According to MFP my HIIT session only burned 200cal!?!
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Hannahwalksfar
Posts: 572 Member
So I did 30mins of non-stop running, burpees, high knees, jumps and squats and mfp has that at 200cal. I don’t have a watch atm. I feel like it should be at least 300 but maybe I’m overestimating? I worked my butt off and almost puked lol.
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Replies
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You would be surprised how much work it takes to burn calories off.
General practice is to take a very conservative estimate on calorie burn if you intend to eat them back. Many a persons weight loss has stalled because they were taking the calculations and eating the excess calories without realising most estimates (and readings from treadmills etc) are highly inaccurate.
Personally I just dont log exercise! Seems simpler.11 -
I only eat 50% back and am losing steadily but figured I would have burned more. I eat literally the exact same thing every day so food isn’t generally something I look forward to. I’m just interested in what burns more calories. I did hill hiking today and burned double what I did for hiit1
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HIIT doesn’t really burn a lot of calories. It’s very taxing on the body, but the “work” periods are very short duration. And because the number of calories burned depends on the amount of “work” done - the overall resulting calorie burn is not very high.
Depending on your weight and what specifically you did and how long your rest periods were, 200 might be a little high. I certainly wouldn’t go any higher than that.
From a straight calorie burning standpoint, moderate intensity sustained cardio will be the biggest bang for the buck because it can be sustained for a long period of time and doesn’t tax your body such that you can’t workout “normally” the following day.
If you’re training for something and/or working to improve fitness for certain things, you will probably want to include a number of different types of training (intensity/duration) regardless of whether or not they burn a lot of calories.7 -
samhennings wrote: »You would be surprised how much work it takes to burn calories off.
General practice is to take a very conservative estimate on calorie burn if you intend to eat them back. Many a persons weight loss has stalled because they were taking the calculations and eating the excess calories without realising most estimates (and readings from treadmills etc) are highly inaccurate.
Personally I just dont log exercise! Seems simpler.
There are lots of ways to estimate calorie burns. Some are better than others. Universally-the only one that will always be wrong is 0. If you’re working out, you’re doing your body a huge disservice by not giving it the fuel needed.
Many a person has become fatigued, lethargic, sick, etc after a lengthy period of not eating any exercise calories while continuing to workout.8 -
I don't pay any attention to what MFP or any other trackers says about how many calories I've used for a particular activity. They all tend to be pretty inaccurate and if your daily calorie limit is set to give you an appropriate deficit to lose about 1% bodyweight per week then your exercise activity won't matter that much anyway. Think about the bottom of the TDEE triangle and concentrate on how you can increase BMR and NEAT. They account for around 85% of your TDEE.6
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Hannahwalksfar wrote: »So I did 30mins of non-stop running, burpees, high knees, jumps and squats and mfp has that at 200cal. I don’t have a watch atm. I feel like it should be at least 300 but maybe I’m overestimating? I worked my butt off and almost puked lol.
BTW what you described is not an "HIIT" workout, which is probably one of the most overused terms for exercise. It sounds like it was vigerous calestenics.
400 cal an hour is a pretty sizable burn for execise for a moderately sized woman. You are realistically not going to burn much more than that regardless of what you do. But "working hard" and "feeling tired" do not always translate to calories burns.10 -
Duck_Puddle wrote: »samhennings wrote: »You would be surprised how much work it takes to burn calories off.
General practice is to take a very conservative estimate on calorie burn if you intend to eat them back. Many a persons weight loss has stalled because they were taking the calculations and eating the excess calories without realising most estimates (and readings from treadmills etc) are highly inaccurate.
Personally I just dont log exercise! Seems simpler.
There are lots of ways to estimate calorie burns. Some are better than others. Universally-the only one that will always be wrong is 0. If you’re working out, you’re doing your body a huge disservice by not giving it the fuel needed.
Many a person has become fatigued, lethargic, sick, etc after a lengthy period of not eating any exercise calories while continuing to workout.
