Zumba calories burned MFP estimation

rima933
rima933 Posts: 151 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello 👋,

I just started working out from home doing the Zumba Burn it up series on YouTube. I don't have a hrm and I have been using the mfp numbers for calories burned.

MFP says that I burn 685 calories in 45 minutes. I am 5'6 and 232 pounds, f. My question for all of those who have a hrm and did Zumba is what is your average calories burned while doing Zumba? Does the mfp calculation seem close?

I had mfp set to lose 1.5 pounds a week and I was eating back all of my exercise calories. That was 1455 cals plus about 615 per 40 minutes Zumba calories burned.

I just changed it to lose 2 pounds per week and I will be eating back all of my exercise calories. This brings me to 1200 calories plus about 615 zumba calories burned per 30 minutes. Which number makes more sense?

Thank you for your input! I could use all of the help I could get because I did this for 3 months about 2 years ago and lost and gained the same 5 pounds and then gave up. The difference this time is adding exercise and eliminating cheat days.

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,419 Member
    edited January 2023
    The only way you'll know if the numbers work is to work the numbers.

    So.

    Log that number or don't - BUT pick a number to use and use it consistently for 4-6 weeks. At the end, make your adjustments.

    I used 500 calories per hour when I did Zumba from home.

    At your weight, probably either of your above examples will result in weight loss so it's just a matter of you picking one and sticking to it long enough to establish a trend (4-6 weeks.)

    Two pounds/1.5 pounds. Meh. Six of one, half dozen of the other until you do the logging and data collection. The one example has you at 2070 total calories, the other example has you at 1815 calories, but none of your three examples are the same number of minutes...so it's not really a fair comparison.

    The difference between the two is 255 calories (2070-1815=255.) I figure I make 100-200 calories in errors every day, so just pick one and log it and see how you do. No numbers are perfect, we all have to adjust as we learn.
  • rima933
    rima933 Posts: 151 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    The only way you'll know if the numbers work is to work the numbers.

    So.

    Log that number or don't - BUT pick a number to use and use it consistently for 4-6 weeks. At the end, make your adjustments.

    I used 500 calories per hour when I did Zumba from home.

    At your weight, probably either of your above examples will result in weight loss so it's just a matter of you picking one and sticking to it long enough to establish a trend (4-6 weeks.)

    Two pounds/1.5 pounds. Meh. Six of one, half dozen of the other until you do the logging and data collection. The one example has you at 2070 total calories, the other example has you at 1815 calories, but none of your three examples are the same number of minutes...so it's not really a fair comparison.

    The difference between the two is 255 calories (2070-1815=255.) I figure I make 100-200 calories in errors every day, so just pick one and log it and see how you do. No numbers are perfect, we all have to adjust as we learn.

    Thank you for your insight. I appreciate it.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,419 Member
    Oh, and p.s. I was using a Polar HRM when I was doing Zumba...that's where I got the 500 calories per hour. I was at about 185-200 pounds at the time.

    No idea if that was right or not, but I was continuing to lose weight.

    I am of the belief that consistent exercise and logging food and weighing myself on a scale were the three legs of the stool. They were all important but being exact was not so important...it was consistently trying to do the next right thing over an extended period of time.

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