You burnt how many calories?!

jmzhale

1. HRM - second only to healthier food as the best investment in helping me loose weight.

2. If you are certain you are recording the correct calories for your food and exercise then you should eat back your exercise cals, if not then only eat back a portion. If you set up your MFP account correctly then your calorie deficit to loose what you want is already factored in. Don't include the fact that you are exercising in the queston about your lifestyle/job (sedentary, active). If you have a desk job but work out every day, you still would be considered sedentary. Just being aware of how much I was eating and how little exercise I was getting has been very important to me.

3.Polar is probably most everyone's choice for best HRM.

4.I only record calories for cleaning, mowing, etc if I think I am going to be cutting it close on calories and then only stuff that are not part of my daily routine.


Just my 2 pennies.

dianesmart

I never use the MFP estimate either! Good post!

JanineHarrison

Now I'm paranoid about my calories. I enter what is on my ellipical machine, but it also has the heart rate monitor onit and I consitantly use it throughout my workout in hopes it gives a more accurate reading. So far I am showing results so hopefully I'm good!

ghettosmurf999

Excellent topic !

I have a related question:

Do you agree that since many here routinely "eat" their exercise calories, they should only "eat" the excess calories they burn, not the total calories burned?

For example: If I burn 100 calories per hour, just by sitting down, then if I exercise for an hour and the HRM registers 300 calories burned, that means I only burned 200 calories more than regular.
So I should only be allowed to "eat " 200 more calories, not the 300

Opinions?

I heartily agree! You need to subtract your regular calories burnt from your exercise calories when you use a HRM.

I think it depends - I use a HRM for training, and by boosting your metabolism by exercising you're going to keep burning calories at a faster rate for some period after you've stopped training - which would be over and above your base rate calculated by MFP, so in my opinion, I'd keep with what the HRM says you've burnt you'd be ok to say was over and above your base daily rate.

If that makes sense :S

Sophie983

My findings:
50 minutes - stationary bike - moderate

According to MFP = 460 calories.
According to my bike = 440 calories
According to Polar = 452 calories.

Melimoo2012

good point .

jennilovesryan

movement is movement. i'm not saying that everything on here is 110% perfect but man, some people got to start somewhere. and if you are seriously overweight and don't get up for most of the week i betcha housework is a biotch.

myofibril

And this is why I never bother worrying about calorie burn during exercise or net calories...It just gives people one more thing to obsess over, get wrong or confuse themselves with.

There's a lot to be said for simplicity. And no, that doesn't mean I am simple

Yes simple is best. Every decision I make regarding fitness or diet is based on the answer to the question, "Can I do this for the rest of my life?". But that is because I have already figured out how my body works. Knowing the small details can be helpful in learning about yourself.

Oh I agree. Detail certainly has it's place but only once you have a solid foundation in place in my opinion. If you build your house on rock it will stand strong what ever wind may batter it but if you build it on shifting sand it will fall...

cabaray

I am going to get an HRM; however, I do feel better about what I have been logging. I entered my daily stationary bike exercise in all of calculators provided in this thread and they match MFP and my bike calculation within 30 calories. Not saying that MFP doesn't overestimate sometimes, but it looks like my exercise is spot on. It hasn't been real important as I have not been eating my exercise calories; however, after losing 40 pounds, I am on a month long plateau. It may be time to start eating some back and see if that helps!

tammy1005

I use apps for my running and for my treadmill but my elliptical i'm lost. I did 60min and it said I burned 205 calories! Clearly this is very off. Mfp said it was 526 calories which seems to be more accurate. Anyone else use and elliptical that can let me know if this seems right?

lookythat1

That sounds about right to me, because you already have the 100 and than you lose 300, that should be only 200 that you should eat.

ScubyUK

That's why I wear a KiFit \ BodyBugg device. I burned 500 calories in 55 minutes doing a range of exercies in the Gym this morning.

auroranflash

When I go for my 30-40 minute walk-jog-interval-whatever you want to call it, I just log it as "walking the dog 3mph". I can't run the whole way, so I jog, catch my breath, and then pick up the pace again, gradually running further. But I always just say I'm walking 3mph. That way I'm not over-estimating, although the interval shiz probably burns more calories than the 100 or so it's saying. 165lbs, trying to get to 130.

sabified

interesting articles/topic! just posting this so I can have it in my topics to read later :$

but also (not sure if this has been mentioned) many of the exercises in the database were added by people and then everyone else has just been using them- many of those will only be accurate if you happen to be the same size as the person who entered them to begin with, and frankly how would we ever be able to determine that

MaximalLife

It's total BS.
Those numbers are way out of line, and it won't be long before the ones recording such numbers come back crying the blues about how they're doing everything they're supposed to do but can't get results.:sad:

I agree completely. IMHO the best way to get a feel for how many cals you can/need to eat is keep your diet and exercise reasonably stable for three weeks and monitor your progress with scales and a tape measure. If you are progressing the way you want to stick with it. If you are not tweak and repeat.

Why three weeks? Anything much less than this and you will be making dietary changes based on insufficient data... you simply will not have enough readings to understand your weekly fluctuations.

