. If they really are burning that much, good for them! Either way, it doesn't effect us. I don't think people are lying about it, I think they are taking the calories the machine says they burned and the calories on here are really over estimated too. But I know a guy on here who logs off his machine over 1000 calorie burns and he lost over 120 pounds and he's fit. I wouldn't waste my time trying to figure out if peoples calorie burns are right.

Spitfirex007

I just ball park mine somewhere between 500-800. (1 hour o P90X)

GlutenFreeWench

Very interesting discussion!

I wear a bodybugg 24/7, so I always just put what it tells me I burned, I never eat back my full calories, and it's been working out so far. But yes, I've always wondered what's going on when people are doing when they end up with calorie burns that high:)

Hotbysummer

well, i log what my machine (NordicTrack E7 sv Front Drive Elliptical) says, 1,000, 700, whatever. I eat well, and stay active. The results are there, so i don't think anymore about it. The info is great, but I am already putting so much thought and effort going into healthy eating, and working out that worrying about whether or not my calories are completely accurate doesn't make or break the deal.

Hotbysummer

We've been through this a few times with someone posting topics about this. I believe last time we came to the consensus .....who cares? If they are over estimating their calories they won't be losing. If they really are burning that much, good for them! Either way, it doesn't effect us. I don't think people are lying about it, I think they are taking the calories the machine says they burned and the calories on here are really over estimated too. But I know a guy on here who logs off his machine over 1000 calorie burns and he lost over 120 pounds and he's fit. I wouldn't waste my time trying to figure out if peoples calorie burns are right.

true=)

nokittyno

Well I don't think i've ever hit 1,000 calories in an hours time. Maybe coupled in a workout and a walk later - but for me 1,000 would be very hard. Like running at a 7mph/hour straight at a 20% incline.

I know when I work out I will do my best to work out. Like today for example, I wanted to run outdoors but we had rain, ice pellets, sleet and it was just too dangerous, so I opted in for a strength training and cardio session. Now, if I can manage it I push my reps to failure in my workouts. For example, I did 4x20(100lb) Leverage Squat, and 2x15(100lb) Hacks. When I do those I am usually hitting failure and probably screaming or grunting through the reps as sweat run down my legs, lol. When I do Dumbell Presses I am going to almost failure(Don't wanna drop 'em on my head) - etc etc.
Reason I am saying tis is to me when my HRM says i've burned say 600-700 calories in an hour and a half; I believe it - because I put the work in.

**Also, if I can I pause my HRM inbetween weight changes or stations, to keep it even more accurate,

BUT

1,000 calories in 50 minutes? I should try that sometime... LOL, i'd probably lost all cartilage in my knees and pass out though. But it does vary from person to person. People with a higher Body Fat % will burn more calories than say someone who is 10lbs short of their goal.

Who knows.. But Yeah, we all wonder but if we do what we do - it's all good.

TazzytheMotivator

Amen i agree. This is a site we chose to be on, so why embellish the truth. If a person was all that active they would not be overweight.

MisdemeanorM

When I track my breastfeeding, I put it as 1 min of exercise. I can only imagine what people think when they see I burned 300 calories in 1 minute. Maybe it's not as simple as just reading the news feed.

To log breastfeeding, log it under food not exercise. It's weird, but it's found in the food diary. It will add negative calories to your diary, subtracting from your total net.

R4z0r4Mm0

Probably not super inaccurate. Just take your BRM and divide it by 24, that should give you the amount of calories you burn in an hour doing nothing. Then subtract this from what your HRM says and you should be pretty golden!

I wear a HRM, and my last workout, I burned 571 calories doing 30 minutes of cardio. My heart rate stayed at 90% for most of my workout - I didn't count the 5-8mins warm up and cool down. I'm quite heavy at 231lb - so I just assumed being this heavy would allow me to burn this many calories. I also workout seconds away from puking if that's any indicator of the effort I put in.

What's interesting, is that I should deduct 100 doing-nothing-calories from my exercise calories. (2460 / 24hours). Which would get me to around 800-900 calories per hour, which sounds about right. Will try this in my next workout and deduct 100 calories for every hour I workout.

Thanks for the tip!

chrisdavey

Well I don't think i've ever hit 1,000 calories in an hours time. Maybe coupled in a workout and a walk later - but for me 1,000 would be very hard. Like running at a 7mph/hour straight at a 20% incline.

