Over estimating exercise calories
mhwitt74
Posts: 159 Member
I'm not saying I disagree with you folks but I do find it odd that there are a million post or replies that say exercise calories burnt are overestimated. And it doesn't seem to matter where they come from they are all over estimated. Then there is the fact that there is no one way to accurately measure calorie burn. So if it is "common knowledge" that every number is inflated why isn't there some formula to get it closer. And wouldn't there be at least one, if not a few, calculators or machines like treadmills etc that underestimate the calories burned? I'm just saying that there has to be yin to the yang right?
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Best calculator is yourself. By that I mean that your weight trends while eating back exercise will show if they are accurate or not.
A lot of new users are scared to eat exercise calories, so my recommendation is to start with 50% and then adjust as needed after 4-6 weeks.9 -
One day I got the notion to prove that my cardio machine in my living room couldn't possibly be helping me burn 1000 calories each hour. In the previous 7 days, I use used that machine several times to log many thousands of calories exercise burned. Also in the previous 7 days, I had meticulously weighed and recorded each food item. using my Reports of net calories and weight, I calculated the weight loss and the calorie deficit from the supposedly inaccurate cardio exercise, and derived my expected weight loss.
Actual and derived weight loss matched.
The one time I tried to prove that my cheap little knock-off of a nordic-track could not possibly be letting me burn 1000 calories an hour, I failed. Instead, I proved that a week of numbers matched the "1 lb fat = 3500 calories" rule.3 -
Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but it's probably in the best interest of the equipment manufacturers and health club owners to overestimate your burn. Keeps you coming back.4
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The chart in the link below was developed by the American College of Sports Medicine and lists the calories burned per hour for a number of exercise activities.
http://www.nutristrategy.com/caloriesburned.htm
Use this if significantly different from your exercise tracker/machine.5 -
When exercise is entered into mfp, does it match the machine? I just jumped back to using this app today after about a year long hiatus. That will be my gauge, does the mfp caloric burn estimate match the cardio machine estimate (or come fairly close)....0
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I used the MFP numbers and lost weight fine. They are overestimated for some, underestimated for others, and likely spot on for a few. In the end it doesn't actually matter if the calories you log or accurate or not since you should adjust what you eat based on results and not on the estimates, which should only be a starting point.4
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MFP gives me about 540 calories burned with a 6 mile/1 hour run. My TM gives me 800-1000, depending on incline, but it doesn't know what I weigh so I think it assumes I am much larger than I am. I use the MFP number and eat back all the calories, and so far that has worked well. I think I burn a few more calories than listed, because I do sprint intervals and run hills, but I'd rather have a little calorie cushion to make up for imprecise logging.2
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I need about 90 days of data to distinguish weight change from random water weight fluctuation. If I log my learn-to-swim efforts (mostly in a cold pool) as MFP water aerobics, my NEAT remains unchanged, so my calorie count for exercise (268 cal/he) is pretty accurate.
I'm not a fan of exercise, so I haven't stuck with anything else 5+ days a week for 90 days. My similar calculation with the elliptical showed that my NEAT dropped nearly calorie for calorie. It was over a shorter period of time, though, so hard to know if that was accurate.0 -
My Apple watch tells me i burn 62 cals nett per mile, when i do my dog walks. i trust that is accurate for me i'm 50, 5ft 1in, 147lbs.0
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I have had a question. Are you supposed to eat back the calories burned from exercise?0
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I'm not saying I disagree with you folks but I do find it odd that there are a million post or replies that say exercise calories burnt are overestimated. And it doesn't seem to matter where they come from they are all over estimated.
I've seen people log things like 500 cals burnt for 30 minutes of house work.... I'm not saying they're wrong, but I'm not saying I trust it either. I think people would rather under estimate the calories burnt because it's a safer option if your goal is a calorie defecit. Better to be a little under than a little over.4 -
dondotwinks wrote: »My Apple watch tells me i burn 62 cals nett per mile, when i do my dog walks. i trust that is accurate for me i'm 50, 5ft 1in, 147lbs.
It seems reasonable for walking at a moderate pace.0 -
MFP over estimated for me but my fitbit seems to be pretty accurate for my burns. I sync the accounts and use the fitbit number.1
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Geocitiesuser wrote: »I'm not saying I disagree with you folks but I do find it odd that there are a million post or replies that say exercise calories burnt are overestimated. And it doesn't seem to matter where they come from they are all over estimated.
I've seen people log things like 500 cals burnt for 30 minutes of house work.... I'm not saying they're wrong, but I'm not saying I trust it either. I think people would rather under estimate the calories burnt because it's a safer option if your goal is a calorie deficit. Better to be a little under than a little over.
I move all the furniture 3x a week when I mop and vacuum. Plus my vacuum is a heavy-as-all-get-out Kirby that I haul up and down the stairs. When I was at my maximum weight, I could see burning 500 calories an hour doing all that. 500 for 30 minutes even to me seems excessive though. In fact, if I use the MFP values for "cleaning, heavy, vigorous effort" at my current weight of 157 lbs, I get a burn of 215 cal / hour. Even at my max weight I wouldn't have used more than 500 cal/hour. So unless the person was grossly morbidly obese, I have to wonder how they got that!
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I think it is case where people tend to be a bit generous with reporting their activity level and they don't want to think that it might be that their food estimates are too low. Notice how people are willing to weigh their food, but when it comes to exercise they just throw some multiplier at it, like 50%.2
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »One day I got the notion to prove that my cardio machine in my living room couldn't possibly be helping me burn 1000 calories each hour. In the previous 7 days, I use used that machine several times to log many thousands of calories exercise burned. Also in the previous 7 days, I had meticulously weighed and recorded each food item. using my Reports of net calories and weight, I calculated the weight loss and the calorie deficit from the supposedly inaccurate cardio exercise, and derived my expected weight loss.
Actual and derived weight loss matched.
The one time I tried to prove that my cheap little knock-off of a nordic-track could not possibly be letting me burn 1000 calories an hour, I failed. Instead, I proved that a week of numbers matched the "1 lb fat = 3500 calories" rule.
How did you determine start & end weight (e.g. 7-day rolling average, 10-day low, etc.)? I keep a running average of TDEE, and the result varies wildly with a tiny weight fluctuation. It seems like body weight accuracy is the weak link in the calculation. And my normal fluctuation is relatively small --2 lb at most. That leaves me exactly where @allyphoe is... it takes months of data --not one week-- to average out the fluctuations.4 -
I guess its a good idea to assume you burned the lower of 2 numbers when it comes to calories??0
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i sync pacer into myfitnesspal for steps and make sure it isn't off in terms of accuracy by comparing it to other pedometers. (i only use pacer because of the step counting problem in MFP)
if it's a treadmill or exercise machine, i can use myfitnesspal for the calories burnt since it's actually spot on accurate. the treadmill machine will say 600-700 calories burnt for 60 minutes of walking, but myfitnesspal says 300 calories burnt.
i used a pedometer when walking a couple times and found it to be really close to the MFP calories.
*one of my small rules is to take the lower of two numbers
also, if it's working and you're getting closer to your overall goal, then i wouldn't stop what you're doing.1
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