Each to their own. I dont obsess over calories, so always took any exercise efforts as a buffer to my more casual way of logging.
And, of course, if over time Im feeling flat - Ill eat more.5 -
I don't pay any attention to what MFP or any other trackers says about how many calories I've used for a particular activity. They all tend to be pretty inaccurate and if your daily calorie limit is set to give you an appropriate deficit to lose about 1% bodyweight per week then your exercise activity won't matter that much anyway. Think about the bottom of the TDEE triangle and concentrate on how you can increase BMR and NEAT. They account for around 85% of your TDEE.
While I agree that NEAT changes comprise the easiest way to affect your TDEE, the rest of this is a little absurd and not in keeping with how mfp works.
My NEAT is 1600. My calorie goal is 1200. That’s to lose 0.5% of my bodyweight/week.
I run 30-35 miles/week (up to 60 depending on training) plus weightlifting and some Other workouts tossed in here and there.
So...because it’s difficult to measure calorie burn precisely, I should just assume 0 calories and attempt to do several hours a week of training on my 1200 calories?
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samhennings wrote: »Duck_Puddle wrote: »samhennings wrote: »You would be surprised how much work it takes to burn calories off.
General practice is to take a very conservative estimate on calorie burn if you intend to eat them back. Many a persons weight loss has stalled because they were taking the calculations and eating the excess calories without realising most estimates (and readings from treadmills etc) are highly inaccurate.
Personally I just dont log exercise! Seems simpler.
There are lots of ways to estimate calorie burns. Some are better than others. Universally-the only one that will always be wrong is 0. If you’re working out, you’re doing your body a huge disservice by not giving it the fuel needed.
Many a person has become fatigued, lethargic, sick, etc after a lengthy period of not eating any exercise calories while continuing to workout.
Each to their own. I dont obsess over calories, so always took any exercise efforts as a buffer to my more casual way of logging.
And, of course, if over time Im feeling flat - Ill eat more.
And that's a heck of a lot easier to do when you're a guy with a relatively high TDEE and calories to play with.
When you're a shorter woman and you have to eat 1300 cals to lose weight at sedentary, paying attention to calories and eating those measly 150 exercise calories can be the thing that keeps you from losing your damn mind.18 -
samhennings wrote: »Duck_Puddle wrote: »samhennings wrote: »You would be surprised how much work it takes to burn calories off.
General practice is to take a very conservative estimate on calorie burn if you intend to eat them back. Many a persons weight loss has stalled because they were taking the calculations and eating the excess calories without realising most estimates (and readings from treadmills etc) are highly inaccurate.
Personally I just dont log exercise! Seems simpler.
There are lots of ways to estimate calorie burns. Some are better than others. Universally-the only one that will always be wrong is 0. If you’re working out, you’re doing your body a huge disservice by not giving it the fuel needed.
Many a person has become fatigued, lethargic, sick, etc after a lengthy period of not eating any exercise calories while continuing to workout.
Each to their own. I dont obsess over calories, so always took any exercise efforts as a buffer to my more casual way of logging.
And, of course, if over time Im feeling flat - Ill eat more.
And that's a heck of a lot easier to do when you're a guy with a relatively high TDEE and calories to play with.
When you're a shorter woman and you have to eat 1300 cals to lose weight at sedentary, paying attention to calories and eating those measly 150 exercise calories can be the thing that keeps you from losing your damn mind.
As I said, each to their own.
As it happens I dont actually have a particularly high TDEE, Im currently losing on 1500.5 -
samhennings wrote: »samhennings wrote: »Duck_Puddle wrote: »samhennings wrote: »You would be surprised how much work it takes to burn calories off.
General practice is to take a very conservative estimate on calorie burn if you intend to eat them back. Many a persons weight loss has stalled because they were taking the calculations and eating the excess calories without realising most estimates (and readings from treadmills etc) are highly inaccurate.
Personally I just dont log exercise! Seems simpler.
