Calories burned exaggerations

TexanThom

If I am allowed 2000 calories for the day, and I do not eat over that, it does not matter what the machine or MFP says. If it says I burned 800 calories and I only burn 400, still good.

Lady_Bane

I mainly worry about how much time I've put in. I rarely assume that MFP calories are correct, which is why I only eat back a third to half of the exercise calories alloted by MFP. I sooooo want a HRM, so I can get a more accurate calorie burn. The one I want is almost a hundred bucks, though. It's gonna have to wait a while. *SIGH*

You're a penny pincher like me huh

Lady_Bane

I once burned 800 calories lifting my remote to flip the channel. True story.

Awesome burn. WTG.

AHHAHAHAHAHA

mistylovesmusic

I once burned 800 calories lifting my remote to flip the channel. True story.

Awesome burn. WTG.

I really don't watch that much TV so I clearly get extra points when doing so. :happy:

jofjltncb6

I once burned 800 calories lifting my remote to flip the channel. True story.

Awesome burn. WTG.

I really don't watch that much TV so I clearly get extra points when doing so. :happy:

And as long as you're trying...that's what really matters, right?

bcattoes

MFP has been pretty accurate for me.

I don't use machines, but I use the MFP numbers for all my exercise. I just take the closest entryI can find, such as aerobics - high impact for Zumba. I didn't track anything while losing most of my weight, but when I joined MFP and started tracking this way it worked out to equal what I'd been doing most of the time. I have no idea if what it shows me is correct, but I lost at the rate it said I should, so it's probably pretty close.

jcstanton

HRMs are a different story, I agree...its the people that say they burned 600 calories walking for 30 minutes and Im like...WHAAAATTT?!! Lol

Why do you believe that's impossible? I keep my pace up and not only sweat like a crazy man during my walks, I'm still pouring for 20 mins when I get back to my desk.

But why not use whatever numbers you want, and if you're reaching your weight loss goals, keep using it? I'm also noticing a trend where men seem to believe they've burned more calories than MFP states, and women swear they've burned less. I'm definitely in the "MFP is too low" camp.

As a side note, I'm not sure why so many people are willing to take the number from a HRM as gospel. When it comes to calories burned, they've been shown to vary widely in accuracy. They aren't giving you a real number, after all. They are using an algorithm, the same as the elliptical or treadmill, and the same as MFP. Different algorithms, but all are still a best guess based on what an average person would burn.

At the risk of being ridiculed for asking an ignorant question, does anyone know if there's a HR monitor out there that asks for not only your height, weight, and age, but also your BF% and VO2 Max? It seems to me that these would be directly related to how many calories you burn in your workouts, as well.

wellbur

Surely everyone knows it is just a rough guide... and if people are exercising and losing weight, what is the problem. Everyone has to lose weight the best way it suits them. If they are not losing then they will look at different options i think.

Copperycat

If you notice the posts on the news feed, it gives you a TOTAL calories burned from any exercises you enter that day, and only puts the one you entered first on the feed.

For example, if I burn 131 calories walking my dog, 300 calories doing the elliptical, and 800 calories doing my boot camp session, it will say I burned 1231 walking my dog.

I questioned this several times when I first joined because I was like "HUH??, that's not what I entered for walking my dog!".

agree totally! This happened to me today. It is very misleading.:grumble:

enyo123

Highly unlikely, in my opinion. 10 calories/minute is what most people MAX at. That's fit people, so obese people will burn more. But double? 20 calories/minute? I'd say maybe 15, and that's being generous.

It doesn't hurt us the readers, it hurts the dieter. The MFP plan of 'adding back' exercise doesn't leave you much room for deficit, especially if you're smallish and use BMR as your floor instead of 1200. Then you get people who don't understand why they have to do so much math and why they're not losing. And it sucks for them.

Just FYI, I have a HRM. I don't consider myself to be particularly fit. I still burn around 10 cal/min doing Turbo Jam, and roughly 5 cal/min hiking. "shrugs" My husband, who is far larger than me and far less fit, burns about double what I do simply because he's about double my size.

RuthieCass

The important question is why are YOU so concerned? If you know whats working for you..then you should keep doing what works for you. But to put a whole post up because you "see" people on MFP putting what you deem "exaggerated" calorie burnt amounts is a bit sad. How do you know they aren't using HRMs?, How do you know that they don't way more than you? Everyone is different, learn to use constructive criticism or hold your tongue.

EYE (needed to spell it that way for mrs sassytude over here) am NOT concerned, I am merely making a statement about people who are sad when they are not making progress, so maybe they can look at this possible reason why.

I do not know why some of you are slamming on the defense when I am not attacking anyone. I'm not obsessed with what you guys are doing, what I'm doing IS working for me, and good for me, but I was merely pointing something out. Some of you act like I am in angst over what others are doing...take a chill pill. WOOSAH

Some people really like seeing the huge numbers and get upset when you tell them it's not accurate. I don't know why anyone would like to live in a state of denial, but some do. Same thing goes for people who don't like it when they hear that they are probably eating more than they think cause they're not using a food scale. Anyhow, I think this is useful to know, especially for those that are "plateaued."

I don't know why some think they are must be so different. They must be burning over 1000 calories in a work out. Guess what? Someone 250 lbs would not even burn 1000 calories running for an hour at 10 min/mile. So compare that to your own situation. And yes, very high intensity exercise may burn more per hour, but if your exercise is at that high of an intensity, I can bet that you won't be able to do it for an hour straight!

