Question about logging calories

S

seniormuscle

0
I have a question that probably requires someone with real knowledge on the subject. But here goes.

I have a SportLine Watch that tracks calories, among other things. I also take beta blockers, which slows down the heart and during exercise I can seldom get it very high.

Now I track my exercise calories in my CalorieKing software on my Palm Pilot. Take for example the Gazelle. A light workout at my current weight uses 7 calories per minute. That would be about 70 calories in ten minutes.

But my watch says I used 42 during that same ten minutes.

So should I log the 42 that the watch gives me or the 70 that has been calculated for my weight and a light workout? I want to log it right or it won't do me any good.

I would appreciate any advice if anyone knows the answer to this.

Thank you in advance. :hurray:
 
I'm no expert but I had always heard that having your weight and how intense the workout was calculated in would always be more accurate. I'm not looking at the two forms of measurement though to know. Hopefully somebody else will have a more exact answer.
 
One thing to be aware of is whether the calculation is "total calories burned" or "calories burned in excess of normal."

For example, my BMR is about 1300 calories, or 54 calories an hour. Normal activities (presumably spread over 16 waking hours) is another 600, or 38 an hour. So in an average waking hour, I'd burn 92 calories without exercise.

If I spend that hour walking 3 miles, I might burn 192 calories. Except that 92 of those calories, I'd have burned anyhow, so I really only get "credit" for the extra 100 calories. Does that make sense?

I can tell you that when I weighed 150, and did what I would have considered to be a light workout, FitDay gave me about 4 calories a minute for it. And my deficit per FitDay's calculations matched pretty well with my deficit per long-term scale movement. So I'd be inclined to think that 7 calories a minute included more than calories burned over and above normal activity.

In the end, though, it doesn't matter which you use, because all of this is estimate and approximation. If you're losing faster than you think you ought, you're probably calculating conservatively. If you're losing slower, you're probably being too liberal.
 
That makes sense. During the last month I've lost pretty much nothing. I did, however, lose one inch on my hips. I eat about 1200 calories per day. I never go over 1350 with or without exercise. I lost at a pretty good clip the first four weeks or so and then slowed down. I've lost about 9 pounds since May 9.
 
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