Calculating abnormal "exercise" or calorie burn
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HoneyBadger302
Posts: 1,978 Member
Okay, I realize that a day here and there won't make a massive difference overall, but was curious what other people's methods are for dealing with abnormal "exercise" or activities.
For example, this past weekend I spent 16 hours working on my motorcycle. I didn't get that many steps per day, but it was physical. Bending, reaching, lifting, twisting - I was SORE (still am a bit actually), and physically exhausted - far more than I would be from a normal workout. I let myself eat at maintenance for the two days.
While this was only two days, I also have trouble figuring out things like my track days or race weekends - there's definite physical output going on, far more than I would get in a gym workout, but it's really hard to calculate, and happens often enough over the summer that I feel like I can be prone to undoing some of my M-F work on weekends - or, even worse, come into a weekend without the energy to finish a race or session without completely gassing out (me, not the bike LOL).
Since the activities are unusual, other than experimentation (which can take weeks or even months to figure out), what methods do others use to calculate their unusual calorie burns? Other than trying something as close as you can find - which, can be kinda hard sometimes.
For example, this past weekend I spent 16 hours working on my motorcycle. I didn't get that many steps per day, but it was physical. Bending, reaching, lifting, twisting - I was SORE (still am a bit actually), and physically exhausted - far more than I would be from a normal workout. I let myself eat at maintenance for the two days.
While this was only two days, I also have trouble figuring out things like my track days or race weekends - there's definite physical output going on, far more than I would get in a gym workout, but it's really hard to calculate, and happens often enough over the summer that I feel like I can be prone to undoing some of my M-F work on weekends - or, even worse, come into a weekend without the energy to finish a race or session without completely gassing out (me, not the bike LOL).
Since the activities are unusual, other than experimentation (which can take weeks or even months to figure out), what methods do others use to calculate their unusual calorie burns? Other than trying something as close as you can find - which, can be kinda hard sometimes.
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Replies
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I'm following this as I too would like to know how to track my racing/track days. It's surprisingly exhausting, especially if you have back to back races.
According to google, they say riding a bike burn 170 to 600 calories an hour, so I'd go with the higher end.1 -
I haven't done anything that wasn't in the exercise database, but I frequently compare everything other than walking to walking, cuz I figure there's a very good chance they got that right. So, I'm more tired after an hour of gardening than an hour of walking, and I did indeed get more calories for gardening. I'm a LOT more tired after an hour of swimming and I did indeed get a lot more calories. I can't even make an hour of snowshoeing, and that is my highest calories activity.
So my suggestion is to see how your body feels afterwards, as you are already doing, and use some factor to give yourself Known Activity * X.
Sounds like you need somewhat more than maintenance calories on race weekends? Maybe be Very Active on those days (if that gives you enough calories)?2 -
Search online for a MET chart that includes occupational or vocational activities and select something that seems similar.1
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If it's something I don't do regularly, I may just log something that's similar but that I believe to be a lowball estimate.
If it's something that's going to be more frequent for me, I usually invest some time in thinking about it, and create a custom exercise. I'd consider things like what my fitness tracker/HRM estimates (alongside whether it's close to a type of activity that HRM are better/worse at estimating); how it compares in RPE to other more familiar things (and why it might feel harder or easier compared to those familiar things in a misleading way); looking at MET values or MFP database (or external calorie estimator) values for things that seem similar but likely lower/higher energy consumers, etc. I'd say it's a crapshoot, but it's really more like poker: A combination of educated guessing and some amount of luck.
Once you create a custom exercise (with X calories per minute calculated from your first usage), MFP will scale it for you to future shorter or longer sessions of that same thing.0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »So my suggestion is to see how your body feels afterwards, as you are already doing, and use some factor to give yourself Known Activity * X.
Sounds like you need somewhat more than maintenance calories on race weekends? Maybe be Very Active on those days (if that gives you enough calories)?
