Exact calories burned!

Don't be too worried about what other people decide to do. MFP exercises seem to be set for high intensity calorie burns, but it's not hard to familiarize yourself with your own exertion to calorie burn after a while.

If I had to rely on a machine reading or what is in the MFP database, I would consistently stay at least 150-250 calories below on my logging to make sure I ate at a deficit. Otherwise, you wear a heart rate monitor...I wear an HRM (Polar Ft7) and it is one of the BEST investments I made in my weight loss journey...

I routinely ate all the up to my net calorie goal (sometimes 1 calorie under) and averaged 1.75 pounds/week lost over my nine month journey to reach my goal weight...HRMs are worth their weight in gold...

It would be great if we all knew exactly what we were burning but that is not possible. Its always a best guess and needs to be adjusted accordingly. If you are inputting calories and not losing weight, chances are you are not burning as much as you think or the machine or program you use is telling you. That is where you need to monitor and adjust. For instance most running and walking calories listed even on this site are correct but not valid. I know that sounds strange but most are telling you TCB (total calorie burn) not NCB (net calorie burn) and in most cases its significantly different. A quick explanation, you need to know how many calories you would have burned if you did nothing at all for the duration of the exercise subtracted from your total calorie burn to get a more accurate net calorie expenditure for the exercise. If you are on a 1600 calorie a day plan, as an average you are going to burn 67 calories an hour doing nothing at all. If you did cardio for 1 hour and the machine said 500 calories if it was even close would actually be 67 calories off. Do that over several hours and then days you can see the deficit can get really big really quick. Always monitor and adjust to how your body reacts in order to stick too and maintain your plan.

HRM monitors might put you in the infield but as for EXACT, that's not gonna happen. Just like getting the exact amount of calories you eat logged. Also not gonna happen. There's lots of wiggle room when running a calorie deficit, relax and don't worry about it.

^ this!

HRM's are also just an estimate, they are not 100% correct and for those of us who can't afford an HRM..well i guess we'll just have to hope for the best!

but it only takes common sense to know you didn't burn 300 calories walking at a slow pace..

You are very kind to be concerned for everyone. thank you!

You would probably be horrified by my exercise estimates, but it does seem to work for me.

I really don't wear my HRM too often, but I have used it to make estimates for shorter exercise sessions and then continue to use those numbers. I wore an HRM once to measure calories burned during SUP (stand-up paddleboarding) on the lagoon, so I just use that number every time now. I have never worn an HRM in the ocean (for obvious reasons), but my own random estimate is that it is twice as difficult to SUP in the ocean as it is in the lagoon, so I give myself 2x the calories when I go in the ocean.

I use the MFP estimate for my calorie burn during belly dance rehearsals and performances -- certainly not able to wear an HRM during a performance, and rehearsals are very stop-and-start, so the estimate is really a guess. I also use the MFP estimates for cycling and find it as accurate as the one time I wore my HRM on an hour-long ride (I just can't stand to wear it for a long 2-4 hour rides).

I teach spin and have worn an HRM twice, and found it very close to the number on the bike, so I just use that.

Sometimes restaurant foods (non-chain restaurants) and foods I eat at other people's homes are estimated too -- for example I ate fish and chips last night at a pub, and if you look in the database for fish and chips, you can find as low as 400 and as high as 710. No way to really know for sure.

I don't sweat it; I make my best guess, and I eat my exercise calories where possible. I also spread out calories if necessary, like today I did a 4-hour ride, so there's no way I can eat all the calories today, so I ate a bit extra yesterday, and tomorrow I will not work out and will eat extra tomorrow too.

blessings.