Eating your exercise calories

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  • DeanneLea
    DeanneLea Posts: 261
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    That's why I invested in a HRM.

    me too! :tongue:

    ordered my FITBIT today...hope it is more accurate than the machines or MFP

    Fitbit isn't a HRM, is it?
  • Daphnemomof9
    Daphnemomof9 Posts: 130 Member
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    No, the fitbit isn't an HRM, but I get concerned about the calories that we burn above and beyond the activity level that we think we are. I gain quite a few calories from extra activity (from my fitbit calorie adjustment) and wonder how others can figure out their true deficit. Using the fitbit and HRM, I find that when I get too much of a deficit in calories I lose nothing or less than when I have a smaller deficit. It's crazy. I see much larger losses than I ever seem to get from others and I'm not sure what I could be doing differently. But I'm just happy to be losing. :smile:
  • kazzari
    kazzari Posts: 473 Member
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    Yep! Machines pretty much always over estimate calorie burn. I wouldn't believe any machine that told me I burned over 300 calories, maybe 400 for a 1 hour treadmill run. And since we're only talking about a few hundred calories for our workout, while you may still get results eating back your exercise calories, it is certainly not going to do you any harm if you do not.
    For me? 400 an hour for a treadmill run would be underestimating or just getting it right. It all depends on you and your body. I wear a HRM and tend to burn about 100 calories a mile.

    I was speaking specifically for myself at 140 lbs. Someone heavier would naturally burn more and, of course, how many miles you are covering within that hour would factor in as well. I wore a BodyBugg for two years and got a good handle on what I burn personally doing various activities. I learned that I burn more calories per minute doing pushups than even doing conventional deadlifts. Too bad I can't do 30 minutes of push ups!
  • AlessisMore
    AlessisMore Posts: 179 Member
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    yep yep yep. I never eat the calories that MFP awards me for exercise. I (usually) eat the calories my HRM awards me which are maybe 50% less than MFP calculations. No way do I burn what MFP sez I burn!!
  • Silver180
    Silver180 Posts: 294
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    You guys must work on some crazy machines!

    When I cycle for 20 minutes I burn around 130 calories at the speeds I do.
    When I hit the treadmill for 20 minutes jog/walk, I usually burn 120.

    250 for 40 minutes of cardio seems well within reason. I too would be skeptical if the machine told me anything even close to 700! Lol!
  • billthekill
    billthekill Posts: 90
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    I know, I know, there are about a gazillion post about whether to eat your exercise calories or not. This is just a word of warning who take the numbers too literally. Be careful of the numbers you choose as your exercise burn. Today, for example, I was on the elliptical for 36 minutes. The machine calculate calorie burn was over 600 calories!! Whoo Hooo, right? Except generally those machines calculate for a Man, not a woman, so I know it was no where near that. I go back to my computer and enter it into MFP. That calculates to a 387 calorie burn. Still not bad but my heart rate monitor (Which takes into account my HR, age, gender and weight) tells me I only burned 261. I just wanted to throw this out there for people, especially new people, to be careful of the numbers that you choose.

    ^^^ Great Post

    It's crazy how people over-estimates calories burn.

    Lyle McDonald Article:
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/exercise-and-weightfat-loss-part-1.html

    For most of us, we are going to lose around 5 calories per minute of excercise (300/hour).
  • fmbomzo
    fmbomzo Posts: 382 Member
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    I focus on a desired range of food calories consumed and disregard the exercise calories burned. I also adjust down the burn MFP calculates.
  • sweetybird09
    sweetybird09 Posts: 70 Member
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    Yeah I agree, the machines where I work out are always lower numbers for the calorie burn then on this site.
  • karen0214
    karen0214 Posts: 120 Member
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    I invested in a Polar FT60 HRM and eat back 85-90% of my calories burned leaving 10-15% for error...... My bmr is 2300 with my 1 lb. Deficit built in and I am eating 3200 calories day with my exercise calories.... and still adding a pound lost to my ticker every week. Got to fuel those workouts.....


    You have really lost 305 lbs??? That is AWESOME!
  • lind3400
    lind3400 Posts: 557 Member
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    I actually burn twice as much than the machine tells me! But I usually never eat them cuz food makes me nauseous after working out :frown:

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