I know when I work out I will do my best to work out. Like today for example, I wanted to run outdoors but we had rain, ice pellets, sleet and it was just too dangerous, so I opted in for a strength training and cardio session. Now, if I can manage it I push my reps to failure in my workouts. For example, I did 4x20(100lb) Leverage Squat, and 2x15(100lb) Hacks. When I do those I am usually hitting failure and probably screaming or grunting through the reps as sweat run down my legs, lol. When I do Dumbell Presses I am going to almost failure(Don't wanna drop 'em on my head) - etc etc.
Reason I am saying tis is to me when my HRM says i've burned say 600-700 calories in an hour and a half; I believe it - because I put the work in.

**Also, if I can I pause my HRM inbetween weight changes or stations, to keep it even more accurate,

BUT

1,000 calories in 50 minutes? I should try that sometime... LOL, i'd probably lost all cartilage in my knees and pass out though. But it does vary from person to person. People with a higher Body Fat % will burn more calories than say someone who is 10lbs short of their goal.

Who knows.. But Yeah, we all wonder but if we do what we do - it's all good.

Sorry to burst bubble but strength training and HRM's don't mix. (same with HIIT) As cal expenditure has more to do with VO2 max than HRM, the figures you get from HRM with HIIT & strength training aren't very accurate. Be conservative with these even moreso than cardio IMO However, many more benefits to strength training than just calorie burn

Also, the after burn affect of HIIT & strength training has been found in some studies to be rather small (more than none) but I wouldn't be bothering to factor this in at all.

I think the reducing of cals burnt by BMR/24 (for hours workout) is more important when doing low intensite steady state cardio for long time periods ie. I would subtract it for a 1hr+ run but wouldn't bother for a 20min HIIT session

Spitfirex007

I think it's funny how wrapped up into the numbers people get. People swear you must you count calories and eat exercise calories. And people swear wearing a HRM helps. I know plenty of people who do little to none of that stuff (including me) and they lose weight just fine.

Eat healthy, and working hard in the gym, and you will lose weight! Who cares what people put as their exercise calorie burn. If it works for them, great! If not, they will learn to adjust it.

gailygail99

this is a very interesting topic! i never even thought that i would have to subtract the amount of calories that i would have burned if i was doing nothing.

i mean i know that the heavier you are, the more calories you will burn. my HR target zone is 127-167 and when i get on the treadmill, whithin about 3 mins i am in my target zone and stay there the whole time. usually around 150-160. i immediately stop the calorie counter as soon as i shut the treadmill off. i just walk around a little to cool down but dont count that as exercise.

today i just did 20 mins and it said 239 cals. i weigh 225++ so this is probably right and when i get off the treadmill, i am SWEATING it up, but feel great, not like i am going to pass out or puke.

if i would have put that into MFP as their TREADMILL it was around 400, so i would never go by MFP. if i took my BMR/24 i would get 86. So since I just did 20 mins, i would have to take the 86/3 and I would get around 29. So i would have to subtract 29 calories from my 239. So I really only burnt 210 cals in that 20mins.

I usually work out about 30 mins in the morning and maybe 30 mins at night. Sometimes just in the AM. So subtracting 43 cals wouldnt really make a big diff. Since I NEVER eat my exercise cals back, i think im safe to just go by the HRM.

Thanks for this post, it made me think and do some math. :bigsmile:

daddyratty

I weigh just over 260 pounds, and so a mile for me still burns over 200 calories. I know that this calories-per-mile rate will drop as I lose weight, but I regularly burn calories at a rate that is between 900 and 1050 calories per hour (my 3.14 miles in 33:08 yesterday, for example, burnt 680).

But it looks like at my current weight and BMR that I burn about 90 calories an hour just being a lump on a log. So in the case of yesterday's run, I would subtract about 45 calories from that to get the true "difference" from the workout.

I never did think of deducting the "couch" calories from that time. Makes sense to me. But then again, I am a math teacher.

EbonyGemstoneHealth

BUMP!

lacroyx

I use a Polar HRM to record my calories burned on MFP. I don't adjust it in anyway. This hasn't happened to me yet but if/when I go over a month and not lose any pounds or even gain I will then look into adjusting my numbers.

