Workout level

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stephreed11
stephreed11 Posts: 158 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm having a hard time figuring out how to track my work out. I usually just do dance/aerobic dvd's at home, it's easiest for me to do with a 5 month old at home. The fitness tracker doesn't have the names of any dvd work outs, so I've just been entering them as "general aerobics" & putting the time. The work outs go from as slow as stretching, to fast paced dancing, jumping, to slow marches, etc. Since it's a variety of things I hope I'm not getting too many calories back, or maybe not enough (I eat all my excercise calories). Do you think I'm entering my work outs right? Thanks for any feedback!

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  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    My general advice is to concentrate on maintaining a consistent program, put in a good effort, and let the calories take care of themselves. If you want to eat a 150-200 calorie snack after the workout to make sure you are "refueling", fine. Otherwise I would not eat back any of the calories for now. If you are just starting out, you likely are not burning a huge number right now. Unless you have your base calories set really low (like under 1000), I wouldn't overthink it. Eating back some "exercise calories" that you may or may not be burning is a lot bigger concern for you right now than undereating.

    If you feel you need to enter something as a "tracker" or as a motivation/reward to show your workout commitment, use the MFP database as you have been doing. Just don't eat them back.
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
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    Yea, I almost never lean toawrds "don't eat your exercise calories" personally- sorry dude ^^ It's just a slippery slope.

    Sometimes what I do if theres like a warm up or cool down on a dance video is knock about 10 min (or however long) off the length of the video and log 10 min of yoga or stretching instead. Similar with the "marching" portion of the workout- just replace 5 min or so with "walking 2.5 mph"- Even if you had the exact right logging, its still just an estimate. Maybe you can ask for an HRM for Christmas? I don't have one, cuz I am comfy just esitmating but it might be worth the investment.
  • MisdemeanorM
    MisdemeanorM Posts: 3,493 Member
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    Get a heart rate monitor if at all possible and then you will have an accurate count. Also if you do a lot of stretching, say 10 mins between warm up and cool down, you might just subtract some minutes from what you log so that you don't overestimate. You can also play around with how much you are eating back and how you feel. If you are burning in the 300 or so range, eating them back is not as big an issue as if you are burning 500 or 700 etc where the extra deficit could become counterproductive.
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    Yea, I almost never lean toawrds "don't eat your exercise calories" personally- sorry dude ^^ It's just a slippery slope.

    Sometimes what I do if theres like a warm up or cool down on a dance video is knock about 10 min (or however long) off the length of the video and log 10 min of yoga or stretching instead. Similar with the "marching" portion of the workout- just replace 5 min or so with "walking 2.5 mph"- Even if you had the exact right logging, its still just an estimate. Maybe you can ask for an HRM for Christmas? I don't have one, cuz I am comfy just esitmating but it might be worth the investment.

    I agree!

    I always eat all of my exercise calories and I go by what the machines at the gym tell me I burned, even if they're overestimating some. I've found that I need more calories than most people in order to keep burning fat. if I were you, I would go with what meggonkgonk suggested above. Do that for a few weeks, even a month, and see how it works for you. If you are happy with your results, keep going with it. If not, experiment a little with how much you're eating.
  • RippaRita54
    RippaRita54 Posts: 19 Member
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    Highly recommend a heart rate monitor!! I love mine!! The calorie calculations for some of the exercises on MFP can be highly inaccurate. I also recommend eating at least half your exercise calories to avoid starvation mode! I have been there and not good for you not to mention the scales dont budge!
    When you use a HRM you know exactly what you have burned so you can be sure that you are not overeating your exercise cals!
  • stephreed11
    stephreed11 Posts: 158 Member
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    Great ideas! I went ahead & changed the "30 mins. of general aerobics" to "10 min. stretching" (warm up/cool down), & 20 mins. "aerobic dance". I think that'll be more accurate. & I will ask for a HRM for Christmas! Thanks y'all!

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