There are lots of ways to estimate calorie burns. Some are better than others. Universally-the only one that will always be wrong is 0. If you’re working out, you’re doing your body a huge disservice by not giving it the fuel needed.
Many a person has become fatigued, lethargic, sick, etc after a lengthy period of not eating any exercise calories while continuing to workout.
Each to their own. I dont obsess over calories, so always took any exercise efforts as a buffer to my more casual way of logging.
And, of course, if over time Im feeling flat - Ill eat more.
And that's a heck of a lot easier to do when you're a guy with a relatively high TDEE and calories to play with.
When you're a shorter woman and you have to eat 1300 cals to lose weight at sedentary, paying attention to calories and eating those measly 150 exercise calories can be the thing that keeps you from losing your damn mind.
As I said, each to their own.
As it happens I dont actually have a particularly high TDEE, Im currently losing on 1500.
Right, but it was in response to a female OP upset that she just killed herself with a workout and only earned 200 calories. She should not be ignoring the calories of a workout that left her almost puking and exhausted, especially if she is logging her calories accurately.
And considering you said you don't obsess over calories, I'd bet you're actually eating more than 1500, which is why you can write off your exercise calories. You could be eating several hundred more than you think, ignoring exercise calories, and STILL lose weight because your TDEE is so much higher. OP probably doesn't have that leeway.13 -
samhennings wrote: »samhennings wrote: »Duck_Puddle wrote: »samhennings wrote: »You would be surprised how much work it takes to burn calories off.
General practice is to take a very conservative estimate on calorie burn if you intend to eat them back. Many a persons weight loss has stalled because they were taking the calculations and eating the excess calories without realising most estimates (and readings from treadmills etc) are highly inaccurate.
Personally I just dont log exercise! Seems simpler.
There are lots of ways to estimate calorie burns. Some are better than others. Universally-the only one that will always be wrong is 0. If you’re working out, you’re doing your body a huge disservice by not giving it the fuel needed.
Many a person has become fatigued, lethargic, sick, etc after a lengthy period of not eating any exercise calories while continuing to workout.
Each to their own. I dont obsess over calories, so always took any exercise efforts as a buffer to my more casual way of logging.
And, of course, if over time Im feeling flat - Ill eat more.
And that's a heck of a lot easier to do when you're a guy with a relatively high TDEE and calories to play with.
When you're a shorter woman and you have to eat 1300 cals to lose weight at sedentary, paying attention to calories and eating those measly 150 exercise calories can be the thing that keeps you from losing your damn mind.
As I said, each to their own.
As it happens I dont actually have a particularly high TDEE, Im currently losing on 1500.
Right, but it was in response to a female OP upset that she just killed herself with a workout and only earned 200 calories. She should not be ignoring the calories of a workout that left her almost puking and exhausted, especially if she is logging her calories accurately.
And considering you said you don't obsess over calories, I'd bet you're actually eating more than 1500, which is why you can write off your exercise calories. You could be eating several hundred more than you think, ignoring exercise calories, and STILL lose weight because your TDEE is so much higher. OP probably doesn't have that leeway.
As stated, its not that much higher.
And the response was as simple as "calorie burns are often over stated, so be careful", hardly anything to argue about, surely?8 -
HIIT was invented to get high level athletes more prepared for races. It's not for calorie burns. Because of all the rest periods, it's a small calorie burn. And it takes a lot out of you, as you've seen.5
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Hannahwalksfar wrote: »I only eat 50% back and am losing steadily but figured I would have burned more. I eat literally the exact same thing every day so food isn’t generally something I look forward to. I’m just interested in what burns more calories. I did hill hiking today and burned double what I did for hiit
An exercise session that leaves you almost puking isn't necessarily the best...Just at a guess, if your goals are to be lean, flexible and stronger with better endurance, maybe choose a solid weight or body weight program with some cardio worked in a couple days a week?
