Calorie accuracy
Iragen
Posts: 61 Member
This is geared mainly towards anybody also using "Map My Run" but I'll still take insight from anybody.
I finished a workout in Map My Run and the app synced to MFP and said I burned basically 700ish calories.
I did a small 6 minute warm up on the treadmill at a speed of 5. MMR says thats 100 calories
I did about 30 minutes of weight lifting (shoulders and legs). 12 sets of 8-12 reps squats and seated military press and then supersets of front and lateral raises and leg curls and hamstring extensions MMR says thats 255 calories
Then I did interval training/HIIT on the treadmill for about 15minutes. MMR says thats 350
The FAQs section says it factors in my calories of just being alive for the time of working out, but I don't fully understand. Should I shave off 50% of all their numbers they give me?
I finished a workout in Map My Run and the app synced to MFP and said I burned basically 700ish calories.
I did a small 6 minute warm up on the treadmill at a speed of 5. MMR says thats 100 calories
I did about 30 minutes of weight lifting (shoulders and legs). 12 sets of 8-12 reps squats and seated military press and then supersets of front and lateral raises and leg curls and hamstring extensions MMR says thats 255 calories
Then I did interval training/HIIT on the treadmill for about 15minutes. MMR says thats 350
The FAQs section says it factors in my calories of just being alive for the time of working out, but I don't fully understand. Should I shave off 50% of all their numbers they give me?
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Replies
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Your body burns calories even if you are in a coma. So what MMR is saying (I think-I’m not sure what “factors in” means to them) is that it is including those calories in the total that it gives you.
So MMR is giving you the total number of calories you burned, not just the calories you burned by doing the workout. Meaning-it says you burned 700 calories total. Let’s say you would have burned 100 if you’d been in a coma. You burned 600 extra calories doing the workout.
However, all the map my _____ (run/walk/ride/hike/etc) apps tend to give wildly high calorie burn numbers. So cutting the numbers in half would probably be a good place to start (maybe still a little high).
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I did a small 6 minute warm up on the treadmill at a speed of 5. MMR says thats 100 calories.
That's very, very high for a "warm up"..
I did about 30 minutes of weight lifting (shoulders and legs). 12 sets of 8-12 reps squats and seated military press and then supersets of front and lateral raises and leg curls and hamstring extensions MMR says thats 255 calories.
Probably high.
Then I did interval training/HIIT on the treadmill for about 15minutes. MMR says thats 350
That's ridiculously high. HIIT / Interval training is a relatively low burn due to the low intensity intervals.
The FAQs section says it factors in my calories of just being alive for the time of working out, but I don't fully understand. Should I shave off 50% of all their numbers they give me?
The difference between net and gross is the amount of calories you would have burned in that time slot if you weren't exercising - not a percentage.
e.g. if you sat on the sofa for that time period it would be an hour of your RMR. Say for example my 24hr RMR is 2400 calories and the difference would be c. 100 cals.
But your estimates look pretty high to crazy high so you might inadventantly have stumbled on a more reasonable number by halving it. Personally with those numbers I would be looking for a different method to estimate my exercise.2 -
Of course, no one is asking him his height and weight - which could be 6'6" 320 for all we know, in which case...1
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Sorry y'all
I'm 6ft even
252lbs
Endomorph body type and current focus for the next 6 months is calorie/ fat burn.
Most of my workouts are 8-12 reps with 40 second rest time in between sets.
I try to finish every exercise day with a 15- 20min HIIT session on the treadmill. 20-45 seconds sprinting at a speed of 8, 9 and 10 and about 1 minute of catching my breath and walking at a speed of 2 or 3.0 -
I did a small 6 minute warm up on the treadmill at a speed of 5. MMR says thats 100 calories.
That's very, very high for a "warm up"..
I did about 30 minutes of weight lifting (shoulders and legs). 12 sets of 8-12 reps squats and seated military press and then supersets of front and lateral raises and leg curls and hamstring extensions MMR says thats 255 calories.
Probably high.
Then I did interval training/HIIT on the treadmill for about 15minutes. MMR says thats 350
That's ridiculously high. HIIT / Interval training is a relatively low burn due to the low intensity intervals.
The FAQs section says it factors in my calories of just being alive for the time of working out, but I don't fully understand. Should I shave off 50% of all their numbers they give me?
The difference between net and gross is the amount of calories you would have burned in that time slot if you weren't exercising - not a percentage.
e.g. if you sat on the sofa for that time period it would be an hour of your RMR. Say for example my 24hr RMR is 2400 calories and the difference would be c. 100 cals.
But your estimates look pretty high to crazy high so you might inadventantly have stumbled on a more reasonable number by halving it. Personally with those numbers I would be looking for a different method to estimate my exercise.
I appreciate your breakdown hear. My calorie budget is at about 2100 calories but I'm trying to burn the difference instead of eating a deficit per one of my old coaches. I wish the day was 700 calories, because lord knows I was drenched in sweat and sore.1 -
Duck_Puddle wrote: »Your body burns calories even if you are in a coma. So what MMR is saying (I think-I’m not sure what “factors in” means to them) is that it is including those calories in the total that it gives you.
