Exercise Calories

MisdemeanorM

Ah, the infamous exercise calories!!

I wanted to know if or how any of you compensate for the calories you would have burned anyway, during the time you exercise. IE - If I just worked and took care of my 2 yr old, I would burn roughly 75-100 calories. But, instead I worked out and burned 400. So TECHNICALLY I only burned 300-325 more than if I had not worked out today.

I figure that for a time after I exercise I am burning more than normal so that offsets the duplicate on counting overlapping calories during exercise.

But sometimes I wonder about if I just take the dogs on a walk and burn 200 calories in an hour instead of 100 or in Yoga where the calories are only around 250 in an hour. Since neither really get your heart rate up I tend to under-report my calories burned for these activities figuring I'm not burning very much extra if any extra after I stop to make up for the ~100 I would have burned just putzing around the house.

I know it is an overall relatively minimal issue, but just wondering if anyone else considers it in their counting.

pattitricia85

I subtract 15% from whatever my HRM says... I don't know the exact of course but i think 15% seems like a good amount, I'm no expert though

threeupthreedown

I try NOT to eat my exercise calories.
Doesn't always work out though.
LOL!!!

SHBoss1673

Yes, good point. It's been brought up before, but not in a while. You need to take into account what you would have burned normally when you put in exercise calories. Some HRM's do this for you, but many (like polar) do not. So the best way to do that is to figure out really how many calories you burn in an hour during the day, then multiply by how long you actually worked out and then remove that number of calories from the total burned.

But I'm not quite that strict, I know I burn somewhere between 120 and 140 calories per hour when I'm awake on a normal day, so I usually subtract that much from my workout if it's an hour long.

Any time you are entering exercise calories, you need to make sure you're taking into account the calories you would have burned anyway. Now granted, for Me, and others that are well above the 2000 calories mark for daily calories, 130 cals isn't all that big of a deal, but for you "little people" (by little I mean, all you ladies that are on 1200 or 1400 calories) 130 calories is kind of a big deal, so you need to take it into account.

Then again, if you're TDEE is that low, then you wouldn't be burning 130 cals per hour anyway, probably more like 80 to 110.

VballLeash

I do the same thing banks does, I subtract about 100 or so calories for every hour I workout...

~Leash

SHBoss1673

I do the same thing banks does, I subtract about 100 or so calories for every hour I workout...

~Leash

copy cat!

VballLeash

I do the same thing banks does, I subtract about 100 or so calories for every hour I workout...

~Leash

copy cat!

HAHA sorry! I never really did this until I took a class for my major then I was like DUH! :bigsmile:

~Leash

MisdemeanorM

I actually paid attention to my heart rate monitor for the hour after class this morning (which was a med level class, only about 300 calories). I reset if at the end of class and let it go for about an hour getting home and getting settled into work. I burned roughly 1.75 times more calories in the following hour than I would have had I not gone to the gym. So those extra 60 calories almost make up for the overlap. I think I will underestimate for low heart rate exercises and just count what my HRM says for the extreme ones. I know that the hour after Zumba I burn another good 250 calories as opposed to 80-100 normally.

AwMyLoLo

bump

MisdemeanorM

Update!

I did 50 mins cardio averaging 78% max heart rate this morning and burned 420 calories.

I reset my watch for the following hour (I ran into Walmart for 10 minutes and was driving or walking in to my house the rest of the time - nothing to keep the heart rate up) and burned 350 that hour. Seeing as that I would normally burn about 100 calories in an hour (or actually less considering that I would have been sleeping if not at the gym) I think that I actually need to eat ALL or over eat my exercise calories on hard work out days! (420-100 = 320, but then 350-100 = 250; 250+320+ 570 extra calories from working out 50 mins this morning)

SHBoss1673

Update!

I did 50 mins cardio averaging 78% max heart rate this morning and burned 420 calories.

I reset my watch for the following hour (I ran into Walmart for 10 minutes and was driving or walking in to my house the rest of the time - nothing to keep the heart rate up) and burned 350 that hour. Seeing as that I would normally burn about 100 calories in an hour (or actually less considering that I would have been sleeping if not at the gym) I think that I actually need to eat ALL or over eat my exercise calories on hard work out days! (420-100 = 320, but then 350-100 = 250; 250+320+ 570 extra calories from working out 50 mins this morning)

interesting, are you doing cool downs to make sure you get back to a normal heart rate range after your exercise? That seems like an excessive amount of calories, I understand that you'll go over (although you should probably keep running your monitor UNTIL you're heart rate is back to the normal range).

MisdemeanorM

Update!

I did 50 mins cardio averaging 78% max heart rate this morning and burned 420 calories.

I reset my watch for the following hour (I ran into Walmart for 10 minutes and was driving or walking in to my house the rest of the time - nothing to keep the heart rate up) and burned 350 that hour. Seeing as that I would normally burn about 100 calories in an hour (or actually less considering that I would have been sleeping if not at the gym) I think that I actually need to eat ALL or over eat my exercise calories on hard work out days! (420-100 = 320, but then 350-100 = 250; 250+320+ 570 extra calories from working out 50 mins this morning)

interesting, are you doing cool downs to make sure you get back to a normal heart rate range after your exercise? That seems like an excessive amount of calories, I understand that you'll go over (although you should probably keep running your monitor UNTIL you're heart rate is back to the normal range).

It's usually around 130-1220 when i quit and stays there for a while then goes into the 100-1teens (I did notice it was back up at 140 walking into Walmart this morn). Resting it is below 100 or more often below 90. (by resting I mean around the house - sitting at desk, walking to kitchen and back, putting dogs in and out, changing a two year old, adding more wood to the fire. My "sitting at a desk all day" days hardly are! Sleeping it is 60-70. I usually turn the HRM off when it gets back to 120, which is usually when i am back at my car and remember to turn it off! I don't like to leave it on without restarting it in the middle, because my summaries are inaccurate as to how long I actually worked out and what I burn in the class itself then.

SHBoss1673

Update!

I did 50 mins cardio averaging 78% max heart rate this morning and burned 420 calories.

I reset my watch for the following hour (I ran into Walmart for 10 minutes and was driving or walking in to my house the rest of the time - nothing to keep the heart rate up) and burned 350 that hour. Seeing as that I would normally burn about 100 calories in an hour (or actually less considering that I would have been sleeping if not at the gym) I think that I actually need to eat ALL or over eat my exercise calories on hard work out days! (420-100 = 320, but then 350-100 = 250; 250+320+ 570 extra calories from working out 50 mins this morning)

interesting, are you doing cool downs to make sure you get back to a normal heart rate range after your exercise? That seems like an excessive amount of calories, I understand that you'll go over (although you should probably keep running your monitor UNTIL you're heart rate is back to the normal range).

It's usually around 130-1220 when i quit and stays there for a while then goes into the 100-1teens (I did notice it was back up at 140 walking into Walmart this morn). Resting it is below 100 or more often below 90. (by resting I mean around the house - sitting at desk, walking to kitchen and back, putting dogs in and out, changing a two year old, adding more wood to the fire. My "sitting at a desk all day" days hardly are! Sleeping it is 60-70. I usually turn the HRM off when it gets back to 120, which is usually when i am back at my car and remember to turn it off! I don't like to leave it on without restarting it in the middle, because my summaries are inaccurate as to how long I actually worked out and what I burn in the class itself then.

Just make sure you set your activity level to reflect this stuff, if you're not sitting down for 75% of your day, then you're not sedentary, probably more like lightly active. I don't know what you are set at, but just something to keep in mind. Lightly active takes into account slightly elevated heart rates for short periods during the day (including most post exercise activity).