Charge HR: exercise calories v walking calories?

maxbberg
maxbberg Posts: 16 Member
edited 7:00AM in Social Groups
Hi there

Inputs:
1. I wear my Charge HR all the time. After a spinning class, I manually log it in FB by selecting Spinning and entering the start time and duration.

2. Without any exercise, MFP tells me I deserve 1800 calories a day.

The situation
Monday 27th (yesterday): I did a spin class and earned 300 calories but did nothing else the whole day. MFP decreased my daily 1800 calories to around by around 200 to 1600 calories in total. Fair enough since other than the class, I was pretty sedentary.

Tue 28th (today): Like yesterday did a spin class worth about 300 calories. But today, I also walked one mile. As a result, MFP increased my calories to 3000 in total i.e. an increase of 1200.


Questions
1. Why did it subtract calories on Monday and add them on Tuesday?

2. While I'm complaining about the extra calories, can a one mile walk plus a spin class *really* have earned me an extra 1200 calories (especially compared to yesterday where the spin class alone actually ended up reducing my calories??)

Thanks

Max

Replies

  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    That does seem odd. What is your activity setting in MFP? If it is Sedentary then I'd think you'd have to be really, really inactive the rest of the day to burn 200 calories less that MFP expects a sedentary person to burn despite an exercise session that burned 300 calories. (That's a negative adjustment of 500 calories, partially offset by 300 calories of exercise.) A one mile walk also can't burn that many extra calories (at least 900!). So, something is way off. Have you looked at the heart rate data for the two days? All I can think is that maybe you had very few steps, and a consistently low heart rate on the first day and an elevated heart rate, combined with enough steps to trigger heart rate calorie computations for an extended period on the second day.

    Anyway, what I would do is look at the graphs that Fitbit provides that show heart rate for the day and calorie burn for 5 minute segments and see where things are elevated. As an example of what I mean, here's mine from yesterday:

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    Knowing what I did yesterday, those charts make good sense. The elevated heart rate and elevated calorie burn sections actually correspond with times when I was active. I could also look at steps and see a similar correlation.
  • maxbberg
    maxbberg Posts: 16 Member
    Thanks so much Nancy. I do have it set to sedentary. Did you take those graphs from PC? I can't find them on the iPhone.
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    Yes, the graphs are from the Chrome web browser. Your phone should provide similar information, even if the graphs aren't identical. I have an Android, not an iPhone, but I would guess that you should be able to get to the heart rate graph by touching the heart rate on the dashboard screen and selecting the desired day and the calories graph by in a similar manner.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Wait - you have a Charge HR willing to do a calorie burn estimated on HR - but you are manually entering the workout and selecting an intensity level?
    Or worse, a distance from a spin bike computer which isn't based on anything?

    As to the issue of the difference, beyond the fact intense exercise can indeed make some people more lazy than they would have been otherwise and actually cause less burn daily, your active day may also have had some false steps since more active.

    Check the daily 5 min block graph for times of big steps, and confirm that's true.
    Now the block of the workout had the calorie burn replaced with your manual entry, which wasn't needed frankly, but compare calories too in case some of those steps were seen as more intense than they really were.

    But beyond the 1 mile walk, you may have been more active during the whole day. Because yes, 1 mile ain't 1200, but that's not what the 1200 was, not just the spin or walk. But the whole day difference.

    You can't really confirm things working right on Fitbit by looking at MFP's calorie adjustment.
    What was total daily burn between those days?
    How many total steps, what total distance, ect?

    That lets you compare the day.
  • maxbberg
    maxbberg Posts: 16 Member
    edited April 2015
    Thanks Nancy. So here are the graphs for Tuesday where it gave me all the extra calories as described above. Do they seem right to you?

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  • maxbberg
    maxbberg Posts: 16 Member
    And for the record, here's Monday where it took away calories (unlike Tuesday where it seemed to give me far too many)

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  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Less than half the steps, less than half the distance, truly a bump on a log it appears most of the day.

    Yep, that seems normal to lose calories on that day.

    But only you can confirm if the busy day was correct.

    Look at those blocks of higher calorie burn, Very Active minutes actually, look at the steps graph too.

    Were you really doing something intense then?

    Or moving arms making lunch or something else?
  • maxbberg
    maxbberg Posts: 16 Member
    Thanks - this is all new to me appreciate your sharing and teaching. So the early morning 6.30 was a spinning class. From 11am - 3pm I got on a train, walked a 1/2 mile from the station to the office, attended a meeting (must have been more animated than I thought maybe?) and then walked 1/2 a mile back to the train station.

    So you and FB are saying that all I need to do to earn an extra 1200 calories i.e. allowing me to eat 3000 calories a day is to walk to the station, do a meeting and walk back?? Cool!!! :):)
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    It certainly looks like you were very inactive on Monday (few steps, low heart rate outside of morning exercise) and much more active on Tuesday (lots more steps, relatively high heart rate for extended periods). However, I wonder if that meeting you attended might have thrown things off. It may be that your heart rate was elevated during the meeting for reasons other than burning calories. Did you walk around much during the meeting? Or did you move your arms a lot while sitting (Fitbit tries to distinguish between moving arms and steps, but can be fooled). Was it a stressful and/or exciting meeting that got your heart rate up even though you weren't moving around a lot? My guess is that your Fitbit got fooled somehow. If meetings like that are a normal part of your days then you'll need to figure it out to avoid having Fitbit seriously overestimate your calorie burn. In the meantime, I'd avoid eating all those extra calories.
  • maxbberg
    maxbberg Posts: 16 Member
    Thanks Nancy. I was sitting the whole meeting but get pretty animated at the best of times :) Perhaps I should remove my fitbit during meetings...?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Look at your steps time very carefully - was it the time of walking from the train - or actually the train ride had high steps too?
    In which case false steps - so device settings may be prone to seeing steps when there are none.

    As evidenced by hard gestures at the meeting, and elevated HR.
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    You might want to turn off the HR function and put the Fitbit in your pocket during meetings. That eliminates both the elevated heart rate and any steps from talking with your hands in the meeting but still captures actual steps.

    Heybales has a good point about the train ride, too. I know I mine sees a few steps when I'm driving - it just never amounts to enough for me to worry about correcting it.
  • maxbberg
    maxbberg Posts: 16 Member
    edited April 2015
    Thank you both very much. Great minds eh - I took my watch off when sitting around not doing much this morning and for today's meeting.

    So today's schedule (I've marked where I took the Charge HR on/off my wrist i.e. when I wasn't wearing it):
    0. 6h00 - 9h00 (FB OFF as sitting around house not moving much
    1. 9h30 - 10h15 Spinning (FB ON)
    2. 1045 walk to station always carrying quite heavy computer bag (FB ON)
    3. 11h10 - 12h04 Train (FB ON)
    4. 1pm - 2pm (FB OFF)
    5. 14h30pm walk to station (FB ON)
    6. 15h06 - 16h08 Train (FB ON)
    7. 16h15 Walk back from station (FB ON)

    Additional calories earned today from above exercise: 1420! Again, feels very generous to me but I'm not complaining.

    So, do you think I deserve my additional 1420 calories...?

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  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    Good question. How many steps? Your spinning class, and walks to and from the station show clearly. Your heart rate drops some, but looks a little elevated while on the train.

    It may be that the only way to know is to trust the numbers for a while and see what happens with your weight.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    A agree that steps seems high while on the train, unless you pace while riding.

    If you look at your bigger daily graph that is in 5 min blocks, at the steps, you should be able to nail the time exactly as to that hour train ride, and if steps and calorie burn were higher than non-moving time while sleeping say.
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