The other thing they forget is that, if you want to "eat back" exercise calories, you should eat back the net, not the total. Otherwise you are counting your BMR calories twice!

I bow down to your ability to say what I have a hard time trying to.

seeing as I've lost 110 lbs, I'LL BOW DOWN TO MY OWN ABILITY AND MY OWN COMMON SENSE...Again unless you're a doctor...please keep your opinions to your bloody self.

What an awesome idea. From now on, I'm just going to use my own ability and common sense to estimate my calorie burn. That's gotta be WAAY accurate cause we know common sense is never wrong. Actually, I think I just burned 1000 calories using my common sense. :-P

vim_n_vigor

This is my pet peeve. In general, the machines are easily 30-50% out of whack and so is MFP. It's not just a little bit. a LOT. I have a hard enough time sticking with diet and exercise without having false burn numbers giving me disappointment. But, honestly, when I have said similar things, most people don't really want to hear it. Some just really want to believe they burned 1200 calories, even if they didn't.

They are set for the average person - for some people, the burn numbers are actually going to be low. They can't make a machine that magically knows exactly how much YOU will burn.

mcarter99

If I am allowed 2000 calories for the day, and I do not eat over that, it does not matter what the machine or MFP says. If it says I burned 800 calories and I only burn 400, still good.

I totally agree. But the problem is MFP's plan has people eating a base amount per day and then adding back their estimate of 'exercise' calories, and adding that to their base amount. Then they get the bad advice to add it back to their BMR, not the lower value MFP estimated. So if they decide a half hour of housework is 600 calories, they eat that back, plus the 30 mins. splashing in the pool, etc., etc. Then they're frustrated because they're doing math all fricking day and not losing weight. They THINK they're 'earning' 1000 calories/day of food from exercise and they think if they don't eat that plus their 2000 calorie BMR they'll permanently damage their metabolism.

runny111

The most accurately measured exercise in the world is running. As in many years of accurate army testing on multiple humans.

Lace up, get outside, strap on a heart rate monitor and see what going different speeds does for your heart rate. Then go back and look up what the internet says you burn for that speed (try several different sites - you'll find as I did that the running calorie estimates do not vary that much).

Then use those numbers and compare back to your avg heart rate for the workout you are doing whether its cycling or gardening or walking.

I am 150lbs. I run. Running is a flat out puddles of water type of exercise. I burn max 12cals/min. When I run when i am 120lbs I was burning max 10cals/min.

I'd have to run flat out for 50mins to burn 600cals. No way the elliptical does that. And I do use the elliptical too.

wwoelbel

I have a strong, yet completely unproven belief that the exercise numbers MFP provides for me are high. The fun thing is, I log them anyway for the kicks. My strategy (the one I cooked up for myself based on a bunch of forum trolling) is to ignore my exercise calories. I calculate my BMR based on my height/weight/age, add 15% and use that as my target for calories in. The standard for maintenance is 20% so I short myself 5% of BMR and treat my exercise as pure gold. Of course, once we get closer to a target weight, the target calories will need to increase otherwise eventually there would be nothing left. Am I going hungry? Somedays I crave foods that I know that I should not eat and some of those days I do dabble in the darkside but I am making regular progress towards my goals.

IMHO Timmymon is pretty close to being spot-on but.... Sometimes we dont realize what it is that we are shoving into our chops. Im not there yet and still need to have my food "checked over". Eventually the eating patterns and choices will become second nature and the microscopic logging becomes less than useful.

This is working for me. If what you are doing is working for you, keep at it! If its not working for you, feel free to consider my strat.

Bill

Dad_of_3

I am a newbie in these parts (been a member forever, but for the first time in my life I have gotten serious about health and well being. I am going to display my extreme ignorance here, as I am new here: What are MFP and HRM?

I am 6'0", and 350. According to my treadmill, I burn 200 calories after walking 8/10 of a mile in 20 minutes. I work up from 1.5 mph to 2.7 mph. I stay at 2.7 for about 8 minutes, and wind back down.

When I started walking three weeks ago, I couldn't walk a half mile without DYING. Since then I have gone to 8/10 of a mile and lost 3.6 pounds.

So, what can I rely on for a good estimation of calories burned?

PS: I haven;t lost much weight yet, but given the way I am feeling after these last three weeks, I will be walking the rest of my life.

Heyman09

I use the calorie burn off the treadmill and when I enter it on MFP its only off by maybe 30 calories but I don't have a HRM.

I just don't know what else I can do....I work my a** off and I want to get credit for it.

gsager

I think if you don't have an HRM, it's ok to go with the estimate for a while and see if it works. If it doesn't work, adjust.

^^^This^^^^i have a HRM and the machines I use are just about 100 calories off. You do have to put the correct info into the machine. When I first started, before I had a HRM, I used the machines or what MFP had and lost weight just fine.

BandedTriaRN

That's why I don't like to log my exercise (the little that I am able to do) most of the time and I do not eat back exercise calories.... I tried that a long time ago and was gaining weight. I was so frustrated and depressed. Now, I am definitely NOT depressed tho I wonder if I will ever stop freaking out about my weight before I die! lol. I've been overweight/obese/morbidly obese my entire life and it is a hard habit to break (always trying to lose and obsessed with it).

Bigpelly8

my hrm is about 30-40% less than treadmill/elliptical stats. It makes me work harder!!