How do we know calories burned are accurate?

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  • Sjenny5891
    Sjenny5891 Posts: 717 Member
    I worry that when I enter the calories burned from those recommended on the site, that they are not correct? Let's say that I think (according to the site) that I burned 300 calories doing 30 min of aerobics. How is that 300 determined? It's not determined by my personal information (height, weight, age, etc.). So what if I eat those extra 300 calories, but I really only burned 200 calories? Then I'm 100 calories over. Am I being paranoid? :huh:

    I checked what it says against a couple of other websites that go by your weight. Then went with the one with the lowest number. I figure it is better to be on the low side of exercise and the high side of food when in doubt.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    It's not determined by my personal information (height, weight, age, etc.).

    Yes it is. As you lose weight, your calorie burn will decrease. At my weight, I might get 200 calories from 30 minutes of aerobics. If I was 110 pounds, about 160 calories.

    That said, they're all estimates. The more precise an activity is, the closer to accurate it will be. "Running 6mph" will be more accurate than something vague like "Elliptical" which has no variables for pace or resistance.

    A heart rate monitor is also an estimate, but likely more accurate than the entries in the database.

    The BEST way to tell if it's accurate is through trial and error. Are you getting the results you want? Then it's close enough to accurate. For me, using MFP, a treadmill or Runkeeper to estimate calories (which were all pretty close to each other) got me the results I was looking for, so I felt no need to get a HRM.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    it does not matter if your calories burned are accurate. i don't care if you log a 6 mile run as 10 cals or 2000 cals because in the end it makes absolutely no difference.

    weigh yourself once per week. are you losing weight? if yes, keep doing what you're doing. if no, then adjust calories down. are you feeling tired all the time? then adjust our calories up a bit. after a few weeks of monitoring your scale, you will be dialed in, no matter what number you log for your exercise cals.

    you fix your calories that you consume, not your method of counting calories.
  • PetulantOne
    PetulantOne Posts: 2,131 Member
    You don't and just hope they are! >.< Or buy a heart rate monitor :D
    And even HRMs are not completely accurate. There is truly no way to ever know with 100% certianty what a calorie burn is.

    This. In the end it's all estimates. The best thing to do is look at weight loss, gain or maintenance over time, and adjust from there.
  • ldrosophila
    ldrosophila Posts: 7,512 Member
    Psssst: your food calories aren't all that accurate either. It just seems to all work out in the end.

    Must be magic!

    LOL elven magic?

    But you dont even HRM arent an exact measurement (better, but not exact). Just follow the golden rules eat less of a balanced diet and move a little more. In theory this could work.
  • latprin
    latprin Posts: 16
    A heart rate monitor is very effective. I have a Polar FT60, it has a training program which gives feedback after each session and once a week.
  • bcassill2013
    bcassill2013 Posts: 72 Member
    I just got the Polar FT4, and really like it (so far). It's a little less money than some of the others suggested above, but, still covers most of the basics you'd want in a HRM.
  • bcassill2013
    bcassill2013 Posts: 72 Member
    Buy a heart rate monitor. They are so worth it. However, make sure you buy a decent one. I had a cheap one that OVER calculated my calories burned...I didn't lose weight. I splurged and bought one with features like:

    In depth info: you height, current weight, gender etc
    It ask for your goals
    It has a "fit test" on it.

    Every week it asks me update my weight for accuracy, it also wants me to take the fit test again every week but I do that more like once a month. Good Luck!

    PS. I have a Polar HRM

    Which Polar? I want one! I have a ft4 and it doesnt do that, unless there is something I am not getting into.

    Yeah, I have the FT4, it doesn't do that(fitness test), only a couple models do. Check the Polar web site, it will tell you which ones have that feature.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    it does not matter if your calories burned are accurate. i don't care if you log a 6 mile run as 10 cals or 2000 cals because in the end it makes absolutely no difference.

    weigh yourself once per week. are you losing weight? if yes, keep doing what you're doing. if no, then adjust calories down. are you feeling tired all the time? then adjust our calories up a bit. after a few weeks of monitoring your scale, you will be dialed in, no matter what number you log for your exercise cals.

    you fix your calories that you consume, not your method of counting calories.

    You are right of course. The issue becomes the design of this site. Instead of a TDEE - X%/ activity level determiner, you earn calories back through exercise to get to the same place. In a way, it's better because you don't get 'em til you earn 'em. In a way it's worse because it causes 2 different problems. 1) is makes people OCD about exactly what thier burn is. 2) it confused the snot out of people who can't seem to get that the deficit is already built in and want to know why they eat back exercise calories.

    For those that obsess over the burn, try an experiment for a month. Use Scooby or some other TDEE calculator and figure an estimate of your TDEE and your activity level. Take 20% or 25% off that and that is your eating plan every day to set your calories. Work out as you normally would and log it as 1 calorie.

    See if that doesn't end the obsessing about "exact" burns from exercise. Truth is, there ain't no such thing and it's a waste of time and energy worrying about it. As Dave says above.

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