Recording exercise calories burned

ShaSimone

I had less of a problem when I paid less attention to the exercise calories and eating them back.

I have my calorie goal set at a certain amount, 1753, and I enter my exercise here on MFP and I may adjust it to what my HRM says if I even wear it.

I exercise max an hour and a medium intensity. I try to eat 1753 calories a day. Some days I am under (not by much) and some days I am over (most of the time) . I look at my exercise as a bit of a diet cushion to fit in some stuff that might be 'bad' or 'treats' but I like having that balance.

soehlerking

I think in the beginning I trusted MFP (before I found the Message Boards and learned the Error of My Ways), and I definitely lost weight! You can attribute that to just doing something new or no longer inhaling french fries (or at least taking a breath occasionally), but I definitely had some solid losses. These days I do more specific research into my most common activities to know what I burn--i.e. for my size, I've learned that I burn 100 cal/mile ran and about 65 cal/mile walked. If it's something I do less often (workout DVD, shopping, etc) I take about 80% of the calories MFP gives me.

Or, of course, you could go the general TDEE path--calculate your TDEE and eat 20% below it in order to lose. It removes the exercise calorie factor altogether.

KrazyAsianNic

I have the opposite problem, when I'm on the elliptical trainer at home, it says I burn around 520 calories for 30 minutes, depending on what incline I use, MFP says I burn 349. So I use the MFP number, I don't have a HRM so I don't know which number is the correct one.

I wish this was my case. I rather it say I burn less than I really do.

KrazyAsianNic

<~~~ Lost 63lbs using only the mfp numbers, eating 1600 calories, and eating back exercise calories.

That's good to know. Congrats on your loss!

KrazyAsianNic

Thank you everyone who has responded. It's helpful.