Getting very paranoid.

With the activity browser....

Ok, I don't have the money for a heart rate monitor which I know would be a great asset at this point to help with the paranoia...but anyway...

I also don't have a membership to a gym because of lack of money (no job, no money.) So I resort to workout videos.

However, you really never know what to categorize them as on the activity browser. For instance a lot of the time I do the "30 Day Shred" video or the "Biggest Loser :Cardio Max" dvd and I just log them as GENERAL aerobics..but at times I think I'm just making my burn number larger then it really is. Which scares me because I could be over eating thinking that I'm burning that much as the burn meter is telling me. What if I put my workouts in the wrong category? Maybe I'm not working hard enough to have that number? etc.

So lately even if it tells me I burned say 1900 calories for the day, I will deliberately lower the number by at least 100 and then do my deficit that way. I'm afraid that if I really did burn that much then I'm only setting myself up for starvation. It's all just really confusing.

For those who have to do the videos what do you usually log it as? Do you think the burn meter has been pretty accurate as far as your weight loss goes?

Thank you!

My mum bought herself a little minibike to use in front of the TV for a half hour to an hour an evening when she's wanted to do a little workout, but not fancied venturing to the gym (particularly in this crap weather!). As it's fairly basic, it only registers the calories it THINKS you'd be using, based on resistance levels and pedalling speed. But Mum was scratching her head as to what she was really burning. She didn't want to end up burning too much and then eating too little in turn, but didn't want the opposite either - to eat too much thinking she'd burnt more than she had.

To do her a favour, I briefly changed my stats on here to hers, looked up "Bicycling" and picked "General". It was only out by 20 calories less than what the bike screen told her.

So I'd personally say, 100 taken as discrepancy calories burnt might be a BIT much, but I reckon it'd be fairly accurate on the "general" setting.

Thanks Lala...So are you suggesting I move from general to low impact aerobics?

I'm a workout video girl too. I do a few different ones, some are just cardio and some are cardio and strength training. I log them all as "General Aerobics". One if them makes me sweat like whoa but the other not so much. I know I work harder on one than the other. I figure if I just go with General it should balance it out for now...Until I can get a heart rate monitor anyway.

Thanks Rachel! I wish the videos just had "You will burn ___ calories during this workout." But, of course that would never be accurate considering we all are at different weights and heights. Haha. It's just so confusing. But, all the feedback is appreciated. :)

Thought I'd share this too...

Next paycheck, I'm getting this:

http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HJ-720ITC-Pedomet er-Advanced-Management/dp/B000MN92WM/ref=pd_b bs_9?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1233944018& ;sr=8-9

The price is right and the reviews are great! Plus free shipping.

Oh wow! That's so cheap and a great find! I could hug ya a million times right now. Lmao. I favorited it. Thanks so much! :)

No problem!! I'm excited about it too! I'm sure I did a little *yippee!* dance when I found it.

Further down that page also was this just a slight bit more expensive, but maybe even better for you since it is heart rate and not steps.....

I got a heart rate monitor for xmas and love it to pieces, I actually found that I burned more than I thought, so it really got me on track now!

So they're not all hugely expensive and at least you would get the general idea of what you have to log and get some peace of mind (which is great)

Ooooh...good find as well! Thank you! :)

I have a similar HRM to Soliwit and just wanted to mention I think the formula it uses to calculate calories burned is high, below is an excerpt of my journal post on Nov. 9 where I tested it with running, I think the CC activity log was more accurate than the HRM for running.  It was similar for workout videos, I was doing aerobics with weights, when I log mine I usually list it as "calisthenics" using the CC activity log.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this?  anyway just thought my informal test results might provide more info on the timex HRM. I am a geek.

Today I ran 6 miles wearing both my heart rate monitor and Garmin Forerunner.  I don't think I will want to wear both all the time because it is too many clunky gadgets strapped on my wrist.  The stats I got were very different; I ran 6 miles at 11 minute mile pace without stopping to rest.  The Garmin Forerunner said that I burned 579 calories.  The HRM said that I burned 1000 calories!  The CC activity log says that I burned 575 calories. 

I think the HRM is accurate in reading my heart rate but the formula it uses for calculating calories is too high.  I am more inclined to believe the Garmin since both Garmin and CC are coming up with similar numbers.  For the Garmin and HRM, I entered my weight and it uses that to track calories burned.

Well thanks Amelia, I actually realised this very morning it was counting kinda high, I did a bodypump class and it said I burned 739 cals, on average it says on the bodypump forum that people burn somewhere between 450 and 600 for an hour bodypump, so indeed it got me thinking it counts too much. I never would log that amount anyway, since I do this mathematicle formula where I subtract my daily burn for the day off anyway, but I think I have to subtract even a bit more to get a more acurate result. So probably I will log it as 600...Anyhoo, I still think a HRM really does help to have a more acurate count and peace of mind.

[edit: seeing your numbers it makes me think that the timex is about 40% off?, hmm that's no fun......LOL]