Tracking exercise question??

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larncy
larncy Posts: 47 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a MIO heart rate monitor watch and I started using it again today for a bit..just ran some errands and went for a good walk. Anyway just checked it and after 2 hours and 20 mins I burned 715 calories....I dunno how accurate that is or if its reasonable....but how would I track that....as walking, errands or is there somewhere could just hit calories burned alone??

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  • larncy
    larncy Posts: 47 Member
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    anyone?
  • GetFitCarly
    GetFitCarly Posts: 151
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    I would log it under walking. That sounds like a lot of walking for just 2 hours are you sure its right?
  • larncy
    larncy Posts: 47 Member
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    Actually if you read my post it wasn't just for walking..I went for a walk which only took about 45 mins but I was runnin errands and doing some cleaning...My heart rate watch was just on timer for 2 and half hours and thats what it showed altogether....I usually put that on the whole day and leave it and check my calories when takung it off in the evening but just started using it again since tracking and wasn't sure how to track it right.
  • AZKristi
    AZKristi Posts: 1,801 Member
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    Seems high... I burned 850 this morning doing two hours at the gym. Spin and Power Yoga.
  • Mads1997
    Mads1997 Posts: 1,494 Member
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    If your HRM has a chest strap and you have configured it correctly then I would say go with it. If it doesn't have a chest strap then usually they are not very acurate and not good for much.
  • gregsonevans
    gregsonevans Posts: 232 Member
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    even if the hrm is accurate remember that mfp have already allowed you calories for your normal routine in those two and a half hours so if you are on 1200 cals per day you should subtract 125 cals from that total
  • larncy
    larncy Posts: 47 Member
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    I'm not quite sure I follow you there greg....I'm a bit new to this site so can u elborate!!

    I do not have a chest strap just the watch...when I exercised it showed my heart rate at 82%. You have me wondering now how accurate it really is..any kinda test i can try to see how accurate it is....thanks for all your info!!
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    Heart rate monitors aren't designed to accurately estimate calories burned doing normal daily activities. They work best with steady state cardio where your heart rate is elevated. Leaving it on all day isn't going to give you an accurate measure of calories burned through the day.

    Even if it was accurate, most people wouldn't log things like running errands and cleaning as exercise - unless you are normally completely sedentary and those activities were more strenuous than is usual for you. Generally, normal daily activities like that would be included under your "activity level" when you set up MFP; you wouldn't log them as extra exercise. The walk, I would log, (again depending on your declared activity level) but without a chest strap, your heart rate monitor may be very inaccurate.
  • gregsonevans
    gregsonevans Posts: 232 Member
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    The point that I was trying to make is MFP have already allowed you approx 50 calories per hour even if you are doing nothing so you need to deduct that from anything your hrm is giving you otherwise you will be claiming back the calories twice especially if you are wearing it for long periods of time, they are not really designed for light exercise like that and you might be better off just changing your settings to being slightly more active
  • gregsonevans
    gregsonevans Posts: 232 Member
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    On the question of accuracy how does the watch measure your heart rate without a chest strap?
  • larncy
    larncy Posts: 47 Member
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    You have all raised some good points and info. I assume it measures my heart rate through my pulse since it has a sensor on the back of the watch ...I Assumd thats how it worked anyway.

    I understand what you mean now by allowed exercise based on settings and tracking all day. Totally makes sense!! I will just use it now when I start my exercise until I stop. Even though it may not be completely accurate its something to go by. When I set it up I had to enter sex, height, weight and age. Its a Mio drive+ petite made specifically for women or smaller wrists I should say in case anyones wondering. Theres options there for counting your burning calorie goal etc...I guess I'm best just using it when I work out!!
  • gregsonevans
    gregsonevans Posts: 232 Member
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    I have tried quite a few of them over the last few months and they all vary greatly, the best bit of advice I had was to use it for a month and if you are losing weight then you know that the numbers are pretty close, if you are not losing anything then drop the calories slightly until you get the desired loss
  • WinnerVictorious
    WinnerVictorious Posts: 4,735 Member
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    I have a MIO heart rate monitor watch and I started using it again today for a bit..just ran some errands and went for a good walk. Anyway just checked it and after 2 hours and 20 mins I burned 715 calories....I dunno how accurate that is or if its reasonable....but how would I track that....as walking, errands or is there somewhere could just hit calories burned alone??