JeninBelgium

actually I wonder if you are not considering the persons weight? my polar hrm gave me a burn of 2100 cals for a workout yesterday - just over 1000 kcals/hour and I worked out very hard - even taking out my basal calorie burn I would still be approaching 2000 cals for that workout- but I am nearly 300lbs- so that's a lot of weight to haul around- could that have something to do with people's high burn?

What I sometimes do is compare my hrm results with MFP's listing or other website listing and take the lower of the two or an average

mackoy809

I just go by what the MFP database says what i burn. I guess it is accurate im doing mfp for 75 days and lost 30 lbs. So im going to use it until i wont be losing weight. Then after i stop losing then probably i will start subtracting my calories burned to my bmr

fuzzymel

actually I wonder if you are not considering the persons weight? my polar hrm gave me a burn of 2100 cals for a workout yesterday - just over 1000 kcals/hour and I worked out very hard - even taking out my basal calorie burn I would still be approaching 2000 cals for that workout- but I am nearly 300lbs- so that's a lot of weight to haul around- could that have something to do with people's high burn?

What I sometimes do is compare my hrm results with MFP's listing or other website listing and take the lower of the two or an average

I was just about to make the same point. I am less than 2lbs from my ideal weight and work out 6 times a week. I struggle to get much more than 500 cals per hour burn. If I took my burn when I started my journey (back when walking up a hill was tiring) then I would guess at my burn being double what it is now.

debbiequack

I thought that heavier people burned more calories doing the same exercise as thinner people. Is this not true?

DQ

kwardklinck

I've noticed that too. The most I ever burn in a day is around 600 and that's with nearly an hour and a half of exercise. I have to take a nap after that. I always wondered about the people burning 1000 calories every day and it made me feel so sluggish.

curleesam

lol it always makes me laugh when I see these threads! Some people who are heavier burn more calories as their bodies are working harder. When I was bigger I worked out less to burn the same amount of calories it would take me now.

Also, I power walk at an incline on the treadmill and 35mins burns 450 calories which is far more than if I was running at average speed.

Machines differ hugely when displaying what youve burnt hence why I only eat back half of my 700-800 calories burnt in an hour session.

Ultimately though, who cares?! Just so long as we are all losing and happy it really doesnt matter.

lrichardson2360

Ok I have a question..I tested my HRM the other day (1 minute before my workout) and it said I burned 2.4 calories while sitting still. According to MFP I only burn 1 calorie per minute. How do I know which is correct?? I usually burn about 250 calories according to my HRM working out for 45 minutes (turbo jams) and this is AFTER subtracting 1.4 calories per minutes for BMR. Also how do I KNOW if my HRM is already taking my BMR into account?? My HRM ask for my weight, age, height and sex when setting up for HRM mode My guide doesn't specify this but it does state •Calories burned are based on your age, gender, relative heart rate and total time of exercise. I am at a 1200 calorie day and don't want to go WAY over but also don't want to be WAY under. Any help appreciated.

PLEASE somebody help me with this..I posted the question a few days ago with NO responses..

I would really like to see an answer to this question too!

barbosa22

MY HRM says I burn around 700-800 calories doing P90X and these DVD's are about an hour. Some people are bigger than others. It takes healthy people longer to burn a lot of calories. Us heavy people burn more.

MisdemeanorM

Ok I have a question..I tested my HRM the other day (1 minute before my workout) and it said I burned 2.4 calories while sitting still. According to MFP I only burn 1 calorie per minute. How do I know which is correct?? I usually burn about 250 calories according to my HRM working out for 45 minutes (turbo jams) and this is AFTER subtracting 1.4 calories per minutes for BMR. Also how do I KNOW if my HRM is already taking my BMR into account?? My HRM ask for my weight, age, height and sex when setting up for HRM mode My guide doesn't specify this but it does state •Calories burned are based on your age, gender, relative heart rate and total time of exercise. I am at a 1200 calorie day and don't want to go WAY over but also don't want to be WAY under. Any help appreciated.

PLEASE somebody help me with this..I posted the question a few days ago with NO responses..

I would really like to see an answer to this question too!

A HRM is not accurate to resting calorie burn - it's only accurate (and not exact) for exercise where your HR goes up. Do not assume that if you sit around with your HRM on for an hour it tells you how much you really burned that hour. If you want something that tracks sedentary calorie burn, as well as exercise, get a Bodybugg or BodyMediaFIT. They are made for that.