did you really burn that many calories?

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  • ChristineinMA
    ChristineinMA Posts: 312 Member
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    I burned eleventy million eating pie

    I love it!

    I use a Fitbit One to track my steps and stairs/hills which works for me - I do eat most of the calories earned through exercise and I am taking off a pound or more each week (MFP is set to 1lb/wk).

    I do look skeptically at some of the calories burned posts on here, but it's none of my business. If you are going to delude yourself, that's your own business. You have to be mentally ready for weight loss as well as physically.
  • N8r8r
    N8r8r Posts: 75 Member
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    Does anyone else find that some of the numbers for calories burned seems inflated? I see people posting that they burned 700 calories running 3 miles. Well, the general rule of thumb is that you burn 100 calories per mile ran. Or I'll see a post that someone burned 1200 calories cleaning. I wouldn't even count cleaning. But maybe i'm not giving myself enough credit for my exercise. thoughts.

    This is one of the reasons why I use my Fitbit. Most of my activities that I do are walking, so Fitbit tracks and adjusts my MFP cals to reflect the deficit. Other than that, I don't really log my exercises much; I just remember that the more moving around that I do, the better chance I have to drop pounds. If I really NEED to log exercise and it's something that Fitbit can't track, I'll poke around on the inter-webs and find out a general consensus of the amount of calories burned doing such-and-such activities and I'll log the calories in myself, not rely on what others have posted.

    I normally only have about 200-300 calories deficit by the end of the day, but it's enough for that little extra that I might go over normally.
  • Katkamm77
    Katkamm77 Posts: 108 Member
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    I don't know how accurate MFP is so I don't eat back my calories. I don't log my exercise in until after I have completed my food log. I only log my exercise to keep me accountable to myself.
  • StephConey
    StephConey Posts: 18
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    I apologize if someone has already said this, but there is a way to log your exercise so it makes more sense to onlookers. If you do a lot of the same workouts daily (or often, whatever), it will be listed for you to check off in an exercise log list. If you check off all your exercises at once, your TL will say something like, "Stephconey burned 450 calories doing 75 minutes of exercise including 'elliptical trainer', 'strength training', and 'standing'" That make more sense than burning 450 calories doing 75 minutes of exercises including, 'standing'. (which is what will happen if you log your exercises one at a time) :)

    I see your tickers and I see the weight is coming off. You're all doing something right regardless of how many calories you're burning. Kudos!
  • KAS0917
    KAS0917 Posts: 172 Member
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    I do struggle with some of the calorie burns that I see.

    I have a friend who logged over 500 calories for knitting/sewing the other day. That just seems so off to me - especially if you eat your exercise calories back. And she's routinely logging over 1,000 calories/day in gardening. I have no question that she's doing a lot of gardening, I just don't know if the entire 3 hours is 'vigorous effort' as she's logging, you know? But then she posted the other day that she weighed herself (I don't think she weighs very often - 1/week or every other, I think) and the scale is up 4 pounds, and she can't understand why and specifically said 'she's been so active.'

    I don't know for a fact, and don't want to come off as a 'know it all' (I certainly don't), but I have to believe the over-inflated exercise calories is at least part of the issue.
  • angelasmithhenderson
    angelasmithhenderson Posts: 23 Member
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    i don't think that anybody is intentionally lying about, or inflating, their calories burned. I think , as many of you have said, that mfp isn't entirely accurate when it comes to calorie burned. Knowing the correct calorie burned is crucial to long-term weigh loss. Especially once you get down to your goal. Someone asked "why do i care?" Well isn't that why we are on this site? I do care about others success and progress. It's my personality to care about everyone. Plus, it encourages me.
  • iceqieen
    iceqieen Posts: 897 Member
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    I find people saying "this is impossible" amusing.. just because you cant put in the effort to reach that burn doesnt mean other people cant. Not to mention the whole issue of different body composition and fitness level.

