Calories burned

daisymae1975
daisymae1975 Posts: 3 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
So i use this app in combo with a fit bit. I have been walking on an elliptical every day for 25 minutes. It(elliptical) tells me i have burned approx 140 calories for that time. When I put it in my app it shows that I have burned approx 200 calories for that amount of time. My question is does this app calculate the calories I burn based on my weight and number of minutes of activity? I have been at a plateau and fluctuating back and forth in weight and I'm afraid this may be causing part of my problem. I always thought that tthe more you had to lose the more calories you burned. If the calories are as high as the app calculates I may not be taking in enough calories.

Replies

  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    edited July 2017
    What your body is telling you is far more accurate than what any machine could tell you; if you are not losing weight, you need to eat less. If you are eating back the 140 calories, then maybe you should dial it back a bit further or not eat back those calories at all (although I am normally a proponent of logging substantial periods of walking, half an hour is a pretty slim amount of time). This is assuming that you are already carefully weighing your food, every bite, and are logging it using accurate food entries rather than some of the craziness that is in the MFP database. And assuming this "plateau" has been going on for several weeks and is not monthly water weight changes masking your loss.

    [edited for clarity]
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    The app does work out from your weight and duration of exercise selected according to the METS value of the exercise you select from the database.

    But think about how general "elliptical" is - no mention of speed/resistance/intensity/type of elliptical used.
    It's the vaguest of vague estimates. I would use the machine's estimate - it knows more about you and how you are using the machine.

    You are correct in thinking for a weight bearing exercise higher body weight does mean higher calorie burns for the same exercise.
    In reality there is a counter balance of the fitter you become the greater exercise capability you get - you won't be doing the same exercise, you will be doing more (faster, further, longer...).

    But a difference of just 60 calories a day is a very small variance and not enough to account for a complete stall. Looking in your food diary may be more likely to reveal the problem.
    "Not taking in enough calories" is the least likely explanation!
  • daisymae1975
    daisymae1975 Posts: 3 Member
    edited July 2017
    A half an hour may seem like a slim amount of time to you but when you've not done anything and weighed almost 380 pounds and are coming off a broken ankle and fibula i think im doing just fine. Its better than doing nothing and I am trying to be very disciplined in my food diary. I use a measuring cup and spoons to measure food. I am down 55 pounds as of today.
  • Luna3386
    Luna3386 Posts: 888 Member
    daisymae1975 wrote: »
    A half an hour may seem like a slim amount of time to you but when you've not done anything and weighed almost 380 pounds and are coming off a broken ankle and fibula i think im doing just fine. Its better than doing nothing and I am trying to be very disciplined in my food diary. I use a measuring cup and spoons to measure food. I am down 55 pounds as of today.

    You asked opinions on the calories burned given your current plateau. If you think you are doing just fine why did you ask for help?

    No one said it wasn't good enough. It may just be an overestimation of calories burned. Eating those calories back may be enough to put you into maintenance (where you won't lose).

    The best way of knowing how accurate those burns are is to keep track of what your body is doing.

    Keep updating weight under goals as your calorie needs will change as you lose. I highly recommend switching over to using a food scale. You will have less wiggle room as you slim down. But keep up the good work.
  • daisymae1975
    daisymae1975 Posts: 3 Member
    I meant in my exercising time. I am doing the best I can in my situation. I was looking. For advice on the calorie burn on the exercises not criticism on how little time someone thinks I'm working out. Those 25 minutes are not easy and it hurts. I do the best I can.
  • xandra47
    xandra47 Posts: 121 Member
    In my experience, measuring cups and spoons are very inaccurate. Once I started using a food scale, weight started coming off. They are super cheap on Amazon for a decent one. :)
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited July 2017
    daisymae1975 wrote: »
    A half an hour may seem like a slim amount of time to you but when you've not done anything and weighed almost 380 pounds and are coming off a broken ankle and fibula i think im doing just fine. Its better than doing nothing and I am trying to be very disciplined in my food diary. I use a measuring cup and spoons to measure food. I am down 55 pounds as of today.

