Interesting article about running shoes:
Shoe doping?
HI all - just jumping into this thread and was wondering if anyone has had particular success with a calorie-counting ap or similar product?
@collegefan101 , welcome! My Fitness Pal is a popular one. Some people log religiously, others do it periodically to get a sense of where they are or to get back on track.
Saw these interesting greek yogurt substitutions yesterday for those of us who like to cook/bake:
1 c. oil = 3/4 c. greek yogurt (cut fat by 99% and increase protein by 100%)
1 c. butter = 1/4 c. greek yogurt + 1/2 c. butter (decrease fat by 50% and increase protein by 235%)
1 c. cream cheese = 1 c. greek yogurt ( cut fat by 99%, increase protein by 60%)
Dancing around in my office! Our corporate team finally has our “ringer”! Bruno, age 45, just started work here in IT and ran a 1:25 half marathon on Saturday for 3rd in his age group! He’s qualified for Boston and is going! I paid him a visit and he’s a really nice guy. He’s only been running for a couple of years. I sent all the info to my company president who is trying to revitalize our corporate team so he can go meet Bruno! He just wrote back to me and said “Fantastic!” Now I know what my true role is here at the company!
I just can’t eat yogurt. The texture makes me gag and I don’t like the taste. My family has tried to do blind taste tests with me with frozen yogurt and I can always pick it out over regular ice cream. I may have to try the substitutions mentioned above and see if I can taste it. My texture aversion won’t allow me to eat cooked oatmeal either. 
That’s great, MOWC! When you do these races, can you put down some bets? You’d clean up with this guy!
MOWC - good point about the repetitive motion on the treadmill. I vary my pace and sometimes the incline, but it is still much more repetitive than natural running outside where I am constantly varying my path in slight ways to avoid sticks on the trail, miss a puddle, avoid a crack in the pavement, etc. Congrats on the new recruit to your corporate running team! He sounds like a great addition to the team, especially if he’s a really nice guy!
CBBBlinker - so sorry that your H has to go through this again. That must have been so frustrating the first time to be told he had to repeat the procedure. You seem very patient about dealing with his diet options for the next many days. I don’t envy you!
NorthMinnesota - I am definitely with you on the texture aversion to cooked oatmeal. Totally makes me gag (although I haven’t tried it in at least 35 years…). I do like yogurt, though. Chobani Key Lime greek yogurt is like having dessert for breakfast! I know it’s not the healthiest choice and has more sugar than other options, but it sure is good!
The corporate challenge series has some rules which I haven’t quite figured out. It depends on how many are on your roster for the particular race which division you are in, and then how people place in their age groups. We haven’t been known as the fastest team in town… It’s a fun thing and the company pays our entry fees for these races, which is nice.
@collegefan101- The past few weeks I have gotten back to using My Fitness Pal. I used it for about two months last year and did well on it, and I can’t remember why I stopped. I find it pretty easy to use, except for the fact that I’m sometimes shocked by how fast I made it to x calories!
I need to go to the gym tonight for some cross training. I like to have a plan before I go, but it’s been kind of crowded lately so I will probably need to just see what is open and go from there.
MyFitnessPal is one of the best programs out there for tracking food, nutrition and calories but don’t rely on it for determining calorie burn from exercise. When it comes to calorie burn from exercise, it is at best an estimate and can be wildly off the mark, particularly with cardio exercise. I have field compared its calorie burn for cycling against actual measured kilojoules and have found that MFP can be anywhere from 25-50% high. This can amount to hundreds of calories depending on the duration and intensity of the exercise. MFP redeems itself, however, in calculating total caloric needs based on your assessment of your activity level using the options it offers. You may need to make some adjustments and dial it in based on trial and error over a couple of weeks but it will put you right in the ballpark. If you log your weight changes, it also does a good job of adjusting your calories as your weight is adjusted.
Thanks for the great info, MichaelNKat. I have pretty much stopped even looking at calories burned on things, just since I heard a long time ago how off they can be on some gym equipment. I do like hearing about MFP doing a good job in calculating the total caloric needs!
I think I’ve finally hit the time in my life where I’m going to really need to be aware of what I’m eating and really taking care of myself. I don’t own a scale, and I don’t really want to, but I am seeing that I really will need to keep track of my weight a bit more than I have been. I have been looking at the Aria scale from Fitbit. I have a Fitbit Charge 2 or whatever that I wear, so that would be nice to have the info and have it sync with that app. I also see that it helps you look at long term trends, which I think will be good for me to start taking note of. Does anyone have this scale or know about it?
