How much do you trust aprox. cal burns in group fitness class entries?

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kiela64
kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I love group fitness classes, it's much easier to get in the zone when I'm working out with other people with an instructor than just trying to self-motivate. (I also see how fit the 40+ year olds are and I feel so much shame for being in my 20s and dyyyyying lol). I've got an old knee injury, so I can't do too many of them anymore bc they often do jumping/lunges/running and I've got a solid veto on that 5ever. So most of my exercise is solo - swimming laps, walking, calisthenics, etc.

I joined an Aquafit class for the first time last night, and it was pretty good. (solid awkward factor being the only person under 65 but it's fine). There were some challenging moves, and some not-very-challenging moves. Most people were chatting the entire time, I tried to keep my hr up but I wasn't often gasping. It was more resistance work with the water dumbbells. I'm definitely sore today though!

Even though it was a 1h class, I logged it as 45min because the 300+ cal burn seemed truly excessive. It's still like 280 though, which I'm not sure on... I didn't eat back those calories, because it was late in the evening and I couldn't stomach more than a small snack afterwards (if I'd sat at home I would have had more food, so I ate too little yesterday under my goal, but I'm sure I'll make it up later in the week).

But for those of you who do these types of classes, like aquafit, zumba, yoga, pilates, or even general "cardio and weights" aerobics, etc - how much do you trust the MFP aprox. calorie burn? Do you just consider it "wiggle room" for error in your logging or an actual bonus eating goal?

I've heard the general estimate is to eat back 1/2 of calories burned in exercise, do you find this applies to these nebulous classes?

Replies

  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,483 Member
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    I’ve done aquafit for the past 10yr.
    The classes I take can be as challenging as one chooses, so I have little down time for the 60min.

    I based my initial burn on MFP, eating all the cals, then compared against my real world data. It was close enough I just used MFP.


    In all the classes you mention MFP and my data derived calorie burn were within ~25cals, except Zumba.
    Zumba was about 250cals over my actual cal expenditure.

    Like you, but for different reasons, I don’t jump or run. (That was probably the big difference in the Zumba)

    Cheers, h.
    Funny about you being the only one under 65 in aqua fit. My classes are populated mostly by uni students and young mums.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    Set a firm policy on how you will log it and how much you will eat then wait a month and determine if your rate of loss has changed and if it has changed enough to make an adjustment to whatever policy you have set. If you are being fairly aggressive in your weight loss you may want to set a generous policy and risk losing slightly slower than too fast because it could cause fatigue.
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
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    middlehaitch wrote: »
    I’ve done aquafit for the past 10yr.
    The classes I take can be as challenging as one chooses, so I have little down time for the 60min.

    I based my initial burn on MFP, eating all the cals, then compared against my real world data. It was close enough I just used MFP.


    In all the classes you mention MFP and my data derived calorie burn were within ~25cals, except Zumba.
    Zumba was about 250cals over my actual cal expenditure.

    Like you, but for different reasons, I don’t jump or run. (That was probably the big difference in the Zumba)

    Cheers, h.
    Funny about you being the only one under 65 in aqua fit. My classes are populated mostly by uni students and young mums.

    Thank you!!! I’m skeptical about this particular one being as intense as yours, because there were definitely times where I wasn’t breathing hard although I was pushing the move as much as possible.

    Interesting, the Zumba class I went to included “hopping” and 3/4 spin turns and I needed to walk out. It wasn’t a class I could stay in.

    I bet it depends on the gym. At this one, that’s the only aqua fit class that isn’t restricted to 65+ members but I think it creates the idea it’s only for them.
    NovusDies wrote: »
    Set a firm policy on how you will log it and how much you will eat then wait a month and determine if your rate of loss has changed and if it has changed enough to make an adjustment to whatever policy you have set. If you are being fairly aggressive in your weight loss you may want to set a generous policy and risk losing slightly slower than too fast because it could cause fatigue.

    Great, thank you!!
  • Terytha
    Terytha Posts: 2,097 Member
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    Some googling suggests I could expect to burn around 300 calories in half an hour of steady pace jogging.

    So I use that as my guesstimate baseline. Did I work as hard or less hard than if I were jogging?

    But I don't think 300 calories for an hour of work is unreasonable.
  • TrishSeren
    TrishSeren Posts: 587 Member
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    When I went to Les Mills classes the calorie burn suggested was just so incredibly off. Like 600 calories for a 30 minute class?! Dreaming.

    As I'm short and female and lift weights, I don't bother adding in my exercise calories any more because they seemed to overestimated ( I wasn't losing weight and was actually gaining over a period of six months). Since I stopped adding them in and eating them back I've finally started losing.
  • JAMeadEsq
    JAMeadEsq Posts: 4 Member
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    There are many fitness tracker wearables that are waterproof. I use my Garmin if I'm in the pool. I think it gives a much more realistic figure than any chart possibly could because no two people are alike. :) The wearables can be pricey, but I definitely think they're worth it!

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