So MMR is giving you the total number of calories you burned, not just the calories you burned by doing the workout. Meaning-it says you burned 700 calories total. Let’s say you would have burned 100 if you’d been in a coma. You burned 600 extra calories doing the workout.
However, all the map my _____ (run/walk/ride/hike/etc) apps tend to give wildly high calorie burn numbers. So cutting the numbers in half would probably be a good place to start (maybe still a little high).
Appreciate your explanation as well. I'll assume with every thing I did for an hours worth of work (not including rest time and moving from machine to machine) I probably burned about 400 calories.0 -
No one in this forum seems to distinguish between net and gross calorie burn. If your device says you have burned 400 calories during an hour of time, aprox 80 of those would have been achieved sitting on you *kitten*. these 80 calories have already been accounted for in your activity selection in MFP.0
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Duck_Puddle wrote: »Your body burns calories even if you are in a coma. So what MMR is saying (I think-I’m not sure what “factors in” means to them) is that it is including those calories in the total that it gives you.
So MMR is giving you the total number of calories you burned, not just the calories you burned by doing the workout. Meaning-it says you burned 700 calories total. Let’s say you would have burned 100 if you’d been in a coma. You burned 600 extra calories doing the workout.
However, all the map my _____ (run/walk/ride/hike/etc) apps tend to give wildly high calorie burn numbers. So cutting the numbers in half would probably be a good place to start (maybe still a little high).
Appreciate your explanation as well. I'll assume with every thing I did for an hours worth of work (not including rest time and moving from machine to machine) I probably burned about 400 calories.
That is still probably an incredibly generous number.
Walking and running calories can be estimated pretty well with weight x miles x .63 for running or .3 for walking. Pace doesn’t matter.
So at your weight, you’re burning about 158 calories per mile for running and 75 per mile for walking. These numbers are for just what you burn by doing the activity. What you would burn if your were in a coma has been subtracted.
So if your warmup is at 5 mph and you’re running, you’re burning about 75 calories. If it’s 5 kmph, you’re burning about 20 calories.
Your HIIT (based on your description) at best is burning about 40 calories for the portion you run and another 40 for the portion you walk. That’s using 10 for the sprints and 3 for the walks. So you’re likely burning a bit less.
HIIT is not a big calorie burning activity. The majority of the time is spent recovering and only small portions are spent doing high intensity work. It is exhausting and you will feel like you are working yourself very hard (which you are). But it doesn’t burn a lot of calories.
So between the warmup and the HIIT, you’re at about 150 calories. I wouldn’t estimate more than that for your weight lifting portion either.
300 maybe more appropriate.
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Duck_Puddle wrote: »Duck_Puddle wrote: »Your body burns calories even if you are in a coma. So what MMR is saying (I think-I’m not sure what “factors in” means to them) is that it is including those calories in the total that it gives you.
So MMR is giving you the total number of calories you burned, not just the calories you burned by doing the workout. Meaning-it says you burned 700 calories total. Let’s say you would have burned 100 if you’d been in a coma. You burned 600 extra calories doing the workout.
However, all the map my _____ (run/walk/ride/hike/etc) apps tend to give wildly high calorie burn numbers. So cutting the numbers in half would probably be a good place to start (maybe still a little high).
Appreciate your explanation as well. I'll assume with every thing I did for an hours worth of work (not including rest time and moving from machine to machine) I probably burned about 400 calories.
That is still probably an incredibly generous number.
Walking and running calories can be estimated pretty well with weight x miles x .63 for running or .3 for walking. Pace doesn’t matter.
So at your weight, you’re burning about 158 calories per mile for running and 75 per mile for walking. These numbers are for just what you burn by doing the activity. What you would burn if your were in a coma has been subtracted.
So if your warmup is at 5 mph and you’re running, you’re burning about 75 calories. If it’s 5 kmph, you’re burning about 20 calories.
Your HIIT (based on your description) at best is burning about 40 calories for the portion you run and another 40 for the portion you walk. That’s using 10 for the sprints and 3 for the walks. So you’re likely burning a bit less.
HIIT is not a big calorie burning activity. The majority of the time is spent recovering and only small portions are spent doing high intensity work. It is exhausting and you will feel like you are working yourself very hard (which you are). But it doesn’t burn a lot of calories.
So between the warmup and the HIIT, you’re at about 150 calories. I wouldn’t estimate more than that for your weight lifting portion either.
300 maybe more appropriate.
Sorry it took me a while to check back, but thank you. This is very informative. Especially since I always remember old trainers telling me stuff like "exercise science is now saying the length of exercise isn't completely necessary if the intensity is up" so i try to apply that to my cardio.
Some days I'll jog for an hour, but most days I try to cram a LOT of sprinting into 15 or 20 minutes making sure my heart rate is staying at about 170-180bpm to keep me in a fat burning range.
