Heart Rate And Calories Burned Questions

R

Rmbxr9

New member
Hey everyone. Over the last year or so I've kind of been slacking on the exercise, and eating, so I've gained about 15 lbs.
Male, 6'0, 210 lbs currently. 29 YO

I've always been curious about whether or not the machines are accurate with the calories burned. You also go on 3 different websites, put in the same parameters and get 3 different numbers. Sometimes the numbers are drastically different, like one will say 650 burned, the other 930 burned.

Anyway, I assume that a constant heart-rate monitor is your best bet, correct? So, I bought this little contraption that you strap around below your pecs and it's sent to a "Watch" piece.

I'm just curious if that's the best way, and whether or not these numbers are correct?
For instance, I did 70 minutes of cardio on the treadmill and eliptical and got an average of 151 BPM.
So, I feed that in, and it come up with 935 calories burnt. Does that seem high/low/correct?

I've been struggling to get the 10-15 lbs back off for about 4-6 weeks now, so I'm getting hard-core with the math. I know that it's not an exact science, but I want to know exactly what I'm putting out a day so I can consume accordingly. Thanks
 
A n y o n e ?
 
70 minutes cardio at 151 bpm shouldn't be anywhere near 900 cals. I do about an hour at around 150 bpm, and consistently get results of about 300 kcal burned, which seems a lot more realistic.
 
I wouldn't really worry about exact heart rate measures and such. If you're training at an intensity where you aren't able to hold a conversation with someone while training, you should be golden.

Also, 900 calories burned is way too high for that amount of time. Between 300 and 400 calories burned would probably a good guess.
 
heart rate is not the ideal measurement to estimate calories but it does indicate which energy system of the body is powering your activity (Aerobic/Anaerobic). You can have a high heart rate but still not be outputting much energy. I would suggest looking up the MET value of your exercise or calculating from Watts.

https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories Activity compendium

METS to Kcal/min = multiply METS x 3.5 x body weight in kg then divide by 200

A lot of your modern exercise machines calculate calories burned using either METs or Watts

http://lamb.cc/calories-burned-calculator/ calculator based of MET values
 
The Heretic said:
Also, 900 calories burned is way too high for that amount of time. Between 300 and 400 calories burned would probably a good guess.
Click to expand...

Really?
If I go to the gym, put in age/weight and do the elliptical for an hour on a 10/20 resistance and 3/4 incline it'll say something like 900 calories. Like 15 calories per minute.

It might be high, but I think an hour of pretty vigorous cardio would be more than 300-400 calories for a 210lb person
 
If I use a site like calories per hour, and up in walking at 3mph for an hour, it says 300+ burned.
And that's just like a leisurely stroll.
 
Rmbxr9 said:
If I use a site like calories per hour, and up in walking at 3mph for an hour, it says 300+ burned.
And that's just like a leisurely stroll.
Click to expand...

That's also way too high. Walking for an hour at 3mph doesn't burn anything near 300 calories.
I know these websites. Most of them greatly exaggerate how many calories can be burned with various activities.

The sad fact of the matter is that burning calories is hard. Much harder than not consuming them in the first place. I learned that the hard way.
 
Rmbxr9 said:
Really?
If I go to the gym, put in age/weight and do the elliptical for an hour on a 10/20 resistance and 3/4 incline it'll say something like 900 calories. Like 15 calories per minute.

It might be high, but I think an hour of pretty vigorous cardio would be more than 300-400 calories for a 210lb person
Click to expand...

The machines are not accurate in the slightest. I'm roughly around 320 lbs right now, and I slot an hour of vigurous cardio at about 300 kcal maximum.
 
It is all academic because our bodies know exactly how many calories we have burnt and offsets it against our food taking account of our exact weight without any opportunity for mathematical error on our behalf...

Keep working hard and trust that you will get the reward in time...

The place to worry most about calories is in the weighing and measuring of the calories that we eat and drink... It is very easy to make mistakes there...

If you believe that you are eating at a low but healthy calorie level and confused as to why you see no reduction in weight - the most likely area to focus on is on the calories eaten. Very few people accurately weight everything... People use average sizes, scoops and other estimating techniques and thus calculate a calorie level that they are confident in.

I strongly recommend that you check this thread and watch the link in the first posting.
http://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/16780-Easiest-Fat-Loss-Tip-Ever
 
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I'm not saying you all are wrong but when I go to multiple calorie counting sites I'm getting diff amounts.

Like I can do 4.5 miles/hour if I'm walking pretty briskly, for an hour.
And all the sites are saying at least 500 there.

I don't know, that was the whole point of the HRM, to try to see what I was doing.
I put in 160 bmp for an hour at my stats and got that 900 or whatever.
I guess there's just no real way to tell.

But when your trying to do some math with in and out, it matters you know?
 
Rmbxr9 said:
I'm not saying you all are wrong but when I go to multiple calorie counting sites I'm getting diff amounts.

Like I can do 4.5 miles/hour if I'm walking pretty briskly, for an hour.
And all the sites are saying at least 500 there.

I don't know, that was the whole point of the HRM, to try to see what I was doing.
I put in 160 bmp for an hour at my stats and got that 900 or whatever.
I guess there's just no real way to tell.

But when your trying to do some math with in and out, it matters you know?
Click to expand...

The whole counting calories thing was really frustrating for me when I started my weight loss project. In the beginning I tried to measure everything as accurately as possible, but I gave up on that rather quickly.

Our bodies may all function in the same way, but they're not identical. An educated guess is all we can make in our everyday lives. This whole weight loss thing is very much dependent on trial and error, I've found.
 
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