Daily six mile hike=1400 exercise calories?

climbingmountains

I am an AVID hiker. I eat reasonably well. I joined this site today. Have I not been eating enough for YEARS to lose weight?
My hike today earned me 1400 exercise calories-and I am supposed to eat them DAILY? Eat half of them?
I know there are a lot of posts that explain exercise calories..BUT I AM SO CONFUSED. Am I really maybe supposed to eat over 2000 calories a DAY to lose weight as a 5 foot two inch female?

Please help! Or explain.

Could you also explain what the Net means by my food totals and what it should equal?

Pink_turnip

Ive recently begun hiking, and i find that the calories they say I've burned are REALLY high. I usually only log the time going up the mountain, and not down. That's when I'm really working hard, so that's what I count.

arewethereyet

Well when you sign up you choose your daily activities. If hiking is a daily activity, then choose very active. My thought process is that if you did this exercise prior to MFP and were over weight or gaining, then you should use active.

If this is an exercise you do 3x wk then add it and eat 1/2 of your calories.


Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)


Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. nurse, salesman)


Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)


Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

It is truly a personal experience here, and you must see what works for you.

Does this help a bit?

juliapurpletoes

I am an avid hiker as well :bigsmile:

My first question is how are you figuring the calories burned. Get a heart rate monitor with chest strap to be accurate. My 3 hour hikes up and down dirt mountain trails will burn 500 or so calories....but so much has to do with your height, weight, gender, muscle mass, etc.

So accuracy is everything here. MFP uses averages and are not geared to you specifically, for many they are way off and that will affect how you log it, eat back those calories and eventually lose weight.

Here is a link (with MFP posts) that contains many links that you should read. So read-research at lest the original post on each one and you will have a better understanding.

http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

All the best! And, see YOU on the trail!

DontThinkJustRun

Unless you are rock climbing six miles there is no way you burned 1400 cals on a 6 mile hike. I'd either get a heart rate monitor or eat maybe 1/3 of them back if that.

SheilaSisco

I agree... if you hike DAILY, I'd set your activity level to VERY ACTIVE and only log exercise you might do above and beyond that. If you would rather log it, then, yeah, you need to at least NET 1200, however much you have to eat to get there. Net calories are the calories you eat minus your exercise calories... so say you eat 1700 and you burn 500 your net would be 1200 calories (1700-500=1200) Make sense?

Degator

I walked 6.5 miles today with a lot of incline using a Nike+ app for guidance and it said I burnt 774. I think mfp's exercise calories are overstated on most.

climbingmountains

Thanks for all the comments-- I know there is no way I burned 1400! Also, when I do my BMR, I get different numbers than this site. I was confused but you all have helped. I do believe I need to up my calories--not by 1400!

climbingmountains

Thanks for all the comments-- I know there is no way I burned 1400! Also, when I do my BMR, I get different numbers than this site. I was confused but you all have helped. I do believe I need to up my calories--not by 1400!

coronalime

There is no way a 6 mile hike could be 1400 calories...I trail run and I dont even hit that running on a trail for 6 miles. You need a heart rate monitor and a good one if you are considering eating workout calories.