I had to tweak mine, and it took about that long.

angpar

I totally agree!! I use a heart monitor that tells me the exact amount of calories I burn, its actually kind of comical to see what there calculation is! It is normally way off. I do have a question if anyone knows the answer, I am on blood pressure meds and can't get my heart rate above 150 for the life of me, it seems to effect my monitors calculations on how much I actually burn, because I cant get my heart rate up higher than that. Anyone run into the same problem with heart/calorie monitors?

dkljj

What is a HRM ? Heart rate monitor? How does that calculate calories?

myofibril

I agree completely. IMHO the best way to get a feel for how many cals you can/need to eat is keep your diet and exercise reasonably stable for three weeks and monitor your progress with scales and a tape measure. If you are progressing the way you want to stick with it. If you are not tweak and repeat.

Why three weeks? Anything much less than this and you will be making dietary changes based on insufficient data... you simply will not have enough readings to understand your weekly fluctuations.

Very sensible advice.

netchik

I find MFP is way out. I have an HRM and a BodyBugg and find them both relatively consistent, except during weight training where the bodybugg is next to useless.

I have a 45 minute routine that can vary by up to 300 calories depending on the effort I put in; i was tired last night and only burnt 500-odd, but the same routine on Sunday netted me almost 800 calories. I tend to beleive the numbers I see, assuming that people aren't trying to kid themselves.

An HRM is a great investment, and will help reign-in any unrealistic calorie counts you may find on MFP.

As an aside; I'm much larger than my husband, (he's at goal) and the MFP estimations for exercise are always within 50 cals of his HRM.

gleechick609

I wear a HRM when doing any cardio. For instance, yesterday, I ran for 104 minutes and burned 1379 calories. When I run for 60 minutes, it is usually an 800+ burn. Sometimes, I am questioned about my burn because my burn is so high. But my HRM is on correctly, it has my correct user stats, I update it whenever there is a change in weight... IDK!

I can tell you that if I went by MFP's calculations for running OR walking, they are shorting me a lot of calories!! If I went by MFP for elliptical, they are over estimating my calories burned!

Lindy901

I see where some folks report 700 cals burned for 60 min of cleaning. I don't want to knock anyone, but if that were possible, I'd go so far as to say they never would have been overweight in the first place...that is, unless they just started cleaning after joining MFP. If cleaning for an hour burned half my daily calories, I'd be invisible by now.

You are too funny. I never count cleaning as exercise anyway but you're right according to that we should never be overweight based on cleaning. I don't generally sweat when cleaning either so I know I'm not really burning much.

ckerce

Well said! I post my calories burned but really give it that much thought! I just do whatever workout that I feel like doing that day and give it my all and I know, when I am thru, if I have had a good workout! And then I feel wonderful! I have never worked out and then felt bad for doing it, no matter how much or how little i did for that day! At least I am moving~

angpar

ellipticals for my I usually burn 300 calories in 30 minutes. That is on "fat burning mode" when the resistance isnt even set as high. My husband runs about the same numbers as well. The machine at the gym and my heart monitor say 300 calories so I know its pretty accurate:)

Almamaree

Excellent question. And great responses. I agree that nothing is totally accurate and using two forms of counting your activity along with your common sense is a wise choice.

findingfit23

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mathen2

Just got my Polar FT7 HRM yesterday and I used it today morning when I worked out and according to my HRM, I burnt more calories than I thought I did during one session of PT. It also depends if the machines at the gym are calibrated often to make sure its accurate (+/- 20%)

amuhlou

I admit I put in cooking sometimes, but I try not to use the calories.

Reason I do it... simple, my husband does all the cooking in the house.

My rule of thumb is to write down anything I don't typically do.. I do less than once every few weeks.

I can understand putting in cooking if it not a regular activity for you... as long as the numbers are reasonable .For example, if I only burn 200kcal doing 60 minutes of yoga, there's no way I'm burning anywhere near that doing 60 minutes of cooking.

What really gets me is when people seem to log their cooking activities to justify eating more. Like, I enjoy a 50kcal snackwell's cookie in the evening and if I just log my cooking as cardio, it's free!

GaryJWilliams

In my experience, and i have been road racing on the bike,doing county level road/cross country running and international triathlons upto and including Ironman(3 ironman finishes 2 of which inside 10 hrs) the only truly accurate way to get an accurate calorie burn figure is following both lactate threshold testing and VO2 max testing and having a good quality heart rate monitor programmed specifically for you. For instance I ran a very easy 10k trail route today using my garmin forerunner 610 with hrm. this showed 948 Kcal (MFP showed 962Kcal) I ran at 8:32 min mile and the nearest on MFP is 8:30 pace. I have had all my testing done recently and calibrated my garmin exactly.
The only variable is intensity and as we are all individuals our intensity levels will vary. I cant account for wildly conflicting calorie burns but I do believe that we should consider having lactate threshold and VO2 max testing done in order to have these intesity levels defined before we start taking generic figures into account

iplayoutside19

A calorie is a measure of energy. The heavier you are, regardless of it's density, is more mass that is dragged around during work out, thus you burn more calories.

That's why I take calorie estimation websites, including this one with a grain of salt. There are just too many variables that aren't considered. I have an HRM, and it's a great tool.

However, if you're just starting this journey. There's another peice of equipment that's even more critical in helping you get a more accurate count of your calories: A Food Scale. Buy that first.

prettyash76

I never eat all of my exercise calories. I plan to purchase a Polar FT4