Yoga calories - how to count them?

BabyRuthe

Hi all! I've been using MFP for about 2 months now, and while I'd like to sort of stay hidden in cyberspace, I need help figuring some things out. In the past, when I was at my lowest weight, I was doing yoga consistently every other day for about 90 minutes. I moved six months ago, away from my yoga studio, and have watched the weight slowly creep back on. (It's only five pounds, but I'd really like to nip any weight gain in the bud). I've been using an elliptical machine for about an hour almost every day, but I haven't made any progress, even as I try my best to keep my calories to 1200 a day. So today I found a yoga workout on my tv's OnDemand sports/fitness section and did that - wow! What a workout (and man, it's amazing how out of shape I've gotten in six months!) But when I went to try to add the exercise on MFP, it's telling me that I only burned 85 calories doing 35 minutes of yoga. I'm sorry, but no. No way. I broke a sweat about five minutes into the yoga routine, whereas I can do the elliptical for 50 minutes and barely have to wipe my brow. So there's no freaking way that MFP is measuring this right. Any suggestions, folks, as to how to calculate this? Any help / insight is greatly appreciated!

Imthatg1rl

If it is vinyasa flow yoga you are burning around 300 every hour.

Heather75

Google the calorie burn for the type of yoga you do and change the calories on MFP. Most sites will give you range of calories burned, and I always use the lower end to avoid overestimating.

mangos4music

this is where a good heart rate monitor would come into play

callipygianchronicle

When I enter yoga for my height and weight MFP gives me around 200 calories for a 60 minute session. Half of that would be 100, which isn’t too far off from your number. Even if it’s artificially low, I’m okay using MFP’s calculation, because I get more benefits out of my yoga practice than merely the calorie burn.

BabyRuthe

Thanks all, for your suggestions! @mangos4music, I'd have to check with my cardiologist about using a heart rate monitor, because I have a heart condition and I have a pacemaker, and certain devices, like cell phones, have to be kept away from it, so I'm not sure if / where I'd be allowed to wear a hrm. I know the pacemaker is important, but honestly sometimes it's such a pain in my @ss - I can't do certain moves (like repetitive crunches), have to be careful when I do twists that it doesn't get knocked about by my rib bones, etc etc. Anyway, all that to say that I'll check up on whether the hrm is a no-go or not. Thanks tho, for the suggestion.