HRM says I've burned over 3000 calories today...

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I wanted to wear it for a full 24 hours, of course it's not all exercise, but some normal activity for me (and it's not been 24 hours yet). I'm gaining weight instead of losing... can someone please tell me how many calories I should be eating compared to the numbers on this heart rate monitor?

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  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    If you are gaining weight instead of losing weight, you are taking in more calories than you are burning, regardless of what your HRM says. How long as the gaining been going on?
  • Chipmunk222
    Chipmunk222 Posts: 240 Member
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    If you are gaining weight instead of losing weight, you are taking in more calories than you are burning, regardless of what your HRM says. How long as the gaining been going on?

    Well I've only gained back 2 pounds, but I was stalled and in trying to get moving again, I upped my calories to 1600, my diary should be open if you want to take a look. I did have a cookout over the weekend but other than that I can't see how I'm logging my food and coming up at 1600 or below and my HRM is showing me burning sometimes as much as 4500 calories a day.
  • Chipmunk222
    Chipmunk222 Posts: 240 Member
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    Bump... Help please
  • InvidiaXII
    InvidiaXII Posts: 315 Member
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    From what I've been led to believe, a heart rate monitor is only accurate when your heart rate is elevated (e.g. working out). It's not meant to be worn for extended periods of time to calculate how many calories are burned in a day. You can search online for equations to calculate your basal metabolic rate and then use your HRM only when you're doing cardio activities, and use a combination of these numbers to more accurately guess how many calories you're burning.

    MFP will also estimate a lot of these numbers for you.
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    I'm not seeing your diary. As for your calorie burn, of course, I have no idea of your height and weight, so I can only look at myself, but my total daily energy expenditure is about 1800 on a GOOD day, when I have put some effort into that treadmill and logged over 10,000 on my pedometer.

    You might use the TDEE calculator at http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html to get a rough idea of what your expenditure might be.
  • Chipmunk222
    Chipmunk222 Posts: 240 Member
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    I"m 5'1
    46 years old
    143 pounds

    BMR 1347
    TDEE 2080 (moderate) but some weeks I actually exercise every day

    I wear a fitbit and get 10,000 steps a day
    20 floors
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    Then you are a lot like me. . . I'm 5'1" and 128 pounds. I wear a fitbit and try to get 10,000 steps in every day, though I don't always quite make it. I try to do 30-40 minutes on my treadmill most days, but I don't aways. My fitbit often shows my calorie burn at about 1600 at the end of the day. fitnessfrog calculates my tdee at 1650.

    My BMR is 1120, so I'm currently eating 1200 calories a day. I'm losing between .5 and 1 pound a week.
  • crisanderson27
    crisanderson27 Posts: 5,343 Member
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    I"m 5'1
    46 years old
    143 pounds

    BMR 1347
    TDEE 2080 (moderate) but some weeks I actually exercise every day

    I wear a fitbit and get 10,000 steps a day
    20 floors

    What does your fitbit say your caloric burn is? A fitbit isn't perfectly accurate, but it's a helluva lot more accurate than a heart rate monitor.

    For example, my calculated TDEE was 2800cal. I'm 5'7" tall, male, 37, 190lbs. Moderately active is what I chose.

    SO wrong.

    Per the fitbit, I AVERAGE (and this is with two totally lazy weekend days), 3100cal. My high during last week was 3800cal.
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    One thing to think about is that as you lose weight, you need fewer calories. If you are stalled, you might try cutting 150-200 down and see what happens after a week.
  • crisanderson27
    crisanderson27 Posts: 5,343 Member
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    One thing to think about is that as you lose weight, you need fewer calories. If you are stalled, you might try cutting 150-200 down and see what happens after a week.

    This is only partly true. Often, as we lose weight, we're more active...and thus need more calories.

    My suggestion if you stall is to RAISE calories to what your weekly fitbit average says....for two or three weeks. Then go back to about a 20% deficit. Weight loss should resume nicely.
  • Chipmunk222
    Chipmunk222 Posts: 240 Member
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    I seriously don't know how to begin to survive on 1200 calories a day, I feel like I'm starving at 1600. I eat decent foods, this morning I ate 1 whole egg, 3 egg whites, black beans, spinach, a cup of kashi 7 grain puffs with a cup of whole milk and a half hour later I'm watching the clock for the next time to eat.... I do this every single meal.... and no matter what I eat I never ever feel full.... it's so frustrating :(
  • crisanderson27
    crisanderson27 Posts: 5,343 Member
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    I seriously don't know how to begin to survive on 1200 calories a day, I feel like I'm starving at 1600. I eat decent foods, this morning I ate 1 whole egg, 3 egg whites, black beans, spinach, a cup of kashi 7 grain puffs with a cup of whole milk and a half hour later I'm watching the clock for the next time to eat.... I do this every single meal.... and no matter what I eat I never ever feel full.... it's so frustrating :(

    Again, what is your burn per fitbit?

