Tracking exercise

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davidwgold
davidwgold Posts: 50
in Fitness and Exercise
Does anybody find it difficult tracking exercise? By that I mean that when I go on a run I know how long I've done and how far and I use apps on my phone to track calories but as with many things like that I don't necessarily agree on how many calories I've burnt during a workout and therefore don't know what to log it as so as a rule I now say I've done less than I really have, for example -

If I go on a 20 minute run at around 6.5mph MFP tells me I've burnt 210 calories but I don't know whether this is true so I will put down that I've done a 15 minute run instead so the calories are lower but I trust what is there a bit more.

I don't know if anybody else has this problem and would like to know what you do in this situation!

Replies

  • thefitfriend
    thefitfriend Posts: 65 Member
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    it depends how accurate you want to be, when i was running on the treadmill i was getting a different reading from MFP and from the treadmill itself so i got a HRM which gave me another different one (the correct one) so if you want accuracy go for a HRM (both MFP and the treadmill gave me about 100-200 calories too many depending on the time, and i wondered why i wasnt losing weight!!!)
  • yellowsun101
    yellowsun101 Posts: 16 Member
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    I agree I run 30mins at 6mph ish Nike fuel watch says I burn 550cals but MFP says 330cals.

    I enter the lower amount to be safe.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    It doesn't really matter in the long run. Log one of the numbers for a few weeks of you lose weight, great. If no, log lower.
    Remember, everything is an estimate, your BMR, your TDEE, your calories eaten (regardless of how close you measure) your calories burned. Nothing is every going to be exact unless you have access to a lab. Even heart rate monitors are estimates and no always more accurate.

    FYI though - running is fairly easy to estimate. The average is 100 calories per mile. For men, it's a bit higher, women a bit lower (due to the fact that men usually weigh more than women). If you are running 2 miles in 20 minutes or around there, 210 calories is not a bad estimate. A good article that explains it and they provide a calculator at the end.

    http://m.runnersworld.com/weight-loss/how-many-calories-are-you-really-burning-0

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