How to add exercise if you know number of calories

joanfudala

I participate in an hour long bootcamp that incorporates cardio and strength training using a variety of exercises. How do I track this on the exercise tab? I use a heart rate monitor, so I know the number of calories burned during exercise.

sabolfitwife

You can enter in your own exercise. Just put in "add new" and then you can name it and put in how many calories burned and save it for next time :-) I've never done it on the computer, but it's really easy from my phone.

AmyRhubarb

Easy on the computer too, but the steps are a bit different.

On the Exercise tab, click My Exercises at the top, then Create Exercise, green button on the right. Call it whatever you want, enter your time and calories and click Add Exercise. The next time you do it, it should be on your list if you click Add Exercise under the Cardiovascular section, and you just enter the time & calories each time.

JNick77

Establish a healthy calorie deficit goal via the TDEE calculation, don't worry about tracking calories supposidely burnt via an HRM, don't worry about logging calories burnt on MFP, don't worry about eating back exercise calories. Just exercise, eat, and live life; it's a lot less stressful.

sabolfitwife

Establish a healthy calorie deficit goal via the TDEE calculation, don't worry about tracking calories supposidely burnt via an HRM, don't worry about logging calories burnt on MFP, don't worry about eating back exercise calories. Just exercise, eat, and live life; it's a lot less stressful.

Then what's the point of MFP if not for logging? Granted, there are the forums to browse through, but ultimately isn't it about tracking your food and exercise?

DavPul

Establish a healthy calorie deficit goal via the TDEE calculation, don't worry about tracking calories supposidely burnt via an HRM, don't worry about logging calories burnt on MFP, don't worry about eating back exercise calories. Just exercise, eat, and live life; it's a lot less stressful.

Then what's the point of MFP if not for logging? Granted, there are the forums to browse through, but ultimately isn't it about tracking your food and exercise?

What he's saying is that you can very easily lose the weight you want without obsessively worrying about the exact calories burned by activities. You can set your profile so that you eat maintenance or slightly under maintenance, and then your exercise calories will be your deficit. Doesn't matter if you burned 150 cal, 300 cal, or 900 cal, since you aren't trying to eat back the exact number stated by either your HRM or MFP. You'll always be in deficit while using your exercise to reshape your body instead of using it to earn more food to eat.

It's the way I do it myself. I use MFP religiously to track my food calories and how much *time* I spend on specific exercises. I don't care one whit about the "calories burned" number that MFP gives.

For the OP: If you wish, you can log it at "Boot Camp" and add that as a new exercise. Then put in your time and cals burned. Then that will be available for you every time you do that particular workout

JNick77

Establish a healthy calorie deficit goal via the TDEE calculation, don't worry about tracking calories supposidely burnt via an HRM, don't worry about logging calories burnt on MFP, don't worry about eating back exercise calories. Just exercise, eat, and live life; it's a lot less stressful.

Then what's the point of MFP if not for logging? Granted, there are the forums to browse through, but ultimately isn't it about tracking your food and exercise?

Here's the thing, and you can find this just be Googling, HRM's are fairly in-accurate and just forget about the calorie trackers on cardio machines. Aside from not calculating the immediate "burn" from the exercise it doesn't account for the increased metabolism for the hours following exercise. Following this way takes a fair amount of time to track what you're "burning", tracking what you've eaten, and then worrying about eating back exercise calories. Wouldn't it just be easier to use a method that accomplishes your weight loss goals where you don't have to consume the time and effort to track that stuff especially when the HRM's aren't entirely accurate anyway?

Edit: I'm not saying to not track your food because that's pretty valuable if you're accurately measuring your food.

joanfudala

I get the concept, except that each day is different. Somedays I am in excess of 500 calories, others are just over 300, depending on what we do. I think I will add 3 new exercises, one with less, one with average, and one with more calories burned, then just pick the one that is closer to actual activity. I don't really stress too much about the actual numbers, I just am way more successful when I track everything. Thanks for all the help and encouragement.