As far as calorie burns go, I personally don't exercise to lose or control weight. That's a deficit/surplus thing. the whole deal about eating back exercise calories is to ensure your body has what it needs to continue to grow stronger, maintain and/or grow existing muscle etc. My opinion only, it's not the best course of action to view calories burned during exercise as a means to weight loss. I see more as a gas needle. What I burn needs to be replaced.
That all might just be me though...7 -
Duck_Puddle wrote: »HIIT doesn’t really burn a lot of calories. It’s very taxing on the body, but the “work” periods are very short duration. And because the number of calories burned depends on the amount of “work” done - the overall resulting calorie burn is not very high.
Depending on your weight and what specifically you did and how long your rest periods were, 200 might be a little high. I certainly wouldn’t go any higher than that.
From a straight calorie burning standpoint, moderate intensity sustained cardio will be the biggest bang for the buck because it can be sustained for a long period of time and doesn’t tax your body such that you can’t workout “normally” the following day.
If you’re training for something and/or working to improve fitness for certain things, you will probably want to include a number of different types of training (intensity/duration) regardless of whether or not they burn a lot of calories.
This^^
And this.Hannahwalksfar wrote: »So I did 30mins of non-stop running, burpees, high knees, jumps and squats and mfp has that at 200cal. I don’t have a watch atm. I feel like it should be at least 300 but maybe I’m overestimating? I worked my butt off and almost puked lol.
BTW what you described is not an "HIIT" workout, which is probably one of the most overused terms for exercise. It sounds like it was vigerous calestenics.
400 cal an hour is a pretty sizable burn for execise for a moderately sized woman. You are realistically not going to burn much more than that regardless of what you do. But "working hard" and "feeling tired" do not always translate to calories burns.
Not HIIT and not a high calorie burner despite the rate of perceived exertion.
While exercise burns a few extra calories, weight loss is driven by diet not exercise. Fitness is driven by exercise. As @NorthCascades points out, HIIT is a protocol for increasing Vo2 max for athletes in certain kinds of sports. There is a lot of marketing hype around HIIT but, for calorie burn, you'd have been better off taking a 4 mile walk.3 -
Ok so my stats are 5’4” female 75kg aiming for 65kg. Pretty fit cardio wise but very little upper body strength. Lower body better but not great. I’m off work for another month so my week looks like this atm mon - 10km uphill hike then yoga and HIIT using weights, tues - 10-15km hike uphill then this class, weds 10km flat walk, rpm, core and self- defence, thurs trx then horse riding, Friday boxing then 15km uphill hike. This is all around general farm work. Sat is generally a 20km hike and Sunday is a complete rest day. I’m on 1200/day and log accurately. I’m wanting to increase fitness now and am conditioning myself for comps next year.0
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Hannahwalksfar wrote: »Ok so my stats are 5’4” female 75kg aiming for 65kg. Pretty fit cardio wise but very little upper body strength. Lower body better but not great. I’m off work for another month so my week looks like this atm mon - 10km uphill hike then yoga and HIIT using weights, tues - 10-15km hike uphill then this class, weds 10km flat walk, rpm, core and self- defence, thurs trx then horse riding, Friday boxing then 15km uphill hike. This is all around general farm work. Sat is generally a 20km hike and Sunday is a complete rest day. I’m on 1200/day and log accurately. I’m wanting to increase fitness now and am conditioning myself for comps next year.
That seems like a lot on only 1200 calories...1200 calories is an aggressive weight loss target and assumes a sedentary lifestyle...you're not sedentary. If you want to increase your fitness, you have to give it fuel.5 -
Yeah I eat back 50-75% of my calories 50 if I’m not hungry and 75 if I am.0
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I just adjusted my goals to say I’m very active and get 1530 per day. That makes me happier3
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Burning calories is hard work. Most people don't realize how much effort you have to put in to burn even a moderate number of calories. It's generally far easier for weight control purposes to watch what you eat.
Here's a useful page for giving you an idea of calories involved in certain activities: https://choosemyplate.gov/physical-activity-calories-burn3
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