calorie burn question for fitness people

davecando · January 2014

Hi my weight is 23 stone 6ft4 i should eat around 2300 calories for the day acording to myp BUT the question i have is i use a polar heart rate moniter and dureing a hard pt session where i get beasted untill i cant breather i use up 800 calories if i leave the watch on i continue to burn more maybe registers 1300 calories , if i leave it on longer and walk the dog for a hour i use up 100 calories every 10 minutes and it stays elevated again which may show i used up 2300 calories that day , by the way mine is a old watch and only registers calories after 90 beats per minute so i will use more . i totally understand the afterburn amd metabolic work load etc But what im about to ask may sound stupid if i am allowed 2300 cal a day and burn of 2300 cal with exercise and walking should i consume more calories ? my fitness pal says i should consume another 1400 taking my total to 3600 a day without taking into acount the afterburn effect from working out.. i feel scared to eat that amount of food, any help fro you people Thanks Dave

WalkingAlong · January 2014

I personally don't think you need to 'eat back' 1400-2300 exercise calories a day. Why not just log the PT session of 800 and consider the dog walking and such 'normal daily activity'? That'd have you eating around 3100. If your losses are slower than you like, and I think 2 lbs/week is very reasonable, then lower it.

davecando · January 2014

Hi thanks for reply i dont wish to eat the extra calories i burn im just wondering if other people eat them , if i train and burn 800 and walk the dog and burn 600 thats a extra 1400 a day , also wondering if im doing more harm than good or am i placeing my body in starvation mode by not eating enough calories Thanks Dave

TavistockToad · January 2014

Hi thanks for reply i dont wish to eat the extra calories i burn im just wondering if other people eat them , if i train and burn 800 and walk the dog and burn 600 thats a extra 1400 a day , also wondering if im doing more harm than good or am i placeing my body in starvation mode by not eating enough calories Thanks Dave

MFP is set up so you eat back exercise cals... in your case you can get way with a larger deficit because you have a lot to lose, but as you get closer to your goal you should reconsider.

you also run the risk of losing LBM along with the fat if your deficit is too large.

89nunu · January 2014

You will not go into starvation mode! Don't worry! For that to happen you would need a very low bf%.

Now to your question. The calories mfp gives you have already got a deficit build in. What did you set your activity level as?

I would really to eat back at least half of your calories you burn with your pt to give you body the fuel it needs to give it all during these sessions.

As you are already on a pretty high calorie goal and have a lot to lose I don't think you have to eat back the calories from walking your dog, but it certainly wouldn't harm. Go by how you feel, if you are hungry or light headed eat more.

Chieflrg · January 2014

Hi my weight is 23 stone 6ft4 i should eat around 2300 calories for the day acording to myp BUT the question i have is i use a polar heart rate moniter and dureing a hard pt session where i get beasted untill i cant breather i use up 800 calories if i leave the watch on i continue to burn more maybe registers 1300 calories , if i leave it on longer and walk the dog for a hour i use up 100 calories every 10 minutes and it stays elevated again which may show i used up 2300 calories that day , by the way mine is a old watch and only registers calories after 90 beats per minute so i will use more . i totally understand the afterburn amd metabolic work load etc But what im about to ask may sound stupid if i am allowed 2300 cal a day and burn of 2300 cal with exercise and walking should i consume more calories ? my fitness pal says i should consume another 1400 taking my total to 3600 a day without taking into acount the afterburn effect from working out.. i feel scared to eat that amount of food, any help fro you people Thanks Dave

The HRM doesn't register over 90bpm because like most other HRM you need a steady state of cardio in order for it to guestimate properly. Walking the dog is not one unless you are doing it at a pretty fast pace or up hills or something of that nature unless your extremely heavy, nor is weight lifting. So if you use it during either of those activities, you will get a false reading. Also Polar ft4 doesn't subtract the calories your body would normally burn just being alive, so you have to do that also to get a correct reading if that is the model you have. Sounds like you might be grossly overestimating your calorie burns & that is something you will have to fix first. I wouldn't be taking into account after burn as it isn't necessary.

MFP is set up so you eat back exercise cals... in your case you can get way with a larger deficit because you have a lot to lose, but as you get closer to your goal you should reconsider.

you also run the risk of losing LBM along with the fat if your deficit is too large.

