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I decided to take a more deliberate approach to reducing my body fat. I already have a solid nutrition and exercise routine, minus the exact calorie count in and out. The most objective way IMO is simply to determine the best estimate of calories expended, and set my calories consumed to ~500 below that.
To estimate my calories expended I need to add my BMR plus calories burned during exercise. Using multiple calculators my BMR averages around 1850. The challenge for me is determining calories burned during exercise.
Every workout session involves 30 minutes on a stationary bike followed by ~hour of resistance training. (I do it this way for a very particular reason). The bike was telling me I was burning roughly 250 in 30 minutes. To determine burn during resistance training I used a HRM and belt. I simply plugged in the duration and average heart rate into an online calculator and it returned estimated calorie burn (very short rest periods, so average HR of ~142).
Just out of curiosity I decided to wear the HRM while riding the bike to compare the results. Again bike stated 250, but with an average heart rate of 157 for 30 minutes at age 41, 195 lbs., and height of 5'8", the estimate via the online calculator was 500. That's double what the bike stated!
I've always read that exercise machines over-estimate calorie burn, but in this sample it is quite the opposite. I tend to believe the estimates acquired using HR data. Short of getting professionally tested, is this the best method?
I just see so much about calories being burned doing certain things and all these newfangled watches and HRMs and $100 bracelets and I just have to wonder, will I find myself a year from now reading that they're all bogus and worthless!
I myself just plan to figure out an estimate of calories burned while doing the activities I do. I go on the elliptical for 30 minutes, from all the research I've done, I've got a guesstimate of about 250 calories burned. Fine, works for me. I work from home and walk around my house a lot, so I'll times my BMR by about 1.25 to figure out how many calories I can eat. Done.
I just saved myself $150 on a bracelet that claims to give accurate information on my heart rate and calorie burn.
I use MyFitnessPal to track calories and exercise, but before putting in my exercise I consult 3-4 different counters to verify potential calorie burn. They are all usually within 50 calories of each other, so I just err on the side of caution, pick the lowest one and put that in MyFitnessPal.
I use MyFitnessPal to track calories and exercise, but before putting in my exercise I consult 3-4 different counters to verify potential calorie burn. They are all usually within 50 calories of each other, so I just err on the side of caution, pick the lowest one and put that in MyFitnessPal.
I use a polar heart rate monitor and the calories burned are usually less than what the machines display. So that's what I use to accurately track my calories.
At least part of the disparity (I think) is that you're double-counting your BMR for the time spent exercising. So if you're using HR data/calc for 1.5 hours, you need to divide your BMR by 24 and multiply by 22.5, then layer in the calories for your exercise period (calced by HR, I guess). See where that comes out and adjust manually from there. Being off 50-100 cals probably isn't going to make much difference on a daiy basis so long as your net intake is under your total calorie usage - it's only going to slow your weight loss by a little bit.
Several years ago when I decided to lose some excess weight I had the same problem. There were many ways to calculate calories burned during exercise. In addition, I read that the calories in food only needed to be accurate to +/- 30%! Think about it. How are you going to calculate intake and expenditure to a fine degree with a possible 30% error?
It appears to me that they are all estimates. My suggestion is to be consistent. Use one method to calculate calories burned. Log your food similarly. So what if you find that for you a pound of fat burned appears to be 4810 calories? Or 2590? Establish your own baseline and make your own custom adjustments to your program.
I use neither. Do Use a polar M400(outstanding for HR recording) and find the caloric burn rate to be excessive. I doubt I am burning 1000+calories in 1hr of extreme spinning or high bpm routines at the cardio boot camp.
Never viewed machines as accurate as personalization for an individual's conditioning is not possible.
After a few years of data logging with MyFitnesspal have gauged what daily routine exhaustion rate is to dietary intake.
I just see so much about calories being burned doing certain things and all these newfangled watches and HRMs and $100 bracelets and I just have to wonder, will I find myself a year from now reading that they're all bogus and worthless!
Its already pretty well known that these devices are not very accurate re' "calories burned."
Don in Austin
Quote:
Originally Posted by aneye4detail
I myself just plan to figure out an estimate of calories burned while doing the activities I do. I go on the elliptical for 30 minutes, from all the research I've done, I've got a guesstimate of about 250 calories burned. Fine, works for me. I work from home and walk around my house a lot, so I'll times my BMR by about 1.25 to figure out how many calories I can eat. Done.
I just saved myself $150 on a bracelet that claims to give accurate information on my heart rate and calorie burn.
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