Tracking calories burned... the best way-MFP? Elliptical??

Trying to figure out the best way to track my calories burned from exercise. I’ve been using My Fitness Pal but noticed the other day it was drastically different from the stats that were on the elliptical! So I’ve been trusting the elliptical more-since those numbers are much lower and seem more realistic. But I do want some accuracy bc I also do circuit training sometimes, and I’ve been relying on MFP’s #.   I’ve considered a pedometer, like “Fit Bit" maybe. I know that a lot of you use it, and it has positive reviews. But I’ve always read that pedometers are not always good measurers for general exercise, and are not accurate when wearing heels. Now before the chorus chimes in with the snarky “who wears heels to exercise?"…let me explain. I don’t wear heels of course when I’m at the gym. However, because I do take walks at work because my job is very sedentary…I usually do it in my heels because it’s easier and quicker than changing into sneakers. So if invest in a pedometer, I’d like to have some measure of accuracy.   Any suggestions?

Heart rate monitor.  The kind with a strap that goes around your chest.  Garmin and Polar are the 2 most popular brands.

I can tell you from experience that MFP's calorie burns are way too high.  Even the machines at the gym tend to be higher than my monitor.

Thanks....does the heart rate monitor measure calories burned?

Yes, it does.  It will take your personal info (height, weight, sex, age) and calculate calories based on that.  And a lot of the gym machines sync to the monitor, so the machine shows your true heart rate without having to grip the handles.

I take the accuracy of all of these devices with a grain of salt, as they all depend upon some assumptions to derive a caloric number, and those assumptions may not be as good for us in our obese+ and rapidly changing weight/metabolism as they are for the general population (sorry,, that's the engineer and finance guy in me - always poking at where the numbers come from!). There is also the temptation to associate or offset calories consumed with those burned which can lead to the dangers of "gee, I burned 500 extra calories today, I should celebrate with a...."

Might I suggest not worrying too much about how accurate the caloric numbers are for these different machines, and think in terms of them being "exercise credits" or something of the like, and then tracking how well you did week to week - I did 500 more credits this week than last week, or I did 500 more steps today than yesterday. If you are doing enough exercise consistently, your body will tell you if you need to add a few more average calories or carbs to your diet, and if you are tracking things consistently then you can check the results of any changes that you make.

As a side note, when I did the occasional mental calculations on such things, I generally cut those reported exercise calories in half to make them more credible to me - I couldn't quite buy that my weight training workouts were burning 1200 calories. The numbers seemed a little more realistic, but more importantly, they still reflected how things were changing and progressing over time - amount of exercise and intensity may have increased, but offsetting that was the somewhat lower burn rate that comes with declining weight.

YMMV, but have fun with it all and enjoy the ride.

I am declaring myself formally a fan of you and all your wise, balanced and clever posts. Not to mention well written.

I don't have any sort of device to measure, but I would say definitely don't use MFP for that.  I track everything on there and the number is wayyyyyyy high.  So I don't even look at the number; just use the software to keep track of my progress.

And even my treadmill and elliptical can only give a "best guess."  I think there are just too many factors that go into the equation.  And I hate math!!

So if you really want to know the numbers, I'm guessing you might want to talk to a personal trainer or somebody who can help you get close.  Just a thought ....

I'd say as long as you use a method and are consistent with it you'll be fine.

MFP may be (probably is) too high.  Although I use LiveStrong and I have checked the numbers that seemed too high against other sources and they matched.

However... the important thing is (as someone said above) track a relative level of effort and be consistent over time.  You may not be burning 1200 calories, but can call it "Exer-Units" or something and track the effort.  Over time you'll see how many "Exer-Units" it takes to achieve a result.

I also agree that a Heart Rate monitor is a very good investment.  Calories burned is a guess, but getting an aerobic workout can be reduced to a science with a monitor, and that may be worth more than specific calorie burns.  In fact it's very difficult to measure true progress in fitness without using a monitor.  

In general what I've found is that my Polar Monitor gives me about 75-80% of the calories burned that LiveStrong does (which knows nothing about heart rate, etc) and the monitor gives me about 10-20% more credit than my iPhone's GPS biking/walking app does.  So it's probably a great compromise between the total guesswork from devices that monitor no bodily functions.

But after all that - any exercise is good.  

And I'm a "numbers-driven" guy so I like to see my progress measured in concrete, numerical terms - if you're like that, a monitor is definitely worth the investment. Monitoring my numbers if very motivational to me.  But I'm weird.

Tom

 

 

Tom,
Can I say that I think I have a crush on you?  I LOVE the way your mind works!