Happy Friday FitFeat friends!  This is one Friday that I am VERY happy to see arrive.  It’s been a crazy week.

So yesterday I promised I’d be back today with a FitFEATure to tell you why your cardio equipment may be telling you little white lies.  If you are currently keeping track of calories burned and calories consumed in order to lose some bodyfat, those little white lies could be throwing a monkey wrench into your weight loss plans.

treadmill

Everyone burns calories at a different rate.  There are a lot of factors involved, like weight, age, level of conditioning, oxygen consumption, etc.   That being said, it can be averaged and most cardio equipment I’ve ever been on has GROSSLY overestimated my calorie burn, even when it was the kind that let me enter my weight. 

Let’s use my nice new NordicTrack treadmill as an example.  I know that as a female on the small end of average build I burn approximately 80 calories per mile (approximately 8-10 calories per minute when running a 10-min mile).  At the end of my 30 minutes of exercise on the treadmill yesterday (which included intervals of fast walking, jogging, and all-out running) the treadmill told me that I had burned 462 calories.  My heart rate monitor, on the other hand, said I had burned 221 calories.  Being a “seasoned” calorie-counter from years of personal training and from ”dieting down” to prep for figure shows, trust me when I tell you that I KNOW that I did not burn 462 calories in that 30 minutes. 

Now let’s say I’d been counting that 462 calories toward the 3500 calories one would need need to burn in order to lose one pound in of bodyfat in a week.  (We’ll keep food out of the equation for the sake of keeping this example related to exercise.)  I would mistakenly think, “Wow, I’ve burned almost 500 calories.  I only need to do 30 minutes a day to meet the 3500 calorie mark!”  Unfortunately, I would be working out only HALF as much as I need to in order to meet my goal.  Which means my goal weight is going to take TWICE as long to reach.  Which would lead to frustration and disappointment.

feet on scale

Ladies, if you are of average female build, you can figure 80-100 calories per mile (whether you run it or walk it.)  If you run 3 miles in 24 minutes, you burn about 240 to 300 calories (but probably more on the high end.)  If you walk 3 miles in 60 minutes, you burn about 240 to 300 calories (but probably more on the low end.)  Don’t let that treadmill tell you lies and make you think you’re burning twice the calories you really are. 

Gentlemen, you can figure about 120 to 140 per mile for average build.

When I go out for a hilly and strenuous hike, even if I’m out for 3 hours, I still figure the numbers based on miles covered.  If I went 7 miles, chances are half of those miles were tough uphill (and higher calorie burn) but the other half were coming downhill (with less calorie burn) so I’d still only count 560 calories for that day’s exercise.

A safe bet is to use a heart rate monitor that lets you enter your personal info such as gender, age and weight.   And if you don’t have one, here are a few links to help you figure what your activity burn may be based on weight.  Play with a few of them to get an idea of your average, keeping in mind that these are still coming in at the higher end of the ranges. 

If you feel like you’ve been working hard but not making the progress you should be, maybe the readout on the cardio machine is to blame!  Make this adjustment to your calories burned to see if you also need to bring down the numbers of calories consumed.

Have a FIT and FANTASTIC Friday!

– Shari B.  =)

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If someone you know is embarking on their own weight-loss journey, please feel free to send them my way. I offer fitness consulting by phone nationwide.  Visit my Coaching/Training and About Shari pages for more info.