Calorie Burn Question

Tourney3p0
Tourney3p0 Posts: 290 Member
edited November 12 in Health and Weight Loss
Alright guys, weird question I was thinking about earlier..

Let's say your BMR is 2400, just as a nice round number. That means that doing "nothing", you will burn 100 calories an hour on average.

Now let's say you work on cardio for an hour and burn 800 calories according to a nice quality HRM. However, you would be burning 100 calories had you instead laid in bed and done nothing.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to put in 700 for your "burned calories"? It sounds strange at first, but you're not really burning 800 calories that you wouldn't have otherwise burned. You're only burning 700 calories *extra*, yet it adds 800 to your allotment which includes full BMR numbers.

Thoughts?

Replies

  • No idea, but I do think about it when doing slow yoga. Lol
  • Blacklance36
    Blacklance36 Posts: 755 Member
    Hmmm, I see your point and agree with your math. I wonder if the quality HRM already factors that 100 calories in?
    Why not put the 700 in just to make sure the calorie burn is not overstated?
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    This question comes up pretty regularly - and it's a valid point.
    I agree with the concept, but I can't be bothered playing around with the numbers more than I need to - they're all estimates anyway, so I don't think it would make that much difference.
    But, that's for me - try it and see how it works out for you!
  • Tourney3p0
    Tourney3p0 Posts: 290 Member
    Why not put the 700 in just to make sure the calorie burn is not overstated?

    I think that's the method I'm going to go with. It's just too bad I'll have to do the BMR calculation outside of the website each time I enter my calories.
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