How do you know your calories burned is accurate??

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tywebbbushwood
tywebbbushwood Posts: 18
in Fitness and Exercise
I am only in my 3rd day of this and things are going well. I am not doing a huge amount of exercise, walking the dog every morning and 30 min worth of Cardio each night. I think the calories I am giving myself credit for is accurate but when I look at other people's calories burned vs. their activities, it makes me wonder?

As an example I saw one person burn almost 1000 calories for an hour worth of brisk jogging and another person doing a cardio program for an hour with less than 400 calories burned.

I am not question what they put down but how I ensure what I put down is correct? Any thoughts?

Replies

  • ksumme
    ksumme Posts: 283
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    When I first started, I used solely the MFP calories for the activities I was doing. I was (am) significantly overweight, and was losing very well going with their calories burned.
    I did get to where things slowed down a lot, and I do think the MFP calories burned were high.

    I bought a Polar Heart Rate Monitor. I think the calories burned on it are pretty accurate.

    I do think some people way over estimate. You can't worry or even think about what other's log. If they are heavy, and pushing hard - the numbers could be right, or they might be high. Only they can determine if they are happy with their logging and their results.

    If someone is in a stall, or frustrated with not getting results, and logging very high calorie burns, then I might suggest they double check their numbers.

    Welcome to MFP, and Good Luck!!
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,326 Member
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    you dont.. it's all just an estimate.

    the only thing i'm 100% certain of is my non workout day TDEE because i spent about 2 weeks eating at that amount and neither gained nor lost inches or pounds.

    but in general, the larger you are the more calories you will burn. the harder you work the more calories you will burn.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    Trial and error. When I got the results I wanted, I knew my calories were right.
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
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    It also makes a huge difference WHO is doing the exercise that you're comparing. I burned a ton more calories when I was jogging at 337 lbs versus running at 191.
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
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    Can't know the food you eat is calculated correctly either.

    All a massive 'fudge'; but still a hell of a lot better than not recording it, judging by all the success stories on here.

    I use a motoactv which works both as a GPS 'sports watch' connecting to HRM and bike sensors, but also as a pedometer to give an idea of burn from 'daily' activities.

    Still, doesn't mean it's perfect.

    And yes, since losing weight and getting fitter, I'm finding it harder to burn caloires - cycling/running at the same speeds burns less both because of less weight and better fitness it seems.

    Need to make an effort to reach my goal then start getting some muscle on to up the calories burnt a little bit :).
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    You don't. You figure it out by if you are losing weight at a predictable rate according to the numbers. Even then you have to make some educated guesses about whether it's you diet calorie counting, your predicted BMR/TDEE, or the workout calories, or a combination of all of the above that's causing a problem.

    After you've been doing this a while, you get a "feel" for the numbers, like a calorie 6th sense. You can tell by how hard you worked how many calories you're burning. My personal effort scale is based on the effort of running (flat terrain) at 6mph. If something is easier than running 6mph, it burns less calories. This scale pretty much rules out all the silly readings from machines at the gym (like the big-fat-liar arc machine and elliptical). You don't need an HRM to tell you level of effort.
  • jenlipe
    jenlipe Posts: 54 Member
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    I picked up a Polar FT4 and a lot of exercises MFP was higher and then some MFP was lower. But glad I got the heart monitor. In all cases my calorie burn was lower than what the machine (eliptical, rower) said.
  • kenazfehu
    kenazfehu Posts: 1,188 Member
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    I agree - for the most part, it's all estimation, even the calorie counts. Using them at least puts us in the ballpark of achieving our goals, but some tweaking may be required.
  • tywebbbushwood
    tywebbbushwood Posts: 18
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    Thank you for the information. Looks like you are doing great, hope I can move down the path like you. also nice to see another Oregonian. In CA now but born and raised there. Good luck
  • tywebbbushwood
    tywebbbushwood Posts: 18
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    Thanks for all the information in the posts. Great to see all of the success. Thank you again
  • adam1885282
    adam1885282 Posts: 135 Member
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    You can subtract your TDEE if you're worried about accuracy. MFP calculations do not subtract TDEE from what I've seen. That is, you can't burn a calorie twice. Mine is about 75 calories an hour I deduct from MFP calculations.

    Also, running burns roughly 100 calories per mile. I can run about 6 miles an hour for an hour and burn 660 calories. 1000 would be high. I use a Runners World formula I found, which accounts for TDEE. .63 x your weight x miles run. So I get 110 cal per hour. (.53 x 175) x 6.

    Otherwise, I use runkeeper to track biking and running. I use the lower of Runkeeper and MFP to credit myself for exercise. MFP seems to be the high number most of the time.

    But really, don't stress it. If you're losing weight, you're good to go.

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