    running errands is factored into your MFP TDEE calculations. it's not exercise per se.

    the 45 minutes of walking are exercise. log that.
  • larncy
    larncy Posts: 47 Member
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    Thanks guys..I appreciate all your info and input...Its what I use this forum for. I will continue to use my Mio when working out and compare its numbers to what I punch in on here...Even if not exactly accurate its a little motivating to see the numbers. I dont eat back my exercise calories anyway usually so thats not a issue. Just wondered how accurate they were. I will continue to track just my workouts and food as Ive been doing...12 lbs down so far so I'm headed in the right direction!!
  • ginncjb
    ginncjb Posts: 44 Member
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    I learned a lot from this post, so thanks for asking the question! :smile:
  • WinnerVictorious
    WinnerVictorious Posts: 4,735 Member
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    completely aside, for those wanting to know the underlying math, here's how it works...

    i do my own BMR and daily calorie requirements by hand. i've checked my results against MFP and they are very close. here's how you can do them by hand so you know what to log as exercise and what not to log as exercise.

    there are a couple of steps.

    step 1. based on your height, weight, age, and gender, you calculate a BMR. i'll call this "base BMR".

    that's the maintenance level of calories if you sleep all day and never get out of bed.

    step 2. since nobody sleeps all day, your "base BMR" needs to be adjusted to give you your true "daily BMR".

    this daily BMR corresponds to all activity you do during the day as a normal part of your day. checking the mail. taking out the trash. etc.

    for a desk worker, you multiply "base BMR" by 1.2x to get your "daily BMR". that's the sedentary level.

    if your job requires more activity, you use a higher multiplier. for example, if you spend all day walking (teacher, salesman), then you are probably at a lightly active level and you'd use 1.375x. at the other extreme, if you're a bike messenger, you're very active and you'd use a 1.725x multiplier.

    what's important to understand is that your "daily BMR" does not account for specific exercise you are doing above and beyond what you need to do your job.

    step 3. adjust your "daily BMR" to account for all extra specific exercise (like going for a 5 mile run after work).

    this gives you your TDEE. MFP will calculate that for you each day based on your reported exercise for that day.

    for me, i just add up my exercise as calories and log it as negative calories on my food log (not MFP but on a spreadsheet).

    i know my "daily BMR". i know many calories i eat each day as food. i know how many calories i burn with exercise (negative calories). so i have a simple equation telling me what my calorie deficit was for the day.

    food calories - (daily BMR + exercise calories) = daily deficit/surplus calories

    this is a negative number if it's a deficit

    MFP will do the same thing for you, but without showing you all of the math behind it. i've compared my numbers against MFP and they are essentially the same.

    to MFP, daily BMR + exercise calories = TDEE.

    MFP calculates 3280 for me right now. i calculated 3310 by hand. essentially, the two methods give the same result

    once you understand the equations and know what multiplier level you used to convert your "base BMR" to "daily BMR", you can easily determine if your daily job related movement was something out of the ordinary and subject to separate logging as exercise. for example, if your numbers are all based on being sedentary, but one day at work you spend 4 hours moving furniture and heavy boxes between floors because your office is being renovated, then you can see that those 4 hours were never part of your "daily BMR" calculations and it's legit to log it as exercise. however, if you're a warehouse worker who is routinely moving heavy boxes around all day, then this activity was already factored into your "daily BMR" calculations because you used a higher than 1.2x mulitplier for your "daily BMR", so that would not be extra exercise.

    does this make things clearer or have i created more confusion?

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