I think this counts as “wellness”. Just had my first mammogram 2 weeks ago, and the results came back great today. I didn’t realize how much the unknown had weighed on me till I got the results.
Next is the colonoscopy. 
What efficiency does your body convert stored energy into work?
I could easily see 25% inefficiency or more, a lot of the energy is converted into wasted heat.
The typical well conditioned cyclist operates at about 24% efficiency which is why kilojoules works so well as an equivalency for calories. So in my field testing, I use my Garmin 820 with a PowerTap hub to measure the number of kilojoules produced with a + or - 2% accuracy which is as close to an equivalency to actual calories burned as you can get. In addition, the Garmin, in an entirely separate process, calculates calories burned based on heart rate using First Beat’s algorithym which is one of the best if not the best heart rate based calorie calculation system currently available. The results of the two independent calculations are extremely close giving credibility to the kilojoules based approach. When compared to the MFP estimate of calories, the MFP is usually much higher higher for the same ride. MFP is calculated calories while the Garmin is based on a measured metric.
The garmin stuff really interesting, I have an old garmin 500 and a newer 910 (theoretically using latest first beat alog) and no way is the 910 right, I also have strava (no power meter though) and strava=garmin 500=old polarf60. Garmin 910 about doubles calories burned (complete BS). the 910 and the 500 used the same metrics in on garmin connect. Strava doesn’t use HR at all. SO 910 gives me 1400 cals for today’s ride. Strava = 700 or so.
I know from the jiggle factor which one is wishful thinking. In reality, there isn’t any reliable calorie out measurement that is better than a scale used over time.
@Sybylla, I have heard that before about the 910 (which uses 2nd generation First Beat). Do you use a chest strap with it or just the wrist hr scanner? I don’t put great faith in the wrist scanners and all the literature I’ve seen as well as my own experience comparing my Apple Watch Series 2 with a chest strap when doing indoor cycling is that the chest strap is more accurate, consistent and reliable. Your experience with your older 500 (which uses a chest strap and the 1st generation First Beat) compared to your 910 would seem to bear this out (and it is noteworthy that your Polar F60 uses a strap too).
With regard to Strava, it’s support forum is replete with reports about its inaccuracies in calorie estimations and Strava itself acknowledges it’s limitations. When cycling, Strava relies on your body weight and the weight of your bike, clothing and other gear to calculate estimated power and then applies a 26% efficiency factor which is higher than the 24% estimates seen elsewhere. Strava also states that its accuracy in calculating calories when cycling improves when an actual power meter is used to supply that data. (When running, Strava relies on body weight and elevation to calculate power which is converted to calories.) Strava states that it does not use hr at all to calculate calories.
Using a scale to measure the efficacy of your calorie burn is itself fraught with vagaries. What if you are losing fat but gaining lean muscle tissue so that your net loss of weight doesn’t correlate well with caloric burn during exercise? Loss of weight shouldn’t be viewed in a vacuum. You should take into consideration changes in body composition.
At the end of the day, I’ll return to a couple of points I raised before. I think using the number of calories burned during exercise as a metric in determining the number of calories to consume during the day is risky because most of the time you don’t know with enough accuracy how many calories you have burned and therefore have a meaningful risk of overeating. If you are going to rely on calories burned, measured power is far more accurate and reliable than heart rate in determining your caloric burn. Even that being said, I don’t use calories burned when cycling as much more than as another metric used to compare the relative intensity of my efforts during my training rides from ride to ride. Far more significant to me is my measured power, heart rate at a given power output and average speed.
My Garmin 235 wrist HR is really accurate. I think the technology took a big jump forward with that watch. I’m happy with it.
I like Strava for the challenges and since I run many of the same routes repeatedly, it shows me how I’m progressing (or not) over time. Obviously I prefer to see “trending faster”! I don’t pay any attention to the “calories burned” for all the reasons Michael has mentioned.
Easy 6.5 this morning - thought it was warmer than it actually was and was a little chilly at the beginning. I had planned on going to a Pilates class tonight but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I haven’t been sleeping well and think taking the rest of the day off from exercise might be a good idea.
3 1/2 this morning. I didn’t feel great. Legs are tired and so am I. This might be it for the day since I have a basketball game tonight but I really wanted more mileage.
Michael - have you measured the calorie difference between Garmin ONLY and Garmin Plus Power Hub?