    I can burn between 250 to 500 in a 5k.. just depends on the effort I put into it :P

    MFP estimates I burned close to 5k calories yesterday after a very active day. I think it overestimated a bit - I would estimate it closer to 3k, but even if I half it it's 2.500 calories. I dare you to tell my very tired body that the numbers are impossible.
  • cindy326
    cindy326 Posts: 70 Member
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    I just got back from my 4 mile walk....I burned over 700 calories in 108 mminutes according to my HRM. Do I believe it? Yes. I reached my target heart rate. Its all a general est and I f I only burned 500 today, so be it.
  • N8r8r
    N8r8r Posts: 75 Member
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    100 calories per mile? thats not true...everyone burns different amounts of calories depending on their own body, weight and muscle play a factor as well. for example someone who weighs more is going to burn more calories because their body has to work harder to perform the task. mfp does over exaggerate on calories burned so its smart to use a heart rate monitor to get a more accurate burn.

    No, she is right, but that is for the average weight person. I am still about 12 pounds overweight with a 47 resting heart rate and I burn about 380 calories running 5k.i look at those extra 80 calories come from me pushing myself to run faster and get my heart rate up.

    Very true. The heavier the person is, the harder their body has to work to move around the weight. I burn less calories now at 205 lbs than I did when I started at 234lbs; if I were to burn as many calories as I did in the beginning (hypothetically) it would be the equivalent of me walking around all day with a 29 pound pack on my front.
  • maegmez
    maegmez Posts: 341 Member
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    My first 5K I burned 600 calories according to my HRM. 100 calories per mile is an often repeated myth.

    I do t worry about what others post. It doesn't affect me. If they ask ill offer an opinion.
    That's almost impossible. Maybe in a 10k but a 5k is probably 200-300 unless you are majorly overweight or super big person.

    200-300 is A pretty low estimate. I average about 450 walking at an incline for 3 miles and I am not overweight. I use a Polar ft4.

    So the person above may be running the whole time, I could see 600 calories burned then.
    For walking that seems extremely high. And running a 5k would be 400 max unless like I said before you are very large. Heart rate monitors are not always accurate. I WISH I could burn 600 running a 5k because I run often, but that just isn't accurate.
    While HRMs aren't always accurate, some of them are pretty close. I really don't see how running the whole time for a 5k would be 400 max.... My runs, excluding the warm-up and cool down walks, are around 3-3.5 miles and I burn over 400 in them, and even though I'm overweight, I don't think I'd fall into the "very large" or "majorly overweight" categories.

    Some polar hrm's use the fit test and I think if you get a lower resting heart rate it adjusts your max heart rate which would make it look like you're burning more calories because your heart rate zones are lowered. I'm pretty sure you have the option of keeping your heart rate zones with the standard calculation which is where it should be. Just because you are more fit doesn't change your max heart rate, you just have to work harder to get your heart rate up.

    I have a new hrm by suunto and I burn about 75-100 calories less than my polar but I didn't adjust my polar to keep the standard heart rate zones.

    If you are overweight and walking a fast steady pace up a constant incline, you could burn 450, just depends on the weight.

    Running your first 5k will always result in more calories, the person is going to be pushing much more harder just to run the whole 5k! the next runs will get less and less. Again,the 100 calories per mile is for the average weight person
  • 81Katz
    81Katz Posts: 7,074 Member
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    Body size/composition does matter. Someone 50lbs more than me would probably burn more doing the same thing as me.

    At the end of the day it doesn't affect me, but I think people are cheating themselves logging huge burns for simple tasks. I doubt most people (if anyone) actually burns 250 calories doing laundry or 500 calories for 10 minutes of 'food prep'. Or logging 5 minutes of walking and burning 400 calories. Not ....
  • angelasmithhenderson
    angelasmithhenderson Posts: 23 Member
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    farming is definitely hard work. You might be the only person who is burning more than you are counting. lol
  • N8r8r
    N8r8r Posts: 75 Member
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    If you're having issues with the whole "numbers being off for exercise" thing, you could always look into figuring out your TDEE and not logging exercise at all.

    For those interested, this kinda goes into the explanation of TDEE and points to some great sources as well.

    http://bit.ly/16q5ZPP
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
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    I used a HRM for a while for all the different classes I do to get an idea of more accurate calories. 45 mins of spin for example burned off about 350 calories, yet I see people logging that as 500. A Zumba class, for an hour, burns off around 300 calories, but I've seen an hour of Zumba logged as 600. I guess if you're really overweight then it's possible.

