How many calories am I ACTUALLY burning?

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forgettingourforgiveness
forgettingourforgiveness Posts: 23 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Currently, I am 235 pounds and my goal is to lose two pounds a week. To achieve said goal, MFP says I have to burn 3600 calories a week. I am starting to doubt if I'm really burning as much as it says I do or if I actually burn more. For example, each calculator I find online tells me different amounts of calories that I burn, one might say for a half hour on the elliptical I will burn about 600 while on here it is about maybe 300. Is there a better way to determine how many calories you burn? And also, what are some of the best exercises you guys recommend to really burn calories? I plan to go to the gym everyday, 7 days a week. I'm on my third day and so far, so good!

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  • lpshizza
    lpshizza Posts: 30 Member
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    I have the Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor, it is very accurate.
  • brittany2188
    brittany2188 Posts: 63
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    I use the MapMyFitness app on my phone. It seems to be quite a bit more accurate than the MFP calculator.
  • ooBombshellBeautyoo
    ooBombshellBeautyoo Posts: 237 Member
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    I have a heart rate monitor that I rely on to tell me
  • gerla_k
    gerla_k Posts: 495 Member
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    I have a heart rate monitor as well- polar ft4- works pretty accurate, I think ;)
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Currently, I am 235 pounds and my goal is to lose two pounds a week. To achieve said goal, MFP says I have to burn 3600 calories a week. <snip>
    I'm confused with what you are saying?

    You do realise that the MFP calorie goal reflects the weight loss target you have selected without doing any exercise?
    That's why you are supposed to log your exercise calories and then eat them back.

    MFP doesn't set exercise calorie targets for weight loss.
  • scottkjar
    scottkjar Posts: 346 Member
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    I think you misunderstand some of the numbers.

    3500 calories is 1 pound. So to lose 1 pound, you have to burn 3500 calories more than you consume. To lose 2 pounds per week, you need to burn 7000 calories more than you consume, which is an average of 1000 calories deficit per day.

    One problem with any estimate of your burn is that it must assume a certain level of effort on your part. When you do a particular workout, you can work HARD or you can work easy, and that has a huge impact on your burn. Online calculators assume some level of effort that might or might not be consistent with what you are doing.

    A good rule is to overestimate how much you eat, and underestimate how much you burn. If you do it the other way -- underestimate how much you eat and overestimate how much you burn -- you will gain weight even while you think you are in deficit.

    So if one source says you burned 300 and another says you burned 600, log it as 300.
  • extrafast
    extrafast Posts: 10
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    The reason why all different calculators give different numbers lies on the dependency of metabolic burn rate and the heart rate you're 'pushing' during the workout.

    The best way to have a fairly accurate idea of the number of calories you are burning is to have a fitness tracker with Heart rate monitor. Some have already been suggested. After inputting your age. sex. weight, the tracker will guesstimate based on statistical models and your heart rate how much you are burning and tell you at the end of an workout. These numbers are not necessarily scientifically accurate but provide you with a very good way of tracking of how much energy you have spent.

    I can atm burn ~500cal/30 min but I start at around half of that just to give you an idea.

    Hope it helps and welcome to training better. :)
  • lshender
    lshender Posts: 33 Member
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    i was very successful just using the numbers that fitness pal offers and ignoring the point by point accuracy as irrelevant.

    A few thoughts on exercise:

    As tempting as it is, don't exercise every day. Take off one day a week. You need the recovery. If you can't do that to keep your momentum use that as a yoga day. Which brings me to the second point:

    No one exercise works by itself. You need to mix it up. Cardio is critical, but you also need to build muscle. Muscle uses more resources just because you have it. Muscles also help to shape your body so you see the profile you're working so hard for.

    I workout most days for 30 to 60 minutes depending on what else is happening - I get up early so there's no excuse. What else am i up for after all?

    Monday - elliptical - I've built up to 45 minutes at about 4.5 mph between levels 8 and 10. When I started I could only do 30 minutes at 3.2 mph at level 1. I always end with a good stretch and abs.
    Tuesday - A good old fashioned step routine - I still enjoy plain old Step Reebok!
    Wednesday - Circuit training. I love Gin Miller, but I also use others. The point is to alternate between aerobics and muscle conditioning
    Thursday - Power Step! Get the sweat flowing! At first you won't be able to power it, but that will come. Promise.
    Friday - Back to the elliptical
    Saturday - I usually do something totally different like Inten-sati or total strength training with free weights.
    Sunday - Either I take the day off, or I'll do a simple quiet yoga routine. Strength and flexibility are as important as cardio.

    Anyway, I hope that helps. Take it slow. Don't hurt yourself and drink lots and lots of water.
  • UsaJewels05
    UsaJewels05 Posts: 229 Member
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    I recommend getting a Heart Rate Monitor. I have a Polar FT 7. Everyone will burn a different number of calories and the same person might burn differently from Day to Day depending on how hard they are working.

    Unless you have A LOT to lose I would recommend maybe dropping it to lose 1.5lb, 2 lbs a week is a high goal.
  • Italianma7
    Italianma7 Posts: 83 Member
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    Heart rate monitors work great. I recommend a polar, they are pretty accurate.

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