That might be a good place to start. I realize some of it is going to be playing it by ear, but I'm really trying to keep my weight down this year and heading in a southerly direction lol, so sont' want to be undoing my work from the week on the weekend. My old method was okay, but not great. I could maintain, but losing was still tough.A combination of educated guessing and some amount of luck.
Once you create a custom exercise (with X calories per minute calculated from your first usage), MFP will scale it for you to future shorter or longer sessions of that same thing.
Ya, that's probably what it's going to boil down to, just hearing other people's methods of determining a ballpark is helfpul.lynn_glenmont wrote: »Search online for a MET chart that includes occupational or vocational activities and select something that seems similar.
Haven't looked at one, I'll see if I can find one to help with any that are close.0 -
I'm following this as I too would like to know how to track my racing/track days. It's surprisingly exhausting, especially if you have back to back races.
According to google, they say riding a bike burn 170 to 600 calories an hour, so I'd go with the higher end.
Hi and welcome! What do you race and where (avatars are a bit small to tell at least on my laptop here lol)?0 -
HoneyBadger155 wrote: »
Hi and welcome! What do you race and where (avatars are a bit small to tell at least on my laptop here lol)?
2005 CBR600rr, in Ontario at the SOAR series, so it's winter time and I need to make sure I'll still fit in my suit in a few months lol.
What do you ride and where?0 -
I recently had a similar issue with calculating hiking calories. Pretty much all of the estimators were over calculating the burn. So I asked here and was mostly told to use either the calculations for walking or running. So I did. I started losing too fast and couldn't fuel my hikes (which are sometimes 7 hours).
So I carefully watched my calories eaten, amounts I was losing, how I felt on hikes and determined that I needed to calculate 150 calories burned per mile hiking. I may still be losing a bit more quickly than I'd like and may raise my burned calories again.
In the end, if you find an estimate of calorie burn you find reasonable, only you can decide maybe after a few weeks, if the burn is accurate and if you feel fueled for your races.2 -
HoneyBadger155 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »So my suggestion is to see how your body feels afterwards, as you are already doing, and use some factor to give yourself Known Activity * X.
Sounds like you need somewhat more than maintenance calories on race weekends? Maybe be Very Active on those days (if that gives you enough calories)?
That might be a good place to start. I realize some of it is going to be playing it by ear, but I'm really trying to keep my weight down this year and heading in a southerly direction lol, so sont' want to be undoing my work from the week on the weekend. My old method was okay, but not great. I could maintain, but losing was still tough.A combination of educated guessing and some amount of luck.
Once you create a custom exercise (with X calories per minute calculated from your first usage), MFP will scale it for you to future shorter or longer sessions of that same thing.
Ya, that's probably what it's going to boil down to, just hearing other people's methods of determining a ballpark is helfpul.lynn_glenmont wrote: »Search online for a MET chart that includes occupational or vocational activities and select something that seems similar.
Haven't looked at one, I'll see if I can find one to help with any that are close.
https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/1 -
HoneyBadger155 wrote: »
Hi and welcome! What do you race and where (avatars are a bit small to tell at least on my laptop here lol)?
2005 CBR600rr, in Ontario at the SOAR series, so it's winter time and I need to make sure I'll still fit in my suit in a few months lol.
What do you ride and where?
Currently racing with the AFM here in the Northern California area. Hoping to make a MotoAmerica bid before too much longer, but definitely need to find some time first. Racing a 2017 ZX10R, still getting used to the big bike (had a plethora of issues getting this darn thing set up, and a faulty transmission for the better part of a year was NOT helping my situation any!). Came of an '07 Triumph 675, so completely different animals.0 -
Hi, Harvard Medical School provides a ginormous list of activities and the caloric burn rate for 30 minutes. It includes rates for thee different body weights. I wanted to know how many calories I burnt shoveling snow.0
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henryjennifer1248 wrote: »Hi, Harvard Medical School provides a ginormous list of activities and the caloric burn rate for 30 minutes. It includes rates for thee different body weights. I wanted to know how many calories I burnt shoveling snow.
And how many is that? I'll likely be shoveling tomorrow1
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