    When I use the gym I usually use the calorie burn the machines give me. When I used my HRM I actually found I was burning more calories on the treadmill and the cross trainer than the machine gave me.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    Does anyone else find that some of the numbers for calories burned seems inflated? I see people posting that they burned 700 calories running 3 miles. Well, the general rule of thumb is that you burn 100 calories per mile ran. Or I'll see a post that someone burned 1200 calories cleaning. I wouldn't even count cleaning. But maybe i'm not giving myself enough credit for my exercise. thoughts.

    I personally think it's one of the many reasons people think they're "doing everything right" but nothing is happening. People need to use a bit of common sense.

    Especially when people use a database, they really overestimate effort....they'll put in rigorous bike ride or something...which it might be for them because they're out of shape or whatever...but really the database is assuming you're doing like 30 MPH constant on a bicycle for how much ever time. People go for a 90 minute ride through the park and put this and it spits out like 1500 calories in 90 minutes...sorry...no f'ing way. If you could actually do that for reals they should be doing the Tour de France...'cuz they'd win. They'd basically be able to complete a century in a few hours...that's FAST.

    Simply put, you really don't burn tons of calories with exercise...that's why it's a really inefficient way of building a calorie deficitt; it's much more efficient to build that deficit into your diet (what MFP does). As far as weight control is concerned, exercise is far more important when maintaining than losing; that said, everyone should be exercising as it is an essential component to good health and overall well being.
  • A_Fit_Mom
    A_Fit_Mom Posts: 602 Member
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    My first 5K I burned 600 calories according to my HRM. 100 calories per mile is an often repeated myth.

    I do t worry about what others post. It doesn't affect me. If they ask ill offer an opinion.
    That's almost impossible. Maybe in a 10k but a 5k is probably 200-300 unless you are majorly overweight or super big person.

    200-300 is A pretty low estimate. I average about 450 walking at an incline for 3 miles and I am not overweight. I use a Polar ft4.

    So the person above may be running the whole time, I could see 600 calories burned then.
    For walking that seems extremely high. And running a 5k would be 400 max unless like I said before you are very large. Heart rate monitors are not always accurate. I WISH I could burn 600 running a 5k because I run often, but that just isn't accurate.

    Walking at a 4 incline for 45 mins at 3.8 mph is not a leisurely walk. My HRM is the Polar ft4 with the chest strap. It is pretty accurate and has helped me lose the 33 pounds that I have. :) So I am doing something right. ;)



    Btw, I am 5'8 and 152, so I am at a healthy weight. During my time on the treadmill, my heart rate averages in the upper 140's and near the end stays in the low 150's.
  • RoyBeck
    RoyBeck Posts: 947 Member
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    I don't put my exercise calories into MFP therefore only using MFP for food logging purposes. I keep all my exercise info in a handwritten diary.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    I just got back from my 4 mile walk....I burned over 700 calories in 108 mminutes according to my HRM. Do I believe it? Yes. I reached my target heart rate. Its all a general est and I f I only burned 500 today, so be it.

    See now this is where I question validity. It took you almost 2 hrs to go 4 miles which is a 2 mph pace. Unless you are very obese those numbers are off just because of the amount of time it took you to cover that distance. My HRM will give me a burn of over 150 calories an hour for laying on the couch but I know it isn't right.

    EDIT to add: when I looked at your diary you logged that as walking briskly at 4.5 mph for 108 minutes. Don't care how you log or what you eat but this is the reason I question the numbers people post and take them with a grain of salt.
  • whitebalance
    whitebalance Posts: 1,654 Member
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    I burned eleventy million eating pie
    Pass the pie.
  • wooseyuk
    wooseyuk Posts: 8 Member
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    the level of stupidy is in this thread to to dam high ;)

    You can burn 1000 calories +, i wear a HRM whilst running and running 10k gives me 940 kcals in 55 mins (at my current weight, 82.6kg, i'm 5ft 11) , if you note by sig banner, i think i'm doing it right ;)

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