Confused :(

gabrielleelliott90
gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
edited November 14 in Fitness and Exercise
I want to come back to myfitnesspal. I recently got a polar loop 2 and as I have an android this cannot sync to myfitnesspal. I don't know how to manually put in calories I burn as I don't know what is from my body just burning to stay alive and what is from exercise. Does anyone have any advice on how I can find out how many calories I burn just by being alive, and then how many to input into myfitnesspal as exercise? Just healthy eating leads me to eventually binge, and I'd rather use myfitnesspal and the polar.

Replies

  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,743 Member
    What I do is tell MFP my activity level (sedentary) and then input my intentional exercise manually (walks, runs, dvds, etc.) I eat back those calories. I don't enter the other steps I do throughout the day. Those are bonus and make up for any inaccuracies in logging.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    edited January 2017
    Sorry, posted in the wrong thread and can't figure out how I managed to do it.
    Carry on, h.
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    edited January 2017
    http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/bmr-calculator.html

    for finding out how many cals you need to live if you were in a coma, try not to eat below this

    http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

    for finding out how many cals you need to maintain your current weight day to day

    I input sedentary (since I have a desk job) in the TDEE calculation, you need to eat less than this to lose, I aim for 500cals less than my TDEE and eat back 50% of my work out cals. (I sometimes bank these for the weekend though since I'm less disciplined then) its fine to do that and average the week as long as you're not vulnerable to restricting and binging. I'm talking 1250 -1400 net during the week for me and 1600-1800 during weekends.

    I don't know how the polar loop works though does it give you maintenance cals for the day or do you just use it when you're exercising? I have a polar FT4 HRM but only use it for burns and use the above calcs for normal existing cal expenditure.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    edited January 2017
    My husband had a Polar Loop before he had his Fitbit. I worked out a way for him to log his extra burn. I'm going from memory, as it has been a while. It takes some mental calculations and is best done later in the day less will change.

    First you need to figure out what MFP expects you to burn daily. You can backwards engineer this #. Such as if MFP tells you to eat 1500 and you have scheduled a 1 pound deficit, 1500 + 500 (for 1 pound deficit) would be 2000 as what MFP expects. Or if you have a goal of 1500 to eat, and a 2 pound deficit: MFP expects you to burn 2500.

    Look up your BMR and divide by 24 to get an hourly #. Lets assume your MFP prediction is you will burn 2500 per day and your BMR per hour is 62.5.

    What to do with these #s and how to use the Polar burn #? The Polar estimates your total calories burned from your real activity, while MFP assumes you hit a certain # based on your stated activity level. Lets say it is 8pm, Polar says you have burned 2400 SO FAR and you're pretty much done for the day. You're going to earn BMR of 62.5/hr x 4 hours left in the day and not much more. So you should end up about 2400 + 4*62.5 = 2650. This is 150 higher than MFP predicted, so log an extra 150.

    To make sure you are going to hit or exceed your MFP predicted #, also use your BMR per hour #. If at 2pm (10 hours left in the day) you are at 1500 burned, and you sit around on the couch til midnight: you'll burn about 1500 + 10*62.5 which is below target. Or if you're at 1900 burned at 2pm, you can know for sure you will exceed 2500 for the day.
  • gabrielleelliott90
    gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
    Thanks all
  • gabrielleelliott90
    gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
    StaciMarie1974 wrote: »
    My husband had a Polar Loop before he had his Fitbit. I worked out a way for him to log his extra burn. I'm going from memory, as it has been a while. It takes some mental calculations and is best done later in the day less will change.

    First you need to figure out what MFP expects you to burn daily. You can backwards engineer this #. Such as if MFP tells you to eat 1500 and you have scheduled a 1 pound deficit, 1500 + 500 (for 1 pound deficit) would be 2000 as what MFP expects. Or if you have a goal of 1500 to eat, and a 2 pound deficit: MFP expects you to burn 2500.

    Look up your BMR and divide by 24 to get an hourly #. Lets assume your MFP prediction is you will burn 2500 per day and your BMR per hour is 62.5.

    What to do with these #s and how to use the Polar burn #? The Polar estimates your total calories burned from your real activity, while MFP assumes you hit a certain # based on your stated activity level. Lets say it is 8pm, Polar says you have burned 2400 SO FAR and you're pretty much done for the day. You're going to earn BMR of 62.5/hr x 4 hours left in the day and not much more. So you should end up about 2400 + 4*62.5 = 2650. This is 150 higher than MFP predicted, so log an extra 150.

    To make sure you are going to hit or exceed your MFP predicted #, also use your BMR per hour #. If at 2pm (10 hours left in the day) you are at 1500 burned, and you sit around on the couch til midnight: you'll burn about 1500 + 10*62.5 which is below target. Or if you're at 1900 burned at 2pm, you can know for sure you will exceed 2500 for the day.

    I eat 1340 to lose a pound and my BMR is 1572 if that helps
  • gabrielleelliott90
    gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
    Bump
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