How accurate are most of the exercise calorie burns on this site?

This answer may not satisfy your question, but my nutritionist has recommended that I enter "0" for exercise. This is because the "calories burned" number is so imperfect. I find that by entering 0 and sticking with my calorie target to be more effective. If you have to, add 300 calories to your active days and see how that works. Listen to what your body is telling you.

I 100% agree with sijomial here, if best accuracy for cycling is the goal.

If you're talking about an exercise that might be 82 calories, or if dramatically overstated might be half that, I wouldn't stress about that too much. As a practical matter, that's down in the realm of numbers where one apple might be sweeter than another, or you might walk more at the grocery store one day than on another visit.

At a more general level, if you do mostly the same exercises most of the time, and don't do extremely high amounts of exercise (large fraction of daily calories) then using the MFP estimates can be OK, because standard advice here is to use MFP's calorie goal for 4-6 weeks, then adjust your intake based on your actual weight loss results. If you do mostly the same exercises in the same amounts pretty consistently, that intake correction will cover a bit of approximation in the exercise calories, too.

Some people will tell you that a heart rate monitor or fitness tracker will give you fully accurate data, but that's not true, either. They're better for some activities than others, but they're still just statistical estimates, only a bit more personalized. They can also be helpful because they'll give you consistent estimates, so the same general reasoning applies as for using MFP estimates consistently.

Some people will tell you not to log exercise, or to log it as zero. That's not how MFP is designed to work, and not all trainers/doctors/etc. understand that. Zero is the one calorie estimate for exercise that is absolutely guaranteed to be inaccurate.

If you are targeting relatively slow weight loss for someone your current size, and your exercise is not long/intense/frequent (i.e., not a big calorie burner), it can be OK to record it as zero, and let the exercise speed up your weight loss rate, because you're unlikely to get to a weight loss rate fast enough to create major health risks.

On the other hand, if someone has an aggressively-fast weight target weight loss rate, then does a lot of high-burn exercise but records it as zero calories on top of that, they're creating significant health risks for themselves.

The territory in between those extremes is a judgement call. Too-slow weight loss is frustrating. Too-fast weight loss is a potential health risk.

Best wishes!

pmdonnelly wrote: »

This answer may not satisfy your question, but my nutritionist has recommended that I enter "0" for exercise. This is because the "calories burned" number is so imperfect. I find that by entering 0 and sticking with my calorie target to be more effective. If you have to, add 300 calories to your active days and see how that works. Listen to what your body is telling you.

Your nutritionist doesn't seem very bright and probably doesn't understand how this site works out your calorie goal.
Zero is guaranteed to be wrong, it's a fallacy that you need to be completely accurate anyway - reasonable estimating is good enough.

BTW - I will be burning over 3,000 cals tomorrow (Century ride) - would your nutritionist think zero or 300 would be appropriate?

I am curious how many people here would put their height as 3 feet tall in MFP to get a lower calorie goal? That is essentially what you are doing if you don't eat your exercise calories back. MFP does not take into account your exercise when creating a calorie goal. Your exercise is just as important as your weight, height, age, or anything else that goes into your calorie expenditure goal. Ignore it at your own risk. Nobody is doubting you can lose weight without eating your exercise calories back. You are creating a larger deficit. Of course you will lose weight. But depending on how much you exercise, it could make your weight loss and calorie deficit too aggressive.

If you don't like the idea of "eating exercise calories back", you can use a TDEE calculator that calculates a daily goal that doesn't change for you, but incorporates your exercise level as a component. You have to account for it somehow though. Using MFP's calculations without eating your exercise calories back is giving you an artificially low calorie goal.

How accurate are they? The short and simple... they aren't. Neither are the ones you get in your apps, like MapMyWalk, MapMyFitness, FitBit, Bartal, etc. They're just a guideline, which is why I never try to eat my exercise calories.

pmdonnelly wrote: »

This answer may not satisfy your question, but my nutritionist has recommended that I enter "0" for exercise. This is because the "calories burned" number is so imperfect. I find that by entering 0 and sticking with my calorie target to be more effective. If you have to, add 300 calories to your active days and see how that works. Listen to what your body is telling you.

So because calorie estimates can be imperfect, you choose the one number that is definitively wrong, which is zero?

WinoGelato wrote: »

pmdonnelly wrote: »

This answer may not satisfy your question, but my nutritionist has recommended that I enter "0" for exercise. This is because the "calories burned" number is so imperfect. I find that by entering 0 and sticking with my calorie target to be more effective. If you have to, add 300 calories to your active days and see how that works. Listen to what your body is telling you.

So because calorie estimates can be imperfect, you choose the one number that is definitively wrong, which is zero?

Actually, he didnt choose this number. His personal nutritionist chose it for HIM, not you. He was kind enough, however, to share his plan with other people on the same journey. Personally, calculating my TDEE at the beginning of the week helps keep me on track vs the MFP method of eating more on cardio days, eating less on rest days. I track my exercise on my Google calendar and this helps me see with a quick glance how often I'm moving and what I am doing,
or if I need more variety . Some rest days I eat 1,400, some weeks I'll go for 1,800 on my rest day if I had a particular tough workout session the day before. This is why a weekly allowance works better for me, and perhaps him, too!

In the end, we are on the same mission. What works for one may not work for all, and that's okay. That's why it is nice to learn about other methods of tracking nutrition. Eventually, we find something that sticks. Have a great day!