how to calculate burned calorie

Options
dandl1986
dandl1986 Posts: 94 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So, I need help! I have been beginning my exercise regime and am doing well with it i think, but I don't know how to accurately calculate my calories burned. So, I am 55 year old female. I am 5.4 inches and weigh 223 (down two pounds since starting Aug 1). I have an exercise machine that is both a recumbent bike and elliptical. I am up to doing each exercise at the lowest resistance setting for 10 minutes and it says I am burning 50 calories. So, when I put it into the fitness pal app it says it is much more than that. My machine does not ask for my weight or age or any of those stats. I also went to an online site for calculating calories and it is even higher than mfp. This is causing me problems as i try to calculate how much I am burning using online fitness walking programs. My pedometer is giving me super high readings 22 minutes and 183 calories, I think that is way too high. I would not be worried about this, but as MFP has set my plan at 1200 calories and according to what I have read on this site, I should be eating back about half of my expended calories, I don't want to be over eating. Can anyone help me understand whether to trust the minutes from my machine and pedometer, the mfp app, or another calculator. I don't have a fit bit, but would be willing to buy one if they are a better source of accurate info, but the internet makes it sound like they aren't terribly reliable either...

My other question is diabetic specific. As I exercise mfp is giving me extra carbs. my sugar numbers have been steadily coming down, but is it okay to eat the number of carbs mfp says or is there a specific number I should always stay below no matter the exercise.

Please be patient with me, I am new to all of this and I apologize if these are basic questions, I don't want to waste anyone's time, but I am trying my best to regain control of my weight loss.

Replies

  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    Options
    i don't know about exercise as I just use my fitbit (or heart rate monitor)

    to loose weight you only need to eat a calorie deficit. it doesn't matter what portion is carbs. carbs are good for your body. it is absolutely ok to eat the recommended carbs.
  • angelbaby75
    angelbaby75 Posts: 15 Member
    Options
    I always use the average of the two. I take the calories the machine says, add the calories MFP says and divide by two...maybe not scientific but has to be close... :-)
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    Options
    MFP just has a default macro setting that sets the carbs, so definitely work with your doctor to find out where you should be in that regard.

    I would also use the MFP exercise values and then eat back half. If you are happy with that weight loss rate, then keep doing that. Eat more or less of the exercise calories back if you aren't losing enough or feel like you are losing to fast (slower-ish is better, even if you have a lot to lose--it helps you develop the longer term habits to keep it off AND you get to eat more!).
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    Options
    No way of estimating exercise calories is completely accurate. The "eat half" advice is intended to address the inaccuracy. We tell people to eat half their exercise calories because depending on how your exercise calories are calculated, they may be extremely inflated, and if you only eat half of that number then you are probably not overeating. If you were able to know *exactly* how many calories you burned, then you would eat them all, but most of us can't calculate calorie burn that accurately.

    So just stick with eating half and see how that works :) If you are weighing all your food and yet your weight doesn't decrease as expected after a few weeks, then it may be that your exercise calories are exaggerated by even more than double what you actually burned, and you would need to adjust accordingly.

    For an example of what this looks like in practice, I am in maintenance eating 1400 calories per day not counting exercise. I also run regularly and use Runkeeper to track my runs and calories burned. I know that Runkeeper, like any other device, overestimates my calorie burn. Over a few months, I just adjusted my maintenance calorie goal until I was no longer losing weight. This adjustment takes into account inaccuracy in my exercise calorie calculation. Is it mathematically perfect or foolproof? No; it's just offsetting error in one place with error elsewhere. It is sort of like a big system held together with duct tape :) But it works for me.

    Regarding carbs, you would be better off speaking with a your doctor and registered dietician who specializes in diabetes nutrition as other posters have suggested. We don't want to risk giving you medical advice without the proper training or knowledge about your own health.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,442 Member
    Options
    I'd probably use whichever exercise calorie estimate is lowest, and log that in MFP. Do that consistently for a month, hit your calorie intake goal for a month too, and see if your loss rate matches your goal rate. If it does, keep doing that. If it doesn't eat more or fewer calories to adjust and hit your weight loss goal rate.
  • KerrieA87
    KerrieA87 Posts: 167 Member
    Options
    I asked a similar question on my own status today. I’ve noticed a massive difference between the calculations of my Apple Watch (series 3) and the mfp, eg yesterday I went hiking for 69 mins, my watch tracks my heart rate throughout and only calculated 198 of active calories, the same amount on mfp gives 508 cals for 69 mins hiking. Since I currently do very little exercise I’m not overly concerned about eating back calories but if I get to the position of being able to do more I think I’ll stick with the watches calculations rather than running the risk of believing I’ve burnt a lot more than I had
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    Options
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    I'd probably use whichever exercise calorie estimate is lowest, and log that in MFP. Do that consistently for a month, hit your calorie intake goal for a month too, and see if your loss rate matches your goal rate. If it does, keep doing that. If it doesn't eat more or fewer calories to adjust and hit your weight loss goal rate.

    This^. There is no exact way except to pick a way, do it for awhile, keep calories consistent and measure your results. Your own data will prove more accurate then any estimate. Not that you are doing this, but some allow themselves to get paralysis by analysis over these kinds of things. You will never measure you calories intake or exercise burns with 100% accuracy. But you can, by gathering your own data, have reasonable good estimates that you can adjust and get results with over time.
  • dandl1986
    dandl1986 Posts: 94 Member
    Options
    Thanks to all who have responded. Lots of good thoughts. My main reason for asking, is that I am doing a lot of home video fitness workouts. One is an introductory dance exercise that lasts about 20 minutes, one is an at home walking video, and two are at home strength training one mainly for arms and one mainly for tummy. I just have no way to figure out how many calories I may be burning doing those. I know they must be good because I am working up quite a sweat and feel muscles I haven't for a very long time. The calorie count is not the main purpose at all, but it would be nice to have a good idea. I guess I will will keep using my pedometer and mfp and averaging the two to get some sort of reasonable average. So far, mfp calculator is a much higher calorie burn than my own devices are saying. I can only guess that mfp is taking my current weight into their formula while my devices don't do that? You all have been very helpful, thanks!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,743 Member
    Options
    Some thoughts.

    The first 30 or so minutes of activity in a day are included in the sedentary setting that MFP uses.

    Usually the calories of the sedentary setting are exceeded once your activity level climbs up from the 3500 to 5000 step a day range.

    Past that and depending on how consistently you engage in your various activities you can add them in as "exercises" or you can lump them in into your daily "activity level". By the time most people consistently hit 10K steps a day, they are comfortably in the "active" level of activity in terms of the Calories they're burning every day.

    MFP's "burn" number for the various exercises and activities, as given, ALSO includes the number of calories that you're burning by virtue of being alive. In other words it is not a NET burn number.

    If you're setup as sedentary on MFP, you are assigned BMR x 1.25 Cal for each minute of the day as your estimated base Caloric expenditure.

    If you're considering your NET burn for the purpose of eating back your exercise Calories you should probably take this into consideration and subtract these BMR x 1.25 Calories.

Categories