Could I really have burned THAT many calories?

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MatthewLewis81
MatthewLewis81 Posts: 59 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I got a Body Media "Body Bugg" a couple of days ago. Yesterday was my first full 24-hour period of wearing it, and I have to say, I can hardly believe it's accurate.

It said I burned 3,779 calories.

I could believe that if I'd had a physically demanding day, but all I did was a 30-minute walk (average speed just over 4mph) and about 40 minutes of not-so-intense effort with weights (5x5 overhead press at 100 lbs, and 5x5 full squats at 215, plus some warmup for both). My job is sedentary, so there really wasn't much other activity.

Is it possible that I really did burn nearly 4,000 calories on such minimal physical exertion?

I will say that if it *is* accurate, it would explain a few things I couldn't understand about my weight over the past couple of years.

Replies

  • cdjs77
    cdjs77 Posts: 176 Member
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    Your profile says your are 20 lbs away from your goal of 200 lbs. I don't know your height, but for your age and weight it seems possible, but perhaps a little high. Depending on your height, your sedentary TDEE would be somewhere around 2500-2600 calories. Adding in the weight lifting and walking might put you around 3000 calories, so 3779 is somewhat high. The Body Media devices record calories burned with a number of fallible measurements so it's possible the count is off for some reason.
  • MatthewLewis81
    MatthewLewis81 Posts: 59 Member
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    Thank you for your reply. I'm 5' 11" tall and naturally large and muscular (BMI of 31, even with body fat in the 13% - 18% range, depending on how I calculate it) so I would expect to burn more calories than average. But the Body Media calculation seemed over the top of what I expected to find.

    However, if I really am burning that many calories, it would explain several things, including why my weight gain over the past three or four years hasn't been as much as I'd have expected it to be considering my diet and lifestyle during that time, plus how I lost weight so rapidly during the first two weeks on MFP, on 1730 calories per day (while feeling like complete garbage).
  • BeantownSooner
    BeantownSooner Posts: 254
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    Also, since it's new there is a certain break in period for those devices as it learns more about your activities. One thing I've noticed is any off-body time is added as an estimate of what it thinks you typically do. In my experience this is always quite a bit higher than my normal daily activities. For example, I just had mine off for the last 2 hours to charge and it added 283 calories for that time frame. But if I look back at yesterday during this time which is no different than what I did today it was 190 calories. So I'm off about 100. Like you, I have a Sedentary job and there's no way I burned that much over those 2 hours while I had it off. Take a look at that as well.

    Another anomaly i've seen is driving a lawn tractor. Since those are generally pretty bumpy it think's you're moving at quite a quick pace. Days when I mow my lawn were always the highest days so I keep a mental note as well. I have read this can happen when driving as well but haven't seen that happen to me.

    The more you wear it and the longer you wear it, the more accurate it becomes.



    EDIT TO ADD:

    Just looked at my stats for the last month and you're probably not that far out of bounds really. I'm 5'8", 210 with 30% BF so we're quite different structurally. My daily burn average is 2,931.

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