adabeie Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Quick two-part question related to exercise around life during the W30: I went through an initial enthusiasm with tracking apps like Strava and whatnot, I used to track all my runs, all my rides, etc. And at some point I got disenchanted with the notion of a quantified life and got rid of all my apps, didn't track anything, and it was really nice. A friend challenged me on Map My Fitness the other day so I thought, what the heck, I'll get the app just for this since competition plays zero factor in why I like riding, running, etc. You seem like you can't get away from calorie counts on these apps, which to me seems to veer really close, in principle, to getting on the scale. I get that many people on the W30 are probably a lot more scientific about it than I am, but I like the 'ballparking' principles of the meal plans and proportions, and if I learn what satiates me then I really, really don't care about calories in/out. (Especially since, as many of the mods have pointed out, health and exercise has a lot more to do with finer details rather than total calories.) And while I say I don't really pay attention, sometimes the counts on the apps mystify me: this morning I rode 44km in around 2 hours, with about 20km being a very nice, easy going recovery pace ride which was with a friend, and the 10km to and from the meetup point about twice the pace, not breathless but perspiring and working at, maybe 80% of what I think my capacity probably is. This app thinks I burned over 1,000 calories in that time. No way, right? I ask the more experienced athletes out there if, in your experience, this aspect of tracking apps is even marginally correct, and, do you consider calorie tracking to be of the same sort of practice that weighing oneself is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmcbn Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I'll give you my short answer:myfitnesspal does not think that strength training burns any calories. I don't track food, weight, macros or activities.I trust myself to fuel effectively for what I do by reading my body's signals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adabeie Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 I'll give you my short answer: myfitnesspal does not think that strength training burns any calories. I don't track food, weight, macros or activities. I trust myself to fuel effectively for what I do by reading my body's signals. I'm poking through the settings now to see if I can disable certain metrics.. I'd just rather not know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmary Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 myfitnesspal does not think that strength training burns any calories. hahahaha. That is hilarious! OP, I doubt it? 1,000 calorie is a lot. That said, they give you total calories burned in that timeframe, so considering you would have burned a good amount of calories just sitting around for 2 hours, maybe it is correct. That that said, the total amount of calories burned doesn't matter at all, really. It does not mean you should eat 1,000 more calories of food. On the other hand, it does not mean that if you don't eat you automatically lost a bit under a third of a pound of body weight. The body doesn't work that way. I've used map my run recently to track pace and distance. I was able to ignore the calories part. There may be a way to customize the display so you don't see it at all If you can, I would recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted July 10, 2015 Moderators Share Posted July 10, 2015 Devices and apps report crude calculations that are routinely out of touch with reality. They offer entertainment value, not meaningful information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baltomom86 Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 That app is probably right. 2 hours of biking burns tons of energy. Even if it wasn't super rigorous, you worked out for a really long time. Thst being said... don't worry about it. Just eat your food and you'll be fine (and probably really lean to boot). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirkor Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 On MyFitnessPal, for those that "eat back" exercise calories, a lot of people figure on only half what the app says. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheena812 Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I feel that apps like Strava are only useful for measuring distance traveled. My son uses it when trying for a bike race. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenX Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Yeah, I use Runtastic to trace my run metrics (distance, pace, elevation etc) but never trust the calorie count. If I really need to get an approximation of caloric burn I wear a heart rate monitor. Runtastic is commonly off by 15-20% (saying I burned more). Moot point while I'm on Whole 30 - and while I'm laid up with an injury. No tracking going on here right now at all! . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdallas05 Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 I trust myself to fuel effectively for what I do by reading my body's signals. I can't wait til I get to this point. I feel like I eat a lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adabeie Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 Successfully got the calorie counts off the reported data so the app cycles through avg. pace, current pace, duration, and overall distance. The only metrics I really care about. That plus elevation tracking below the figures paints a pretty full picture for me. It's taken me this long to sort out the different between hunger and cravings. I never really differentiated before, or rather, they seemed so alike and I didn't pay the difference any mind before the W30. I'm on day 29! So stoked! And I'm looking forward to the soy reintroduction since a friend from Japan is into fermentation of all sorts and she passed me a jar of two year aged miso paste that she's been selling at local farmer's markets. Can't wait to try it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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