Frustrated - How do you calculate the calories you doing exercise

So how do you calculate the calories you burn?  Do you use The Daily Plate activity calc or do you base it on a calculation based on time and heart rate?  You are doing really well so I am just wondering if you track this.

I'm frustrated that I am not losing more.  I am busting my butt working out 6 days a week, doing high intensity circuit training for 35 minutes 2x a week, doing interval sprinting 3x a week for 35 minutes each, I do step aerobics 2x a week for 55 minutes and in all these activities my heart rate is in either the anaerobic zone or my max zone (between 150 and 177) so my intensity is very high.  I also do Hatha yoga 2-3x a week for an hour and either a Pilates Reformer class or a Body Pump class (circuit weight lifting, but lighter weights) for an additional day of resistance training and those are not as intense my HR is much lower.  I usually eat about 900-1000 calories a day and I get 90-110 grams of protein and plenty of water.   BUT there is usually one or 2 days a week when I go out and drink wine and splurge a tiny bit consuming @ 1600 or 1700.   I know this isn't great but it helps me to feel like I am not on a diet and that I can live like this the rest of my life as long as I work out enough to burn those extra calories.

TDP says to lose 2lbs a week given my RMR using the sedentary activity level I should not consume over 1052 calories a day, so that is 7,364 calories a week.  Now I usually shave 150-300 calories off of the TDP calculations for what I burn doing my workouts because I think they might be high.  But, even doing that, I burn at least 2,500 calories a week in exercise easy.  So for the past 7 days I consumed a total of 8,200 calories, less what a burned (2,500 min.) = Net 5,700 calories/this week.  But I still did not lose 2lbs.  I have had 3 weeks like this, where I only lose like a pound and a half.  I just don't get it.  Any ideas?

I am going to have my insulin resistance tested; do you have any opinions on that and using a drug treatment if you are somewhat resistant?

The Daily Plate's calculations are whack, IMO. They claim I can maintain my current weight with no exercise at around 1650 calorie a day. That would put my RMR at around 1400. Plus, I've eaten like that before, while weighing more, and going mountain biking 2-4x a week and I gained.

My Fitness Pal does a much better job. It says 1,151 for BMR, which is probably right. But I'm not going to trust it. When I get down to my final weight, I'm getting my RMR tested again.

For the exercises, I find all the estimates all over the place. My Nike + says one thing, the machines at the gym say another and MFP and TDP each say something else.

I finally broke down and got a HRM. I found out that the machines at the gym were over-estimating my bike calories and under-estimating my run calories. I haven't had the nerve to wear it swimming yet.

P.S. I read somewhere that people who keep their calories low during the week and splurge over the weekend, lose slower than people who don't. I'm still trying to get some outside verification of this, though.

So do you trust the calculations using your heart rate?

I just read a bunch of articles and it seems that to get anything really accurate you need to know your lean muscle mass %  (and of course getting an accurate measure of that is difficult) and also perhaps your V02 max.  Regardless, my calorie consumption averages out to no more and usually less than 1200 a day.  On top of that I exercise 1-2 hours a day, 6x a week and usually 1 hour is in my anaerobic to max zones (i wear a Polar HRM), I am pushing it hard.  Every calculator says I burn 400 + min a day so it just doesn't make sense to me that I am not losing more.

I guess you can look at me as a case to prove that weekend splurges slow weight loss.  It sucks because I want to live life normally and be able to eat a few more calories (within reason – and it is within reason) a few days a week as long as I workout hard and my nutrition is generally very good.

I've read the HRM is about 90% accurate. That seems good enough to me. It's got to be better than some formula designed for "average" people because it's measuring my real HR and not just guessing. My real HR is lower than average for most exercise and higher than average for running.

When I read that about the weekend indulgences, my first though was "oh, puleaze. That's ridiculous" but then I thought of you. So now I'm going to look into it. The person who said it specifically mentioned alcohol too.

I did find that drinking caused me to eat more, which I had heard but didn't believe. I wrote about this on my blog.

It was at a work event and I was completely full on cheese and even hurting a bit in the chest area, but I took a couple of sips of the Cosmo and it's like all the food emptied out of my stomach. I thought I'd have to nurse that drink over the course of an hour because of how full I was and, the next thing I knew, I was eating more cheese and a chocolate covered strawberry and a mini fruit tart that I hadn't intended to eat. The fruit tart wasn't even that good! I went back to put that food into my online diary and figured out that I'd consumed 600+ calories in about 1.5 hours!

I was in complete shock, but it was a good lesson. I am NOT going to do that again for a while.

I got a heart monitor and I use that. I find the Daily Plate numbers way too low when it comes to exercise. I enter my current weight ect and it is still way off from the heart monitor. I walk and run with a double stroller and they make that out to be a leisurely stroll burning minimal calories.
I say go by your heart. Each of us exercise differently although we may all weight the same. I think their calculations are too cookie cutter.
Best of luck you have a very busy workout plan. I hate to say but maybe a bit more calories to support all your activity.
Keep on trucking!!

Yeah I'm working out a lot because I'm unemployed and I have no kids so right now I have the time and I also need it to keep my spirits up.  I probably won't have this much time to work out once I get a job (unless I am super committed and get up early and work out late) so I'm taking advantage of it while I can.

I do body weight times .7 per mile.    At 200 lbs you would burn 140 calories per mile.  This makes sence to me because if you run really fast you are not out there as long but your intensity is high.  If you are slower, you are out there longer but your not as intense.   I heard this from a nurse who supposedly knew what she was talking about but who knows.  I believe it.