Eating Back Calories - A Question about HRM Readouts

Ploogy
Ploogy Posts: 115 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
When folks eat back calories as measured by an HRM, are you eating back the entire amount? Aren't those calorie amounts inflated because they include your base calorie burn? In other words, I burn 1.2cal/minute at rest, so for 60 minutes of exercise, I would need to substract 72 or so calories from whatever it shows I've burned, correct?

Replies

  • scottdeeby
    scottdeeby Posts: 95 Member
    I think you are correct. As it happens, I just read an article about that! It's a very good article:

    http://www.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/how-many-calories-are-you-really-burning-0?page=single

    scott
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    Perhaps, but I've never bothered to subtract out those calories from my my HRM, and I've done just fine. :smile:
  • missmegan831
    missmegan831 Posts: 824 Member
    My nutritionist gave me an article on HRM and says to log only 75% of the recorded amount so that if you eat back your exercise calories you are only eating back those 'burned' during your workout.. so far its worked great for me...
  • majope
    majope Posts: 1,325 Member
    Perhaps, but I've never bothered to subtract out those calories from my my HRM, and I've done just fine. :smile:
    This. Besides, if you exercise vigorously (intensity seems to be the deciding factor here), there's the afterburn to consider--you continue to burn calories at a higher rate for several hours after. I figure it all evens out in the end--and I'm certainly losing weight, so I don't see any reason to complicate things further.

    A few sources for the curious:
    http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article folder/epocarticle.html
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/health/nutrition/19best.html
  • MrsSki
    MrsSki Posts: 196
    I would say that it's such a small amount you probably don't need to worry about it.
  • scottdeeby
    scottdeeby Posts: 95 Member
    I would say that it's such a small amount you probably don't need to worry about it.

    I don't even count calories from exercise. Only food. I don't think you should count calories as though it's a balance sheet. For me, it's a tool for staying on target more or less but the average person doesn't need to micro manage their calorie intake/expenditure.
  • Hezzietiger1
    Hezzietiger1 Posts: 1,256 Member
    Perhaps, but I've never bothered to subtract out those calories from my my HRM, and I've done just fine. :smile:

    Same for me. I don't worry about if I'm eating them all back or not tho. I just eat when I'm hungry and stay under.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    When folks eat back calories as measured by an HRM, are you eating back the entire amount? Aren't those calorie amounts inflated because they include your base calorie burn? In other words, I burn 1.2cal/minute at rest, so for 60 minutes of exercise, I would need to substract 72 or so calories from whatever it shows I've burned, correct?

    In theory you are correct, that base should be based on your maintenance cals when set at sedentary as you will burn more than BMR if you didn't workout.

    That being said, the cals burned by HRM's are just an estimate and could be over or under estimated so the number may be lower than you really burned anyway, but on the flip side it could be higher.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I would say that it's such a small amount you probably don't need to worry about it.

    I agree for workouts under an hour, but if you go golfing for 4.5 hours, this will make up a significant portion of total cals burned.
  • karakreature
    karakreature Posts: 79 Member
    bump
  • beachygirlk
    beachygirlk Posts: 28
    bump! :flowerforyou:
  • smsisfat
    smsisfat Posts: 10
    eating back the calories from exercising is very confusing to me.

    on MFP if I log my exercise it increases my allowed calories - yet just about everything I read says to not eat back those calories to lose weight. But, depending on my intensity and length of exercise there are days I am starving. so I eat some more - always under the total it says I can consume. but more then my base calories.

    and I am not sure if this is why sometimes I am just stuck and can not lose weight. or maybe it's the opposite, it's not that I am eating back the calories from exercising, it's that I don't eat them back, so I am consuming too few calories.


    as everyone can see - I am confused.
  • SuffolkSally
    SuffolkSally Posts: 964 Member
    You're right about the HRM burn - it doesn't include your BMR and if you want to be as accurate as possible you need to adjust this. I worked out my BMR per minute - conveniently it's 60 cals an hour. So if - as I often do - I exercise for quite a long period but not at high intensity, say a two or three hour walk, I knock off my BRM, in this example 120 or 180 calories. I don't stress about the precise minutes of course, and I realise we're only working with estimates, but for me it's often enough to make a considerable difference.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    HRM calories are an estimate, food calories are an estimate - really not worth stressing about a few calories here or there.
  • pineygirl
    pineygirl Posts: 322 Member
    I calculate my BMR/24 which is 48.5 calories.

    Then I figure out how long my workout was. So for 45 minutes it would be about 36 calories. For 30 minutes about 24 calories. If it were 1 hour 15min I subtract 60 calories.

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