Calculating Exercise Calories

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sportsmomof2
sportsmomof2 Posts: 136
in Fitness and Exercise
Several people have indicated how important it is to eat your calories that you burn from exercise. My question is how do you figure calories for an exercise that you cannot find on MFP? Example...I am taking a TurboKick class this evening for one hour at 24 hour fitness. What my friend who is smaller and thinner will report is different than what I would report. What is a good rule to follow. I also will try a beginning spin class as well. Thanks for the help!

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  • tlynnweb
    tlynnweb Posts: 201 Member
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    Unless you purchase a calorie counting watch like the Polar F6 or the Body Bugg, not sure you can accurately count the calories burned. You'll have to just go into the exercise portion of MFP and put in how many minutes of high intensity cardio/aerobics. I spent the $100 on the Polar F6 and boy I'm so glad I did!!!
  • PEREZFAMILY4296
    PEREZFAMILY4296 Posts: 5
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    I would try as kickboxing or an aerobic class under cardio, the same with spinning type in bicycle and you will see stationary biking, I would click vigorous biking and it will calculate the calories. Good Luck! =)
  • fishernd
    fishernd Posts: 140 Member
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    The only way to know is to get a HRM. Polar F6 is what I have and one of the best. Otherwise you're just guessing. The machines can be grossly inaccurate.
  • tammy62
    tammy62 Posts: 3
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    How do we calculate an hour of Pilates on the reformer machine??? I am new to this as of today.
  • ColnagoW
    ColnagoW Posts: 3
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    I agree that HRM's are very useful, for aerobic activity. They are too slow to respond if you're doing sprints on a bike, etc. but still very useful. Just figure that really hard aerobic exercise for 60 minutes will usually burn 1200-1500 calories (varies by size of person, of course); that's a good and consitent sweat. For "moderate" exercise, give yourself half that and for "light" about 1/4 of that. Calorie counting alone as a way of determining benefit of exercise is really pretty limited in value but can provide you with information than allows you to plot some sort of trend line: more exercise, less food, more weight loss. Varying foods and timing of their intake can be very important, e.g., reduce carb intake when you're not working or planning shortly to work; increase protein and electrolyte intake following hard exercise, especially weight training.
  • kangababy
    kangababy Posts: 187 Member
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    Get a Heart Rate monitor. I have one and always like to comapre it to what MFP has to say. According to my HRM I am always buring my calories then with MFP. I use the lower to keep up, which could be my downfall.
  • tammy62
    tammy62 Posts: 3
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    What is MFP?
  • Iceprincessk25
    Iceprincessk25 Posts: 1,888 Member
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    What is MFP?

    My Fitness Pal.
  • sineadmm
    sineadmm Posts: 190
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    I don't eat calories from exercise, as it takes a long time for your metabolism to slow down, so I figure I'm fine just eating 1200 now and doing 1 hour cardio a day and I'm definitely losing weight.
  • tammy62
    tammy62 Posts: 3
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    How do we calculate an hour of Pilates on the reformer machine??? I am new to this as of today.
  • Iceprincessk25
    Iceprincessk25 Posts: 1,888 Member
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    How do we calculate an hour of Pilates on the reformer machine??? I am new to this as of today.

    To me it's more strength training as opposed to cardio work so I wouldn't count those calories as something I burned and was able to eat back.

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