Need Help With Calories Burned!

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CharlieBarleyMom
CharlieBarleyMom Posts: 727 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I joined just a little over 3 weeks ago and I am absolutely LOVING this site! It has helped me put my food into perspective and that has brought new light to my closed eyes about the actual number of calories I was consuming. In my weight loss past I had used Nutrisystem... givng up control totally to the packaged foods they supply and WeightWatchers, where calories were not the focus, points were the focus. Sure, with WW you need to locate the calories on the nutrition panel but TOTAL caloric intake was not the focus. That said, the same for exercise with WW. You received a slide ruler to figure out the number of points you burned while participating in exercise. You could choose light exercise or more advanced exerise (10 years later I don't fully remember what it was named). These programs both worked for me -- but not in the LONG run... as I eventually gained the weight back.
So now I am working at this again and I do have been trying to work exercise into my otherwise sedentary work life. I love that the exercise calculator is here on this site but I was on HighmarkBlueShield, my healthcare provider, and they have a calculator there as well. When I put in the same weight, minutes, and exercise that site shows higher calories burned. In a quest for the absolute truth, or a tie for either one of these sites, I found another site called HealthStatus.com which also has a calculator and well, this one was EVEN HIGHER than the blueshield website for calories burned.
I want to make sure my body does not use my exercise against me... I have angered it in the past, obviously, and it's not pretty! :tongue:
Does anyone have any tips they can share?

Thanks so much!
Peg

Replies

  • codexavellum
    codexavellum Posts: 112
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    Invest in a Heart-Rate Monitor. Only way to get a true number for calories burned
  • codexavellum
    codexavellum Posts: 112
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    Oops. Double posted!
  • nancymmorris
    nancymmorris Posts: 310
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    Buy a HRM with a chest strap. Everyone burns calories diffrently. You will love it and will feel so much better about your calorie intake and calories burned. I was at a plateu for several weeks because of the miscalculation.
  • momma3sweetgirls
    momma3sweetgirls Posts: 743 Member
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    If a Heart Rate Monitor is not in the budget for you right now, I suggest sticking to one database and not 'shop around'. If you can't help 'shopping around', then use the lower calorie burned to be on the safe side. Is the difference 20 calories or 200 calories?
  • david081
    david081 Posts: 489 Member
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    Heart monitor is the best - Polar have a good range, mine is the FT4 and it gives me confidence to run without over-revving my heart plus an accurate calorie burn and summary of duration, max HR average HR and time spent in optimum training zone...

    regards, David
  • CharlieBarleyMom
    CharlieBarleyMom Posts: 727 Member
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    If a Heart Rate Monitor is not in the budget for you right now, I suggest sticking to one database and not 'shop around'. If you can't help 'shopping around', then use the lower calorie burned to be on the safe side. Is the difference 20 calories or 200 calories?

    Actually closer to the 200 calorie mark. MyFitnessPal is at 550, Highmark at 630, and the third was at 739. 20 calories I'm not worried about... but 200 calories is huge.

    I am shopping for a Heart Rate Monitor right now but there are so many different brands and types out there and of course the prices range from "OK, I could get that" to "OH MY! I can't afford to be healthy!" :)

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