correlation between burn meter and eat meter? HELP!

i've been looking around for the answer and haven't found so i thought i'd just ask.

so my daily goal in calorie intake is 1200 based on a light activity lifestyle and my specs. my burn meter... i don't know what it was before i added to it today, but i biked for an hour, and vacuumed, etc, and now my total estimate of what i will burn today is 2150. so i'm wondering: did the biking and vacuuming, etc, already count in my "light activity" lifestyle and should not have recorded them? and, furthermore, should i or should i not be adding the amount of calories i've burned from these things, (let's estimate 500 calories) to my daily eating goal of 1200, if i am aiming to lose weight.

basically should i be aiming to eat 1200 today? or closer to like.. 1700?

I would consider house cleaning, etc as light activity and would not count it towards your exercise since you stated in your "profile" that you do light activity. I would however include your bike riding in your acitivity because it is a little extra something.

should i or should i not be adding the amount of calories i've burned from biking then, to my daily eating goal of 1200, if i am aiming to lose weight.

basically should i be aiming to eat 1200 today? or more from the biking.

Ok lets say you biked for an hour at moderate effort, that is somewhere around 767 calories you burned. Add that to your activites and look at the small number on top (should be around 2500 - 3200 depending. Now what you want to do is use that small number (the Burn Meter estimate) and eat 500 - 800 calories less by the end of the night.

So yes, you probably will eat more than your food log says to eat.

The first time I used this, I didn't get it either. I thought I was supposed to burn that many calories by the end of the day, so I kept doing things to try and catch up, everytime I entered an activity, the estimate would go up! I couldn't catch up, until someone explained how it worked. I had a great laugh at my own expense and promptly fell asleep. I think I burned somewhere near 8000 calories that first day, I was exhausted! LOL

okay yes, i understand now, that makes sense. thanks! however - how do you figure moderate effort biking is about 700 calories? every time i look it up it's around 400. :(

also, a big LOL to your story about confusing the burn meter, ahaha, i don't even want to KNOW what you did to burn 8000 calories, i don't even think i'm capable of that!

Do you know how fast you were going? If you click on the 'click to update' under the Burn Meter number it will bring you over to your activity log. Once there type in biking in the box next to search. That will bring you to a list of biking activities. If you know how fast you were averaging and how long you rode, that will help. But if not, my rule of thumb is if you don't sweat or barely sweat, I consider it 'light'; if you worked up a good sweat, but can still breath regularly, that is moderate; if you feel like your going to die when you pull into your driveway, that is vigorous.

I walk every other day and after the first few days, I mapquested my walk to see how far I got in one hour. Turns out I am walking 3.5 MPH and doing it for an hour, that is moderate (sweat some, but I don't get so sore that I can't do it again in 2 days!)

Good Luck, and if there is anything else, just let me know.

Leslie

nah i don't know how fast i was going. i did one of those "map my ride" things before and it told my my average speed was about 11.9km/hr, which, according to this site is light effort i believe. but the thing is i usually feel like i am putting quite an effort in. today when i got back i was sweating a little bit, and definitely on my way to out of breath (and i'm not unhealthy or too old - 19 years old, 5'4" and 130lbs) so i don't know, maybe the mapmyride site had it wrong? or maybe the fact that my legs are so short means that i have to put in a lot more effort to go faster? i don't know, but i wonder how many calories i actually am burning. :S

thanks for your replies!

Set it at whichever you honestly feel you are doing. After all, the only person you may/may not be cheating is yourself. Also, if you haven't done this ride  in a while (or anything like it) you probably are putting in moderate effort. If you find you aren't sweating or almost out of breath when you get home after a few more rides like this one, enter it under light effort (or you can always kick the ride up a notch too!)

Does that make sense? I hope so, I don't know how else to explain this except that you will quickly get the hang of this. I did, and you see what a goof I can be! :)

yes! makes sense. that's very true. thanks so much! you have been very helpful.