This is sound advice.
How much of a deficit are you currently set at?

rileysowner · January 2014

I may be reading your post wrong, but it sounds like you are leaving your HRM on through the day. HRMs are not designed to do this. They are only useful for estimation of calories during steady state cardio type activities. They will give extreme miscalculations in other instances. If you want an all day activity tracker, you need to get something other than a HRM. It should be used for exercise only.

WalkingAlong · January 2014

Hi thanks for reply i dont wish to eat the extra calories i burn im just wondering if other people eat them , if i train and burn 800 and walk the dog and burn 600 thats a extra 1400 a day , also wondering if im doing more harm than good or am i placeing my body in starvation mode by not eating enough calories Thanks Dave

Your body doesn't need today's food to fuel today's activity. That's how weight loss works. You can forget starvation mode and forget trying to eat at a tiny deficit (assuming you're not looking for a reason to eat more) to preserve lean body mass. You need to lose both types of mass right now. If you prefer to eat all 1400 back, give it a try, see how it works for you.

davecando · January 2014

Thanks for the replies

i would love to eat that extra 1400 calories a day but feel i can’t stomach it , give me a mars bar pack of crisps pizza or something really unhealthy high calories i could consume it in one sitting probably. but to eat 1400 calories of a good clean food is hard work after you have all ready eaten clean and healthy all day. if i did consume it i would put weight back on in a instant i know this because i have one day of a week on a Sunday i consume whatever i want have a bacon egg sandwich maybe a pizza or a meal out or odd takeaway not very often can’t get me head around how awful most are now and some sweets or chocolate , by eating all that crap in one day i add 3lbs of weight on sometimes 5lbs then it takes me 3 days to move it again , it’s a mad cycle that i do but works for me i lose weight every week and getting fitter, I know if i didn’t have all the crap all day Sunday that 3lb would not go on and i would lose weight faster! But i feel i must have this cheat/treat day even though it’s doing me more harm than good. The way i look at it is I’m still making progress which is good for me.

Heart monitor when i first wore i for 30 minutes pt session i used up 1800 calories in that time now I’m fitter lighter i use up 750 800 its very interesting to watch how my heart rate has slowed down at rest from 85 bpm to 52bpm ,i wear it for exercise and dog walking i walk as fast as i can and use interval in it as I’m about to start running again any day soon, the watch is left on after the gym to see how i recover from it not for the calorie count afterwards , i have noticed if i do high intensity stuff it does not come back down to resting heart rate that day of around 52 beats per minute and it stays elevated the next day a bit more than normal plus if i do anything that requires lots of movement it rises up pretty quickly on the day i do high intensity stuff the afterburner effect is great to see , when i heavy weights it doesn’t move that much ,if i go on treadmill bike stepper it goes down pretty quickly, i have learnt a lot from it as in how my body works and functions which helps me out loads , i prefer the hard fast high intensity workout works for me best for fat loss . The watch tells you a lot more things that just calories tells me how my heart if performing if I’m ill run down or just tired out plus on the polar site it tells me to rest or take it easy the next day as i have over exerted myself very useful tool , whatever calories the watch says at the end of a session my fitness pal is about the same when i add the time and data on here I’m assuming there both right as one is direct of my heart and one is calculated by the computer on here Cheers Dave

Azdak · January 2014

Hi thanks for reply i dont wish to eat the extra calories i burn im just wondering if other people eat them , if i train and burn 800 and walk the dog and burn 600 thats a extra 1400 a day , also wondering if im doing more harm than good or am i placeing my body in starvation mode by not eating enough calories Thanks Dave

MFP is set up so you eat back exercise cals... in your case you can get way with a larger deficit because you have a lot to lose, but as you get closer to your goal you should reconsider.

you also run the risk of losing LBM along with the fat if your deficit is too large.

Someone that big is going to lose LBM no matter what--it's a natural and necessary part of "resizing" their body. 2300 calories a day is a considerable amount of food. In most cases, there is no reason to "eat back" any calories--just take the extra deficit and lose more weight. By maintaining a resistance training program, one can help to conserve muscle (which is only one component of LBM) even with a much larger calorie deficit.

If the person is successful, then, as you mention, the strategy will have to change, but at his current size and level of food intake, the OP does not to be concerned with an overly large calorie deficit.

BerryH · January 2014

HRMs only give an accurate burn for for elevated heart rate during aerobic exercise, not day to day activity. Eat back a good proportion of your PT session and don't count recovery or walking the dog. If you walk the dog every day that should be covered by setting your activity level to "lightly active".

calorie burn question for fitness people

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