Things that make you go...Hmmmm....(outrageous calorie burn)

Back when I used to mountain bike, I weighed about 185 and used an HRM. Most of my rides were 2-3 hours in length, and I would always see 4 digits on the watch when I was finished. I believed I burned between 500 and 800 calories in an hour and had an average heart rate of 75-80% of my max HR.

The reason why I don't believe that people burn 1000+ calories in an hour is because it takes a LOT of work and a LONG time to be able to build up the endurance to sustain such intense efforts over long periods of time. Yes, if you are heavier, you will burn more calories, but by the time you're able to actually exert yourself over a period of more than 10 minutes, you're going to have lost a lot of weight, or you're doing it wrong (considering people on here are usually trying to lose weight).

It took me 3-4 years of hard mountain biking to get to the point where I could ride a single speed mountain bike up and down a 200m tall escarpment for hours at a time and push myself every minute on those rides. No one is going to go from being a fat *kitten*, sitting on a couch, to suddenly busting their butt at a high heart rate for over an hour and blow 2000 calories doing so, multiple times a week. Even if someone managed to pull it off, that's how you kill yourself.

Ever heard of a heart attack? Read up on how they're triggered.

I wonder about that too. When I was able to walk, I would walk for 2 miles at about a 17 mins mile. For the 2 miles I only burned approx. 250 cals. according to my hrm watch. When I was using an elliptical I would burn about 300 cals in about 45 mins of going at a good clip. I can't workout right now, but when I can, I will clock it with my mio watch. And the sad part is that it takes so long to burn 100 cals, and eat something small like a yogurt burns those 100 cals. :noway:

Based on distance and time, MFP generally hugely overestimates the calories I burn walking or jogging. If I know the route and that I went 2 miles at a 3 mph pace based on the time it took, MFP generally gives me several hundred calories over what my HRM says. I just stopped tracking excercise because I found it frustrating and I don't eat calories back.

The reason why I don't believe that people burn 1000+ calories in an hour is because it takes a LOT of work and a LONG time to be able to build up the endurance to sustain such intense efforts over long periods of time.

Then you should come to Houston and attend one of bigced's hardcore spin class. He'll show you how it's done.

I'm not defensive. I just don't think a 1,000 calories an hour constitutes a big burn unless you weigh 100-120 lbs.It just AMAZES me every time I see a discussion about this lame subject. I will defend anyone who actually is doing the work. I have also caught people lying about their workouts.

Maybe you are missing my point which is WHO REALLY CARES OR KNOWS WHAT SOMEONE ACTUALLY DOES? We can't tell by pics hell we don't even know if it's actually THEIR PICS!!

I have no reason to be defensive. I teach 6 days a week mornings and evenings. When I post a burn I could care less what anyone else thinks. In fact I encourage anyone to come to my class and see how you feel afterwards..lol

And it wasn't being defensive

So what IS the most accurate way to measure calorie burn? I just started using a Polar FT4 HRM, because I was doubting the values on MFP. Is this even close to being accurate?

At my current weight (and I use a HRM) I can burn 1,000 calories in 90 minutes working hard. I have burned 10-plus calories a minute at times. But, no, you don't burn a ton in 5 minutes walking to the mailbox.

I had a friend who would post

***** burned 3200 calories doing 8 hours of walking. because that's how much he felt he walked during the day and he would eat back his calories, he wouldn't listen so I deleted him!

I have friends like that too lol. It's almost sad.

Well I don't trust the MFP estimates at all, but if they used a HRM or fitbit or something then I'd believe it.

For people who are not fit (such as beginners) HRM will not necessarily give an accurate read.

Sometimes, I blame the MFP calculator. I use rock-climbing as my main exercise of choice. Usually, I am at the gym for at least 2 hours rock climbing. If I log those 2 hours though, MFP says I burned between 1500 calories or more. Doubting this, I usually shave off 30 minutes to account for the time I spend on the ground, but it still seems too much.

If I were to assume that MFP was giving me a completely accurate burn, I would be eating a lot. I'm looking into buying a HRM so that I can get a better idea of what I burned during a workout.

I guess, what I'm saying is that they may just be taking MFP's numbers for face value and assume they are spot on.

I haven't yet done it with an HRM (the watch is so cumbersome), but you DO burn a pretty incredible amount of calories doing things like rock climbing, bouldering, and/or swimming.

I hook it around my sports bra strap and it doesn't bother me. I HATE wearing it on my wrist.

I think it depends on the activity/weight. If you are a 300 lb person doing 2 hours of Zumba a day, yeah, you'll get 2000 calories burned. I weigh 153 and don't usually get that in a week...but I never exercise 2 hours a day.

I posted a thread on this a while back, asking how on earth people were always getting 1000+ calorie burns. Some people work out A LOT. Some people lie and log "cleaning" as 800 calories. Some of those people are losing weight. Some are not.

At the end of the day, you know what's for real. If you don't think you burned 700 calories you probably didn't even if MFP says you did. It says I burn that in p90x...yeah, not so much.

Have you ever seen someone post an outrageous calorie burn on MFP and think to yourself that is unFREAKINGbelieveable!!! No really… unbelievable. I know it’s none of my business…ppl can sabotage their own lifestyle changes…but being someone who is still 260lbs even after losing 70lbs…I know how much work goes into burning 10-15 calories a minute!!! It’s not easy…at ALL! Sometimes after I do a HIIT workout I am blinded by sweat with my heart rate WAY out the zone and come to find out I only burned 120 calories in 20 minutes…and you want to tell me you burned 90 cals walking to your mailbox for 5 minutes? I think not!!!

Sometimes I just get so annoyed when someone posts a ridiculous exercise…then it’s even more annoying when they wonder why they are NOT losing weight. Really!?!?!

OK…I'm done ranting…I shall dismount my soapbox now! :O)

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way trying to be mean… I know that there are some folks that just don’t know any better… like me in the beginning....but this really bugs me and when I have mentioned it to a couple Pals they blew it off and then the next week complained about not losing. So….

ummm.... MFP pal does the calulations, soooo u shouldnt be ranting on the person so much, but probably on the inaccurate calculation of MFP.....HMMM!.... and i dont think it should bother you dat much, IF and IF they wanna 'make' it up, they are only fooling themselves. You knw what you are doing so focus on you. All the best!