how to track calories burned????

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Replies

  • luckydays27
    luckydays27 Posts: 552 Member
    I wear a FitBit One 24/7. Its great for determining cals burned for walking based activities. Its not great for lifting, cycling, swimming etc. It cant read your heart rate so it does not know what you are doing except for step based activities. Does not accurately measure cals burned during strength training or times of heavy exertion

    Cost $99 no monthly fee. Great customer service. The FB force costs $129

    My sister had the Body Fit Media, It measures your movements as well as skin temps or something like that to determine your cals burn. It does not measure your heart rate. Does not accurately measure cals burned during strength training or times of heavy exertion.

    Costs $100+ depending on model and has a monthly subscription fee after the intro period.

    As you can see, neither can accurately measure cals burned during times of heavy exertion. No device can do this accurately at the consumer level. Heart Rate Monitors can give a better estimate but are not designed to be worn all day long and work best during steady state cardio.

    I use my HRM during strength training because I do more of a circuit style of workout where my heart rate is elevated the entire time. Its not 100% accurate but its close enough. Actually its close enough that I lose my expected loss week after week.

    I think a FB might be a good option for you. You can try it for a month and if you lost more weight than expected, you increase your cal intake. If you lost less, you decrease your intake.

    Either way, you probably need to eat more food than 1000 and 1400 depending on your day. On my laziest day where I barely get off the couch, I eat around 1500 and still lose. Most days I am eating around 1900 and lose at a crazy pace.

    No matter what, dont give up. It will take time to figure all this out. You have to honest about your intake though to truly figure out what you need each and every day. Weighing and measuring your foods will help.

    Good luck!
  • annastasia_82
    annastasia_82 Posts: 940 Member
    Thank you. It sounds like there a lot of options, I just need to figure out which one will meet my needs the best.

    I have been trying to increase my calorie intake but I just don't want to be eating like I used to. Although in the past I would eat large portions and maybe only eat once or twice a day. Now I eat the suggested serving size portion and each a lot through out the day. Watching my sodium and sugar intake has always been a big one for me that's helped me loose in the past, so I try to keep those in check even if I go over on my calories.


    Thank you all though for the concern on getting my calorie numbers up. I'm not sure how to do that without gaining, but I guess its just trial and error. :flowerforyou:
  • I use a Fitbit Force. It seems to work pretty well and be pretty accurate. I never 'eat back' my calories though. I work to a set number regardless of how active I am in a day and find I meet my (current) weight gain goals.
  • AusEliza
    AusEliza Posts: 60 Member
    i use to use a polar heart rate monitor/watch, but it never worked as well as it should have, so can't recommend it, but hey it might be an option.
  • annastasia_82
    annastasia_82 Posts: 940 Member
    lol. note to self: don't bother with a polar heart rate monitor/watch. lol.

    Yeah, I don't understand the eating back your work out calories thing. That doesn't make sense to me, and what your doing is obviously working very well for you.
  • luckydays27
    luckydays27 Posts: 552 Member
    I use a Polar FT60 HRM when exercising. It works just fine for doing what i need it to do.

    Regarding eating exercise cals back, I do eat mine (or most of them anyway). For me to lose weight (.5 lbs a week) I can eat 1380 worth of cals. This does not take exercise into consideration though. If I want to work out to get fit, I need to eat more because I cant function on 1380 cals AND workout. The gas tank would run dry. So I am not eating back my calories to lose weight, I am eating my calories to get fit.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Ok, so first I don't appreciate being called a liar. I work three different jobs. One full time two part time. I work atleast 20 hours a week at a cattle farm (on these days I eat more protein and more calories), 40 hours a week as a lab tech ( a lot of walking, moving around, and some sitting,) and 32 hours at a tax office ( a lot of sitting). So I set my activity level low because two of my jobs I don't consider to be active. In the summer I'm much more active riding horses and working on my own farm (all hay ground, no animals yet), so I'd would definitely change it to active then. I'm new to this, so I'm still trying to find what works for me. So, HEYBALES, I am honest. I never said that I only work on a beef farm, I was curious about what would work to count the calories I burn while I'm there. I know I'm not burning much at my other jobs.

    If you thought I was calling you a liar, please reread and remove emotion, as that will cause undo stress and that won't help weight loss.

    I was asking if you were being honest with yourself.

    As others have said, I'm trying to get you to be honest if your are going to use the MFP method, which will see better long term results than thinking you are going to make it faster and better by making an even bigger deficit.

    Even if you get one of the devices that measures your daily activity better than an estimate, guess what they compare your daily calorie burn with?

    The level of calories your choices of Activity level causes the daily maintenance figure for.
    So you'll be getting these adjustments every day, and bigger ones if you underestimate your activity level purposely because you think you know better - when right within these posts you admit you don't know, at all.

    So it's good to see you thinking about accepting the advice of those commenting that are more experienced than you.
    Keep it up, learn from others mistakes, perhaps you'll be able to avoid going through your own school of hard-knocks.

    Sadly, some people must do that. Some people even then don't learn either. Such is the interesting nature of man (and woman).

    As to what your activity level would be in MFP without exercise - I was just thinking farm chores, now you added a 40 hr job standing mostly some walking.

    You might be surprised to learn how many FitBit users after first getting their unit discover that their sedentary desk jobs, without counting exercise or the motivation to move more, are already Lightly Active because of rest of their life.

    So by wanting to underestimate so badly about your activity level usually says a couple of things.
    1 - You have no actual knowledge about calorie levels beyond perhaps seeing 1200 minimum around, you just know if you picked a higher level you'd be eating more, and you think that is wrong. Unless you actually logged how much you used to eat that got you into trouble, without actually changing what you ate by the mere fact of logging, you've never know a calorie level to compare to. So forget trying to compare if a stated calorie level sounds high or low - you have no idea likely.
    2 - You think bigger is better, without having knowledge why it usually is not, especially long term. Unless you enjoy being stressed out because the process ends up taking longer over all than required.


    Have you read why MFP has you eat back your exercise calories?
    You like math?

    MFP takes your BMR x activity factor based on your choice of non-exercise activity level causes.
    BMR 1500 x 1.8 Very active = 2700 maintenance calories without exercise. No gain or loss if you ate that, and no exercise. Obviously estimated, this is what FitBit and others attempt to estimate better.

    Non-exercise Maintenance 2700 - 1000 calories deficit for 2 lbs weekly = 1700 eating goal.

    Now, you exercise 500 calorie burn one day. What just happened to your maintenance?
    2700 + 500 = 3200 total daily burn with exercise included.
    3200 - 1000 calorie deficit = 2200 eating goal.

    Look there - same 1000 calorie deficit is still there.

    That is the basis for MFP's method to keep your deficit the same daily, whether you workout or not.

    If you truly think bigger is better, why don't you stop eating until you get down to desired weight?
    Why not, what do you think will happen?
    Why do you think that won't happen over a long period of time doing half the damage say?
  • annastasia_82
    annastasia_82 Posts: 940 Member
    Thank you for explaining further