Body Step Class- REALLY bad at it-calorie question

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meghanduprey
meghanduprey Posts: 158 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Sooooo i just started taking Body Step at Gold's gym, I am PAINFULLY horrible at it (kind of just do my own thing stepping up and down, can't really follow along very well yet but I'm stepping the whole time they are), do you think I'm burning the same amount of calories that MFP estimates for the real class?

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  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
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    MFP estimates are for a pretty specific size/weight of person. I'm 5'3 155 and I cut the MFP calories in half for every exercise.
  • meghanduprey
    meghanduprey Posts: 158 Member
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    i was just wondering because i am so bad at following the routine right now how far off the estimate is
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    nooooooo but dont feel bad, mfp is high on almost everything! For myself, i burn between 600-700 in zumba (low impact, also doing my own thing- well, im getting better now but its been a few months LOL!) so i would think about the same for step class (as long as you are moving and heart rate is up the whole time!) im 220lbs so your burn may be lower if you weigh less and more if you weigh more.
  • meghanduprey
    meghanduprey Posts: 158 Member
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    MFP is high for everything?! so i shouldn't be eating as many calories as it tells me i can???
  • meghanduprey
    meghanduprey Posts: 158 Member
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    PS I am 5'6" and 180lbs
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    meghanduprey wrote: »
    MFP is high for everything?! so i shouldn't be eating as many calories as it tells me i can???

    high on exercise calories - only eat half back.
  • meghanduprey
    meghanduprey Posts: 158 Member
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    eek. no wonder i haven't lost any weight :(
  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    I know that I don't burn as many calories when I don't "go all out" during a workout, and if you're having trouble getting the moves down, you obviously aren't going "all out" like you will once you have it down pat. In my experience, the MFP calorie burn calculations are SUPER over-estimated. When I work out and don't know how many calories I've burned, I manually enter the exercise with a pretty low estimate so that I don't eat back more than I've really burned and blow my deficit. I've burned anywhere from 200-800 calories in my various cardio group classes, so if I'm not sure, I just manually enter 200 calories to allow myself to eat back. :smile:
  • MelRC117
    MelRC117 Posts: 911 Member
    edited March 2015
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    I weigh quite a bit more than you and for about a 40 minutes class I burn about 380 calories. I wear a HRM. Zumba I only burn around 275ish for around the same bit of time.

    ETA: I used MFP calculations for "Aerobics, step, with 6-8" step" for my weight it calculated over 700 calories for 40 minutes. That is basically double than what my (more accurate)HRM says I burn in the same amount of time.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    hmmm are you weighing all your food on food scale? Because at a quick glance, it looks like you might not be.
  • meghanduprey
    meghanduprey Posts: 158 Member
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    i do weigh ALL my food on a scale and use measuring cups/spoons. i take a few anti-anxiety/anti depressants and have a low thyroid (only slightly low not on medication for it) it's been SUPER difficult to see any progress. i think i am getting some results over the last month, seeing some changes in my stomach area and maybe a little tightening in my tush but i have quite a bit of weight to lose so i should be seeing some progress on the scale. i do body pump class 3x a week and just started step class, then 3x a week i walk 3m and 2-3x a week i walk 1.5-2m. so i would say i'm fairly active but i'm pretty sedentary in my job. i try to get my 10k steps in/day
    i notice a BIG difference trying to lose weight now vs 5 years ago. i'm not old by any means but they aren't lying when they say over 30 makes it harder!
  • meghanduprey
    meghanduprey Posts: 158 Member
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    PS thank you for writing back so quickly :)
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
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    I'm as unscientific as they come with regards to calorie burn, but here's my method anyway:
    I assume that walking burns 5 calories a minute
    I assume that running burns 10 calories a minute

    So when I'm exercising I gauge my level of effort by those two markers (like walking means breathing easy, could do this all day and running is gasping for air let me off now) and use that to guesstimate the calories. Like @MelRC117 noted, the MFP numbers are far above even what I would burn going all-out the whole time. Of course height and weight factor in as well.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    It's impossible to know honestly unless you use a heart rate monitor. And even from one day to another it can vary by a lot.

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