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Calories burned

sloa1975
sloa1975 Posts: 5 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
How do you actual determine how many calories your body burns with exercise? I will do 30 minutes of exercise how do I know how many calories that is to record?

Replies

  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    What exercises are you doing? It varies depending on the exercise, the intensity, in some cases (walking & running) on your weight etc

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    I use a Fitbit for this.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Depends on what exercise you are doing for starters, there's a whole load of ways to estimate but some methods/devices/resources are good, some hopeless, some totally inappropriate for particular exercises.

  • sloa1975
    sloa1975 Posts: 5 Member
    I change it up - some days I will create my own routine focusing on legs or Arms or I may do yoga on a day or the treadmill ( it has a calorie counter - but I have been told they are not that accurate)
    I just feel I am always estimating the calories I take in (especially preparing our own food and not buying prepackaged) and the calories I burn
    I guess I just get discouraged.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    sloa1975 wrote: »
    I change it up - some days I will create my own routine focusing on legs or Arms or I may do yoga on a day or the treadmill ( it has a calorie counter - but I have been told they are not that accurate)
    I just feel I am always estimating the calories I take in (especially preparing our own food and not buying prepackaged) and the calories I burn
    I guess I just get discouraged.

    That's all calorie counting is -- estimation. Whether we're talking about calories in or calories out, we're all just estimating. There are things we can do to increase the reliability of our estimates (accurate database entries, using a food scale, heart rate monitors, etc), but at the end of the day we're all going to have to compare our real life results against our estimates and make adjustments accordingly.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    When I started this, I looked at several online exercise calculators and then came up with an average for moderate exercise. I've just used that flat number and adjust it for the minutes.

    Pick a source and use the same numbers for a month and see what happens. Then adjust as results indicate. It's all a guess, your data is your best and only accurate tool.
  • sloa1975
    sloa1975 Posts: 5 Member
    Thanks for the advice
  • don9992
    don9992 Posts: 49 Member
    Make it easier on yourself and use an activity tracker. I've seen someone mention a Fitbit and I use a Polar 360. I can then upload the results and have Polar's software automatically update MFP.
This discussion has been closed.

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