Rookie Mistake

megami_girl
megami_girl Posts: 18 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So there I was 3-4 days a week peddling my *kitten* off on my Mountain bike thinking I was the bomb burning all these calories. Over hill and dale and all very proud of myself. I was diligently logging my mountain biking exercise according to the the exercise search menu. I was also eating back my logged calories burned on my cardio.

My very good friend has a Heart Rate Monitor so I asked to borrow it. I was slapped in the face with the reality that I was actually burning less than I was logging and eating more than my 1250. (sigh) Any other Rookie Mistakes ahead of me that I should know about. Has anyone else done this? Sometimes ya gotta laugh at yourself.

Replies

  • Phaedra2014
    Phaedra2014 Posts: 1,254 Member
    Oh oops! :happy:

    I don't eat my exercise calories back but then again, I'm not working out on an intense or even near intense level to feel hungry from movement.

    Wearing a HRM is a good idea. I have one too.
  • terryrh
    terryrh Posts: 25 Member
    I just stick to the safe side of things and dont eat my exercise calories back and i always underestimate my burn, in the end what matters is whether you lose any weight, look and/or feel better for it.

    I spend alot of time beating myself up because ive not burnt this or ive overeaten that, i have to keep reminding myself that any effort i take today is more than i was a month ago and the 1 thing i eat that i curse myself for today, i'd have had 10 of them through a day before i started with MFP.
  • C00lCountry
    C00lCountry Posts: 282
    The HRM thing is a big one that lots of people do.
    It is hard to tell the intensity and such you burn individually.
  • lc971
    lc971 Posts: 104 Member
    No sage advice, but I loved the "over hill and dale" comment. It made me laugh. :smile:
  • douglasmobbs
    douglasmobbs Posts: 563 Member
    Especially when you are eating calorie dense food make sure you weigh it and don't just take the packaging weight.
  • Wonderob
    Wonderob Posts: 1,372 Member
    Added a favourite peppercorn chicken meal to my foods. Every time I added it I just plucked the same one from my recent food lists.

    Turned out I had added completely the wrong one initially so was adding 200 calories less than I should each time. Thousands of calories over the months!

    I've done it to a few foods actually so I'm sure I'm not alone in doing this!
  • Articeluvsmemphis
    Articeluvsmemphis Posts: 1,987 Member
    lol. that's okay. now that you know, hopefully you invest one. eat back the calories if you're hungry though.
  • composerclark
    composerclark Posts: 38 Member
    The basic challenge in calorie counting — calories burned or calories consumed — is that it is difficult to arrive at accurate numbers.

    If you make your own meals, any estimate on the number of calories they contain is just that — an estimate. And an estimate might be pretty accurate, or it might be significantly off. It is very easy to fool yourself by thinking you have consumed fewer calories than you actually did!

    Likewise, estimating the number of calories burned during the course of a day, with or without exercise, can be a challenge. I use a heart-rate monitor (HRM), but have noticed that my HRM always tells me I have burned significantly more calories than the numbers indicated on the gym equipment. I am not sure why, but perhaps it is due to the HRM telling you how many calories you have actually burned during that period, whereas the cardio machines (treadmill, elliptical, etc.) telling you how many extra calories you have burned over your BMR? I don't know... But I also have a Fitbit which gives me a calorie burned reading, and this too tends to be a different number than my HRM and the cardio equipment readings.

    Since all calorie numbers are usually imprecise, I try to play it safe by underestimating the number of calories burned, and overestimating the number of calories consumed. Then I just see how it goes... is my weight going down at a rate I am satisfied with, or is it staying the same, or is it going up? And, depending on which of these is my goal, I adjust my goals of calories burned and consumed until I get the results that I want.

    For the most part, I have not found that eating back your exercise calories works for me in weight loss, but I have read others on this site who insist that it works for them, so again, I would just try doing it or not doing it to see which works better for you (and which you can actually live with).

    One thing I remind myself is that if I am exercising a lot and not losing weight, then I am at least making progress in terms of fitness, so there is no need to be hard on myself if the weight is not going down as quickly as I would like.
  • karylee44
    karylee44 Posts: 892
    i seem to be at a major standstill.. guess i should invest in a hrm.. :(
  • slepygrl
    slepygrl Posts: 249 Member
    Been there, done that! My first few workouts with a HRM was VERY depressing. BUT!!! You get over it.
    I never eat back all my calories. I use them as padding. I may dip into them a little bit, but not much.
  • samntha14
    samntha14 Posts: 2,084 Member
    I tend to burn less than average during my cardio too. My HRM was a great investment, though I don't wear it during lifting. I eat back almost all of my calories because I'm building muscle and every little bit helps.
  • megami_girl
    megami_girl Posts: 18 Member
    Thanks all, I may have to get a food scale next.

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