HR monitor says.........

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I burned 362 calories doing 60 minutes of yard work. Do I enter 362 calories as my exercise (which will give me an extra 362 calories to eat)? But wouldn't I have burned some calories doing nothing for 60 minutes?

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  • emilysebastian
    emilysebastian Posts: 245 Member
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    I have often wondered about that difference (what you burn doing nothing vs exercising) as well! I always enter the calories MFP or a HR monitor says I burn, but then I usually only eat about about half my exercise cals back. I figure that makes up the difference and brings me closer to the true net I am aiming for!
  • Angel1029
    Angel1029 Posts: 459
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    What kind of yard work were you doing? To burn that amount in 60 minutes your hear rate must have been at a higher rate vs sitting and not doing anything.
  • Flyntiggr
    Flyntiggr Posts: 898 Member
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    don't over think things. Some people subract it out, but IMO that's way too much math and effort. I log what my HRM says.
  • astovey
    astovey Posts: 578 Member
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    I was wondering the saem thing. BUMP
  • vxmittyxv
    vxmittyxv Posts: 122 Member
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    Yes. Alot of people make this mistake. You should get a baseline by wearing the heart rate monitor for 1 hr while doing your normal routine. Then subtract that from the 362. That will give the actual extra calories burned.
  • Supermel
    Supermel Posts: 612 Member
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    don't over think things. Some people subract it out, but IMO that's way too much math and effort. I log what my HRM says.

    This.
  • soriondee5
    soriondee5 Posts: 15 Member
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    I always wear my heart rate monitor if I'm doing an activity that I'm going to count as exercise and then add the calories I burn to my exercise log for the day. I may or may not eat those calories back =) It's true that you do burn calories "doing nothing," but that's already taken into account for your estimated energy requirement (baseline calories). I count my exercise as anything I do above and beyond my usual daily activities. If you did an hour of yard work, I'd count that!
  • jane77
    jane77 Posts: 489
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    If I do exercise that is just meant for exercise, raises my heart rate for 30 to 90 min I don't subtract calories that I would be burning doing nothing Because of the after burn effect. NOW for calories burned doing things like yard work and cleaning I would think you really should subtract what you would burn doing nothing. I don't have a study to back that its just my thoughts. I only ever add workout exercise into my data base. The rest I kind of think of as a bonus and part of my activity level.
  • thendrick
    thendrick Posts: 102 Member
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    What kind of yard work were you doing? To burn that amount in 60 minutes your hear rate must have been at a higher rate vs sitting and not doing anything.
    It was pretty intense. I was underbrushing and dragging a lot of branches up and down a hill, so I knew I was getting a good workout. I put the HR monitor on after our lunch break just to check.
    Ordinarily I don't log things like washing the floor, windows etc. but this really did feel like a work out.
  • nlhawthorne
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    Yes. Alot of people make this mistake. You should get a baseline by wearing the heart rate monitor for 1 hr while doing your normal routine. Then subtract that from the 362. That will give the actual extra calories burned.

    This is what I do. At rest I burn about 2kcals/min so whatever my HRM says I multiply the minutes I've exercised by 2 and subtract it from the total. I'd rather do a little maths and be on the safe side.
  • zeeeb
    zeeeb Posts: 805 Member
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    i don't eat all my exercise calories, i eat some of my dedicated exercise calories, but not all because i just use the MFP calories in the system, and i think they over exaggerate, so if my number says to eat 1800 calories, i'll try and stick at about 1500 calories. i allow myself to eat more than my standard 1200, but not the whole lot.

    i don't even log gardening, because i really don't put in enough effort and exertion for it to REALLY count. nor to i log my work as exercise, even though it is reasonably physical, lifting, walking and on my feet etc. if i did log all my cleaning, gardening, work and exercise i'd be eating 2500 calories a day, it is just too much!