    You have gone off at a tangent here! There was no criticism implied let alone stated. What both myself and @French_Peasant are pointing out is the relative significance of exercise.

    The two calorie amounts you quoted are only 60 cals apart, that is a very small amount and cannot alone be the reason for not losing weight.
    Assuming you have gone for 2lbs a day weight loss goal (1000 cals) then 60 is insignificant as regards not getting the desired rate of loss. You need to look elsewhere for the reason.

    Using cups and spoons is horrendously inaccurate (you need to weigh for accuracy as calories relate to weight of food and not volume). That's is potentially far more significant than 60 cals.
    Have a little experiment with grated cheese and measuring cups (how much can you get in loose as opposed to crammed in!) :)

    Again for clarity there was no criticism of your exercise efforts.
  • DevilsFan1
    DevilsFan1 Posts: 342 Member
    Get a food scale. Measure everything you put in your mouth by weight not by volume. Stop eating back your exercise calories. Do exercise for the health benefits it provides you, not for calorie burn. The amount you are exercising is not enough to worry about. 30 minutes on an elliptical is probably burning less than 150 calories. That's three Oreos.
  • duckie_runs
    duckie_runs Posts: 7 Member
    i think she is asking if the fitbit is accurate on calorie burn vs the machine....
    i have only started using fitbit this year and i have the blaze and i do think there estimation of calorie burn is a little inaccurate. I have been told by other users that have a fitbit and they also think too. I did loose weight (50lbs) and the fitbit did help since the challenges were motivating and also i tracked my macros and ate clean and was more active.

    i have been told POLAR is more accurate.

    the heavier you are the more calories you burn...the smaller you get you dont burn as much calories as you first started.

    just do what you can to be more active and eat clean.

    running also helps if you can.
  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    daisymae1975 wrote: »
    I meant in my exercising time. I am doing the best I can in my situation. I was looking. For advice on the calorie burn on the exercises not criticism on how little time someone thinks I'm working out. Those 25 minutes are not easy and it hurts. I do the best I can.

    @daisymae1975 , I am sorry, I did not mean for my phrasing to hurt your feelings; it was poorly stated. *If* you are in a true plateau, you need to tighten up somewhere, and one logical and very easy place is to scale back your exercise calories since they are in the 100-200 range. Or really tighten up your food logging and measure in grams. I think any bit of exercise that you can add into your day is awesome, and I certainly log my fair share of walking, especially when I first started.

    Obviously you did an awesome job losing the 55 lbs (congrats!!) and the way you are currently eating, exercising and logging supports your current weight. The more you lose, the more you have to tighten things up, unfortunately, and the lighter you are, the more slowly you will lose.

    To provide a comparison: I have 5 lbs left to lose to reach my "ideal" which would put me at a 21 BMI. I have been maintaining/recomping for the past year at a little over a 22 BMI. I eat back all my exercise calories, and if a machine gives me a number, I am eating it. That worked well for me to lose 25+ lbs to reach a healthy weight, but if I ever want to get shredded (which I don't particularly want, but hey, we'll see), I am going to have to tighten something up somewhere. My options are one or a combination of the following:

    --stop eating at restaurants
    --eat back 50% to 75% of my exercise calories
    --measure everything I eat in grams instead of eyeballing (right now I measure quite a bit in grams, but eyeball a lot too).

    You are at a different point, but it is the same scenario: you will have to tighten up a bit here and there as you progress.

    Hopefully, this is a better explanation at what I was trying to get at.


  • French_Peasant
    French_Peasant Posts: 1,639 Member
    Also, I see you are from Orland, home to my beloved Mr. Bratz. <3 We make regular pilgrimages there to pick up their Hawaiian brats--yum.
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