How many calories to burn in one cardio session.

Archeron

Hi all,
Just wondering, if a person is trying to lost weight, and become fitter through regular cardio exercise, (primarily cross trainer) what number of calories would be a good amount to burn off in one session?

Currently, I am burning off (according to the display) between 250 and 300 per 30/35 minute session. Is this a good figure, or should I be aiming higher? I currently do about 5-6 sessions like this a week with some weights as well.

One thing I've found odd is the variation is calories burned per machine. When I used gym machines, they would oft tell me I'd burned 400-500 in a 40 minute session, also on a cross trainer, whereas at home its only half that. Is there a reason for that?

Thanks

rubadub

Those calorie calculators are guides, they are not taking into account age, sex, weight, height etc. i.e. a 20stone man running 1 mile uses up far more calories than a 10stone man doing the same. There are some online calculators that do take into account weight etc and give general guides to what you are burning.

As for how much you are doing, I am not sure. People will want to know your sex, age, weight etc, how long you have been training.

Archeron

thanks rubadub, forgot to include that.

I'm 29 year old male, 20.5 stone (I'm a BIG robot). Have been doing this for a while now, but seeing little effect. I was using the 250 calories as a guide, but I wonder if I should increase this and aim for 350/400 perhaps? I want to lost at least 5/6 stone as quickly, but safely as I can.

I've got some good advice on another thread about changes to diet, so I'm hoping that this advice with a good continuous cardio routine will show some results.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Transform

Yes you should be doing more cardio and hitting about 700-1000calories in an hour

What is your speed when you are walking (burns most calories)?

Archeron

Transform wrote:

Yes you should be doing more cardio and hitting about 700-1000calories in an hour


What is your speed when you are walking (burns most calories)?

Well, to be honest, I focus pretty much all my attention on the cross trainer, as this is the machine that got me best results before. I couldnt say off hand what speed I do on this, but if memory serves. about 21kmph. that could be totally wrong in fairness, so I'll have a look at the readout again tonight. I usually just focus on the calorie count.

rubadub

I would keep up the weights too, big time, they helped me lose lots of fat. Do heavy weights to build and maintain your muscle. Since you are overweight you may have more muscle than most simply from lugging around the extra weight. If you go on a calorie controlled diet you will loose muscle as well as fat. If you are overweight you can build muscle while on a calorie deficit, i.e. most slim body builders need to eat more to build muscle, I have read lots about it and if you are overweight you can build on a low calorie intake.

If you do weights properly for 1 hr it will burn about 500kcal, but in the other days your body will use about 250-300kcal per day building new muscle (like why skinny teenage boys need more calories per day than a grown man). So working out 3 times a week will burn about 1500kcal in the gym PLUS 250-300kcal per day building muscle, so up to 3500kcal per week, which is 1lb of fat loss, and maybe 1/4lb+ of muscle gain. For this reason you should not just keep an eye on your weight, measure yourself and find out your body fat %. At the moment I am loosing fat and building muscle at the same rate, my weight is the same but I am getting thinner.

For every 1lb of muscle you put on you need 35kcal extra to maintain it each day, i.e. your basal metabolism will increase. So if you put on 10lb you can eat 350kcal extra each day.

Also when you do loose the weight you do not want to look like a scrawny beanpole!

t-ha

Archeron wrote:

Hi all,
Just wondering, if a person is trying to lost weight, and become fitter through regular cardio exercise, (primarily cross trainer) what number of calories would be a good amount to burn off in one session?

Currently, I am burning off (according to the display) between 250 and 300 per 30/35 minute session. Is this a good figure, or should I be aiming higher? I currently do about 5-6 sessions like this a week with some weights as well.

One thing I've found odd is the variation is calories burned per machine. When I used gym machines, they would oft tell me I'd burned 400-500 in a 40 minute session, also on a cross trainer, whereas at home its only half that. Is there a reason for that?

Thanks

Hi Archeron,

If you are trying to lose weight via the Low Intensity (LIT) cardio route, which I presume you are from the numbers you posted, the most important parameter to keep an eye on is the intensity with which you are training. You are aiming for 65% of your maximum aerobic exercise intensity. This correlates fairly well with your heart rate, so you could get a heart rate monitor and keep increasing your cardio difficulty (level, speed, whatever) until you are at 125 beats per minute or thereabouts (should be about right for a 29 year old). That is the intensity you want to maintain. If you want to burn more calories, do it for longer or add in additional cardio sessions.

I would agree that some weight training is essential to long-term dieting success. I won't go through all things weight training related as there is alot of information on this around the board already - but I would say to keep your weight training sessions under an hour in length, & intense with short rest periods (60s max) between sets.