Questions about calorie burn

[dianeddl]

I am so confused about calories in v. out with my workouts at the gym

I am doing weight training for approx 45 mins each time I work out with weights.  I am doing the same workout for the most part. when i manually add weights it will give different calorie burn by up to 100 cal difference.  How do I figure out the calories burned when adding my weight training workouts?

It really is very confusing over all

[Dominique · Accepted solution]

What do you mean by "manually add weights"? Do you mean your record the exercise "Weights" on your Fitbit? Regarding the 100 calories difference: difference compared to what, and in what direction?

If your Fitbit supports the "Weights" exercise type (e.g. Ionic, Charge 2), either you trust it will give you a more accurate energy expenditure for your weight training session (and you record your session as "Weights"), or you don’t, in which case you can either do nothing (and let your Fitbit figure things out), or record it as another type of exercise (e.g. "Workout", "Circuit training" etc.). 

[dianeddl]

Thanks for responding!

If I understand correctly, I manually log weight training on the activities log as fitbit doesn't know i am lifting weights.  It seems to pick up the eliptical but I manually add the weight training.  One day it said I burned 194 calories and other time it said I burned 297 calories for basically the same workout (that is what I was referring to for the 100 cal. difference.  

Another question you may be able to answer is when I am looking at the in v out and it says I am under, what am I under in??  I can't tell if I should be under or over?? 

I am asking these questions because I have been working out 4-5 days per week with cardio and wt. training and I have not lost a single pound in 2 months!!  So I must be doing something wrong. (even though my deficit each week is over 5000) I thought for every 3500 deficit means you lose one pound.

Any insight is greatly appreciated

Diane

[dianeddl]

PS, Forget to say I have the charge 2

[WavyDavey]

As @Dominique mentioned, the Charge 2 supports Weights mode right on the tracker. It will give much better results to utilize that rather than manually adding it to the activity log.

If you don't have Weights loaded on the Charge 2, you may need to add it.

Take a look at this article, and also the link within it to customize the exercises.

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1935

Also, it's not uncommon when tracking activities to have a difference in calories burned, due to the different levels of exertion from day-to-day even within similar workouts. My weights workouts vary between 100-200 calories each.

[emili]

@dianeddl so let me try with the calories since Dave and Dominique addressed the weights. You are probably more than likely eating to your out and not under for your daily calories. If you were really under, the scale would move. If you were over you would be gaining. If you told your fitbit your current weight and your desired weight, it is calculating your calories for you with a deficit in mind that you should have selected. So when it says you are over- in that moment in time you have eaten more than you expended and if it says under it means you have room to eat- in that moment. It changes based on your activity level. Keep in mind that what is showing as your out- is not completely accurate, it is a really good estimate. Just like whatever food you are logging, unless you are measuring every single thing, it is all estimates. For me, it was easier to make manual adjustments in my food than to have my tracker do it. If in a week I lost, I knew I found the right numbers and replicated them. If I didn't, I knew my estimates were too high for out and too low for in so I made adjustments- until I saw a loss. You may also want to consider that although you are not losing fat, you may be doing enough to change your appearance to a leaner frame. You may consider taking your measurements to see if there is a change in composition.

[dianeddl]

Thank you so much. This is helpful.

Sent from my iPhone