I really thought HIIT training was a powerful way to burn calories, but am I doing it wrong or missing something to crank the calorie burn?1 -
Duck_Puddle wrote: »Duck_Puddle wrote: »Your body burns calories even if you are in a coma. So what MMR is saying (I think-I’m not sure what “factors in” means to them) is that it is including those calories in the total that it gives you.
So MMR is giving you the total number of calories you burned, not just the calories you burned by doing the workout. Meaning-it says you burned 700 calories total. Let’s say you would have burned 100 if you’d been in a coma. You burned 600 extra calories doing the workout.
However, all the map my _____ (run/walk/ride/hike/etc) apps tend to give wildly high calorie burn numbers. So cutting the numbers in half would probably be a good place to start (maybe still a little high).
Appreciate your explanation as well. I'll assume with every thing I did for an hours worth of work (not including rest time and moving from machine to machine) I probably burned about 400 calories.
That is still probably an incredibly generous number.
Walking and running calories can be estimated pretty well with weight x miles x .63 for running or .3 for walking. Pace doesn’t matter.
So at your weight, you’re burning about 158 calories per mile for running and 75 per mile for walking. These numbers are for just what you burn by doing the activity. What you would burn if your were in a coma has been subtracted.
So if your warmup is at 5 mph and you’re running, you’re burning about 75 calories. If it’s 5 kmph, you’re burning about 20 calories.
Your HIIT (based on your description) at best is burning about 40 calories for the portion you run and another 40 for the portion you walk. That’s using 10 for the sprints and 3 for the walks. So you’re likely burning a bit less.
HIIT is not a big calorie burning activity. The majority of the time is spent recovering and only small portions are spent doing high intensity work. It is exhausting and you will feel like you are working yourself very hard (which you are). But it doesn’t burn a lot of calories.
So between the warmup and the HIIT, you’re at about 150 calories. I wouldn’t estimate more than that for your weight lifting portion either.
300 maybe more appropriate.
Sorry it took me a while to check back, but thank you. This is very informative. Especially since I always remember old trainers telling me stuff like "exercise science is now saying the length of exercise isn't completely necessary if the intensity is up" so i try to apply that to my cardio.
Some days I'll jog for an hour, but most days I try to cram a LOT of sprinting into 15 or 20 minutes making sure my heart rate is staying at about 170-180bpm to keep me in a fat burning range.
I really thought HIIT training was a powerful way to burn calories, but am I doing it wrong or missing something to crank the calorie burn?
Calorie burn is a function of “work” (in the high school physics sort of way) performed. Working at a greater intensity (moving more mass with more force/velocity/etc) burns more calories.
If one could continuously work at maximum output for an extended period of time, that would burn the most calories.
However-that’s not how it works. We have an extremely limited capacity to perform at max output. This is why HIIT is so exhausting. You’re working at max output-but only for brief periods.
The majority of the time of a HIIT session is spent recovering (low intensity “work” like walking or even just plain resting and not moving at all). So the majority of the time you’re doing a HIIT session is burning the same number of calories as going for a walk or sitting on the couch.
You FEEL very different because you’re doing that low low intensity work to recover from a short burst of maximum effort. But how you feel isn’t a good measurement of how many calories you’re burning.
HIIT is a very specific training protocol that has lots of training benefits. Burning calories is not one of them.
You’re not doing anything wrong - except in believing that HIIT is a massive calorie burner (which isn’t your fault-it’s purported by bro-science disciples to be a huge calorie burner-but it really isn’t).2 -
"Especially since I always remember old trainers telling me stuff like "exercise science is now saying the length of exercise isn't completely necessary if the intensity is up" so i try to apply that to my cardio.
That may be true (to a degree) as regards fitness but not for calorie burns, intervals can be a more time efficient way to get fitness improvements (in some circumstances).
Some days I'll jog for an hour, but most days I try to cram a LOT of sprinting into 15 or 20 minutes making sure my heart rate is staying at about 170-180bpm to keep me in a fat burning range.
The higher pace just means you are burning quicker but for a far shorter duration, it doesn't mean you are burning more in total. You can cover a far longer distance running at a conservative pace for a longer duration.
BTW - a high heart rate isn't in "the fat burning range". The slower the pace the higher proportion of fat is being used to fuel your exercise. The faster you run the higher proportion of your fuel is coming from carbs. But for fat loss what fuel you burn during exercise isn't relevant - you will replace it at your next meal anyway. It's your long term calorie deficit that results in loss of bodyfat, not your speed/intensity of exercise or what mix of fuels you are burning while exercising.
I really thought HIIT training was a powerful way to burn calories, but am I doing it wrong or missing something to crank the calorie burn?
Nope, nope, nope. That just fake news!
Some of that fake news is due to people not understanding the calorie estimating limitations of heart rate monitors - the elevated HR during the low calorie burning recovery intervals fools the HRM (or the user) into thinking they are burning more calories than reality.
If you really want to burn a lot of calories than moderate paced but long duration cardio is the way to go. But please do remember that exercise is for health, fitness and even enjoyment so your choice of exercise needs to align with that. And the kicker is that when we eat back exercise calories as this site intends you to do your exercise is neutral as regards your calorie balance and fat loss.
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