Kidding Ourselves

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fattothinmum
fattothinmum Posts: 218 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I keep reading posts from people who've burned up to 1000+ calories a day from cardio, and fairly light exercise. Now I know I only burn around 300 calories for running 5K, so that means these people must be running or equivalent to 15-20K a day, or 10 miles plus, but often they day things like 'hour of housework, or 2 hours of walking at moderate pace, etc etc.

If people eat back those type of calorie burn estimates, I suspect they'd have trouble losing weight, unless of course, my Apple Watch and treadmill seriously underestimates. Which would be nice.

Just watch out for overestimations if you eat back all the time.
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Replies

  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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    You're fairly light, so your calorie burn for a 5k is going to be much different than someone who is heavier or more out of shape. My last 5k had me around 450 calories and it took me forever to finish because I'm slow.

    Sure, some people are logging higher calorie burns than they should. Maybe they don't know better and maybe they are lying to themselves. Or maybe they need to see that huge number to keep themselves motivated to try. If they aren't losing weight they'll eventually ask for help and get corrected or they'll realize they aren't being honest.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    This is why any time somebody posts "I'm eating 1300-1400 calories per day and gaining!" I ask if s/he is eating or netting that amount. Usually the person thinks s/he's netting that number of calories, based on a really high exercise calorie number. I'm not one to claim that MFP calorie estimates are always high (I always ate my MFP exercise calories and did fine) but I do think that anybody logging exercise needs to check a few different calorie calculators to see if they are reasonable.
  • ubermofish
    ubermofish Posts: 102 Member
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    As a 6'1 300lbs guy, the elliptical estimates around 550-575 calories burned for me in a 35min session. So according to that I could potentially burn 1000 calories in 1hr. However, those numbers are usually BS and I definitely don't eat them back. I think of exercise and lifting as fitness, and diet as weight loss.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited April 2016
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    This could go one of three ways:
    - The person is indeed overestimating their calories (I've seen 1500 calories for 90 minutes of zumba).
    - The person is heavy (I can burn 1000 calories if I were crazy enough to do 80 minutes of reasonably fast high incline walking).
    - The person is overtraining or running the distance to train for a marathon or a half.

    On some days (like on hikes) I do have burns that are quite high, and I very often eat them back. The way I know I'm not overestimating is by the consistency of my weight loss.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    They'll find out soon enough. Those are the same people who later post that they are undereating severely based on their net calories and still gaining so clearly they must be in starvation mode! I think people just want to believe they are working so much harder than they really are and have completely unrealistic expectations of how few calories you actually burn through exercise.
  • sunnybeaches105
    sunnybeaches105 Posts: 2,831 Member
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    This is one of those topics that can quickly turn into a train wreck because calorie expenditures vary from individual to individual, and no one knows what they're burning until they've put in the work over time (while carefully tracking) to get a general view of their own NEAT and exercise energy expenditures, and/or TDEE. In other words, it's difficult to make accurate generalizations.
  • _Waffle_
    _Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
    edited April 2016
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    annaskiski wrote: »
    I'm baffled by some of these posts as well.

    If it was that easy to burn 1000 calories, I'd be eating cheesecake 3 times/day

    10k = 1,000 calories for me and takes about an hour. This is pretty darn easy to do 6 times a week actually. Long runs on the weekend typically burn 2000 - 2500 calories.

    I love cheesecake.

    ETA: Without eating all these extra calories back I'd run out of the energy to do these workouts quickly. Food = fuel. Apply as necessary.
  • fattothinmum
    fattothinmum Posts: 218 Member
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    lauragreenbaum148 wrote: »
    i read an interesting article that some people far overestimate the calories they burn, so they end up consuming more than they think they are. It has a negative effect on weight loss in the end. I never input my work outs because I don't want calories added back into my daily allotment. I figure workouts are "extra" help or icing on the cake, haha.

    I di sometimes log, just to see what MFP adds for what I've done, then I adjust the time down until calories match what I've actually likely burned.

  • fattothinmum
    fattothinmum Posts: 218 Member
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    usmcmp wrote: »
    You're fairly light, so your calorie burn for a 5k is going to be much different than someone who is heavier or more out of shape. My last 5k had me around 450 calories and it took me forever to finish because I'm slow.
    .

    I guess I'llm still not at the place where my brain has caught up with my current weight. I still think of myself as big.
  • fattothinmum
    fattothinmum Posts: 218 Member
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    jemhh wrote: »
    T I do think that anybody logging exercise needs to check a few different calorie calculators to see if they are reasonable.

    I totally agree.

  • scorpio516
    scorpio516 Posts: 955 Member
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    fattothinmum wrote: »
    I keep reading posts from people who've burned up to 1000+ calories a day from cardio, and fairly light exercise. Now I know I only burn around 300 calories for running 5K, so that means these people must be running or equivalent to 15-20K a day, or 10 miles plus, but often they day things like 'hour of housework, or 2 hours of walking at moderate pace, etc etc.

    If people eat back those type of calorie burn estimates, I suspect they'd have trouble losing weight, unless of course, my Apple Watch and treadmill seriously underestimates.

    Those might be your numbers, if you weigh 145 lbs. For me, 1000 calories would be about 8.5-8.75 miles. And that is easily done 5x a week.

    And yes, your apple watch is wrong.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,944 Member
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    Also, nunya bidness. Just do you and let other people worry about their calorie burn. We can poke them when they start complaining about not losing.
  • rakowskidp
    rakowskidp Posts: 231 Member
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    My Vivoactive (synced to Garmin Connect) generates a calorie burn based on activities I log with it. I typically eat back my exercise calories (or leave no less than 100) and I'm still losing weight at the rate I plugged into MFP.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
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    I think estimating calories burned "house cleaning or yard work" is a fool's errand. While you are burning more it is more of an activity level than an amount. I also don't use any "machine" calculations but may use an estimate in MFP as a placeholder for something like planks or a nautilus set. You need to check several and not take the one with the highest burn. The same is true for food estimates. When I run I use an app (Runtastic) and I feel it is somewhat close, I think it is about 7.5 miles for 1000 calories. Using this method I would eat back most of my exercise calories and lose weight.
  • Scamd83
    Scamd83 Posts: 808 Member
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    I think it would be wise, very helpful and a great way to avoid confusion if MFP revised down their calories burnt estimates. I remember a year or so ago someone on here saying 'It's a good thing I burn 1000 calories a day from doing housework or I'd put on even more weight'.
  • kjarvo
    kjarvo Posts: 235 Member
    edited April 2016
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    fattothinmum wrote: »
    I keep reading posts from people who've burned up to 1000+ calories a day from cardio, and fairly light exercise. Now I know I only burn around 300 calories for running 5K, so that means these people must be running or equivalent to 15-20K a day, or 10 miles plus, but often they day things like 'hour of housework, or 2 hours of walking at moderate pace, etc etc.

    If people eat back those type of calorie burn estimates, I suspect they'd have trouble losing weight, unless of course, my Apple Watch and treadmill seriously underestimates. Which would be nice.

    Just watch out for overestimations if you eat back all the time.

    I think people do overestimate. I have burns of 2000 calories because I have been marathon training. For instance 1,762 calories for 189 minutes of running which I picked a slower pace up to 2700 calories for nearly 5 hours of running. However I eat most of it back, because you are hungry!!! I think if people log 1500 calories for 90 minutes of zumba and then eat it back they wont lose weight. I would burn 2000 calories running for over 4 hours. However, I have actually put on a few pounds in the last few weeks because my appetite is huge and I had cut back some of the mileage, so I might have been massively overestimating.

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