    And try eating your meals more spaced, but larger.
  • Chipmunk222
    Chipmunk222 Posts: 240 Member
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    yesterday the fitbit says i burned 1867 (Tuesday)
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    I don't know anything about the fitbit but if that is accurate at telling you how many calories you burned in a day, then eat 500 less than that to lose 1 pound a week. If you want to eat more, exercise more. You can also just subtract 500 from your TDEE.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    I seriously don't know how to begin to survive on 1200 calories a day, I feel like I'm starving at 1600. I eat decent foods, this morning I ate 1 whole egg, 3 egg whites, black beans, spinach, a cup of kashi 7 grain puffs with a cup of whole milk and a half hour later I'm watching the clock for the next time to eat.... I do this every single meal.... and no matter what I eat I never ever feel full.... it's so frustrating :(
    You don't log dinner - is that because you don't eat it ?

    I noticed the 8 ozs chicken pigouts at lunchtime and from the above it sounds like you're eating too much and aren't particularly in control of it. Breakfast cereal carbs will give you blood sugar swing, without them and the milk you probably would not have been hungry. A two egg omelette with the spinach and beans would do me for a morning,

    Regarding the HRM, have you set it up for your personal fitness level ? If not it may be overestimating 30% or more. Hopefully you're aware that they estimate the total calories including your RMR etc and that the estimate is debatable at low heart rates.
  • graelwyn
    graelwyn Posts: 1,340 Member
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    Fitbit isn't reliable for workouts. It is only really designed to calculate general movement such as walking and going up stairs, I use a hrm seperately for my workouts and do things that way having found the fitbit was underestimating my workouts by as much as 400-500 calories (especially with cycling). Also, you cannot use a hrm to calculate your daily energy expenditure, it isn't designed for that.
  • smithy85
    smithy85 Posts: 104 Member
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    Your not eating enough protein if your hungry a lot, up your protein intake, cut out carbs eat clean more fresh veg and fruit, and always take 20% off your calorie burn, everything is estimated. if your outtingon weight you are over eating and not active enough.
  • serini
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    I've noticed mine did that too, think using the bmr as a baseline for working out a suitable deficit to be helping me out, and I do quite a bit of exercise, and usually aim to eat about half of them back, I'm 160lb and 5ft 2, slowly getting there!
  • sirvivor007
    sirvivor007 Posts: 45 Member
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    I ran your numbers. You should lose well at 1300-1500 calories per day. If you have stalled make sure you are not under estimating calories (weigh and measure food) and over estimating calories burned from work outs. If you chose moderate activity factor do you work exercise 1 hr a day 5 days a week at a moderate heart rate of 150? Have to be quite accurate on both calories consumed/burned because 200 calories a day off and you will stall.

    As for being hungry all the time there are 2 approaches. If you want to keep insulin levels from spiking eat every 2-3 hours with a balance of complex carbs and protien. This works for some people. The other thing to try is Intermittent Fasting. You cram your meals in a shorter window of time but each meal has a lot of calories to help you feel full.

    The main thing is you stay within your calorie range, but if you want to help with the hunger pains try to cut down on processed carbs. They will spike your insulin levels and an hour or so later you will crash and be ravenous. Protien and healthy fats make you feel full and provide even consistent energy.
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
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    I'm having the same struggle.. I'm trying to eat around 1800 a day .. currently not.. I did gain weight over the holiday. But I refuse to weigh myself so I don't know how much.

    I regularly get a burn of over 3,000 with my body bugg, which is designed to wear all day long, including while sleeping. I am very active. It comes in close to what the calculators say my TDEE is, but idk what to do to fix it. I'm not losing.. so the theory is i'm eating at maintenance. Which does not jive with what the bugg says i'm burning or the calculators say I burn. Even if it is over estimating by 25% that still put me well over 2,000 calories and well over what I am eating.

    Maybe i really did mess up my metabolism really badly last year.. *sigh*
    I noticed the 8 ozs chicken pigouts at lunchtime
    8 oz of chicken is hardly a pig out. I don't feel like I've eaten unless it's 8 oz or more...