Is this correct or would that cause me to over-eat?

ijoedrury
ijoedrury Posts: 13 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
I've got a target of 2,500 calories. But when i workout/swim for an hour it tells me to overeact by nearly 1,000 calories? I have the fitbit Inspire HR, is that too much or not?

I'm a male, 247lbs, 6ft'3 Any suggestions is helpful?

Replies

  • oocdc2
    oocdc2 Posts: 1,361 Member
    Generally speaking, I have found one has to take the calorie counts as a best guess, not gospel. For example, when I run, Strava estimates I burn 113 calories/mile. But, to maintain, I only eat 2/3rds (75 calories/mile).

    I'll leave the specificities of swimming calories to swimmers, but even with MFP entries like "gardening, general," I have to adjust, because the estimates can get ridiculous. Good luck!
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    1000 seems like a lot of calories. I would start with eating back half of those and see how it works out for you.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,247 Member
    I would take the 1,000 cal burn in an hour with a grain of salt. The fitbit measures time and heart-rate, nothing else.... and there is not a direct correlation between heart-rate and calories expended. 2 runners of equal weight will burn, approximately, the same number of calories traveling the same distance but most heart-rate based fitness devices would ascribe a higher expenditure to the runner with the higher heart-rate (and that can be a result of poorer fitness, a bad night's sleep, over-training, dehydration etc)

    FWIW I went back through my swim data and my Garmin (using GPS, heart-rate, stroke rate etc) estimated 950cal burned last year on a 4 km open water swim.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    ijoedrury wrote: »
    I've got a target of 2,500 calories. But when i workout/swim for an hour it tells me to overeact by nearly 1,000 calories? I have the fitbit Inspire HR, is that too much or not?

    I'm a male, 247lbs, 6ft'3 Any suggestions is helpful?

    Are you syncing your Fitbit to MFP?
    And manually logging that workout in MFP?

    If you log that in Fitbit (you can use the devices Activity Record for start/duration time info, and keep it for the HR if it got it) as a Workout Record - and select the time and distance done - does Fitbit do any better for the calorie burn?

    Usually the same database entries as MFP, but calculated a tad differently and better.

    Also - are you actually referring to the Fitbit adjustment in MFP Exercise Diary page?

    Because that's not just workout calories - it's also how much more active you were than the MFP Activity Level you selected.

    So maybe the swim gave you 600 calories, but you picked Sedentary and also walked 12K steps during the day which gave another 400 calories. Because that's way above Sedentary level of movement.

    That's another reason why you could be given 1000 more to eat.
  • tracybear86
    tracybear86 Posts: 163 Member
    edited July 2019
    I use this calculator for swimming. It includes pace which helps to better measure level of effort and I find it to be pretty accurate for myself. Make sure you only enter the time you are actually swimming though, not resting, getting ready, etc. Though when I do it for an hour of freestyle at your weight with a moderate pace (2:30/100 meters) it does come up with 925 calories. You could try only eating back half to start and see what your weight does?

    http://www.swimmingcalculator.com/swim_calories_calculator.php
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