How do you calculate calories Burned

abcjonesy

How do you work out calories burned. I have a basic HRM which gives you an average Heart Rate / Max Heart Rate and stopwatch.

So say I worked out for 20mins with an average HR 166 bpm (Max 185)
I'm 90 kg
6ft 1"
30 Year old mail.

Is there a standard/common formula which anyone uses?

Khannie

I use online calculators for whatever activity I'm doing.

TommyKnocker

Hi There

There is no "one size fits all" formula for working out the number of caloires burn in 20 minutes of any given form of exercise.

The exercise performed, your weight, you fitness level, you skill level at the particular sport will all count towards the number of calories burned.

Also the best you will get is a guesstimate. It will be very hard to get a totally accurate figure.

If you Google fro "Caroirs burned during exercise" you will find a number of sites which give an idea of the number of caloires burned during different activities.

This is a link to one such site http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist4.htm

IMHO the number of calories burned during exercise is of no real use to you, other then maybe for motivation.

A better figure to work out is your daily calorie requirements. With this figure you can then work out the number of calories required to

• Maintain your current weight
• Gain (lean) weight (200-500 calories more then maintenence)
• Lose (fat) weight (200-500 calories under maintenance)

To work out this figure you can use either

• The Harris Benedict Formula

• See http://www-users.med.cornell.edu/~spon/picu/calc/beecalc.htm

• The Katch McCardle Formula (You need to know your BF% for this)
  • See http://www.bodybuildbid.com/articles/weightloss/calorie-calculator.html

Hope this helps some.


Best Regards,

M

EileenG

Short answer: you can't. Not unless you are willing to workout inside an atmosphere controlled lab at least.

The cardio machines in gyms give you funny numbers (the machines with the highest calorie burn get the most use, get replaced most often, so now they all show you burning hundreds every time you go for a stroll). In any case, two people of the same age and weight could burn totally different calories in the same exercise, depending on body composition and fitness level.

As a rule of thumb, I reckon that any exercise that gets your heart rate up to about 70% or less of max burns about 300 cals an hour. If you average over 85% of max, then you burn about 600 cals an hour. You have to be going absolutely flat out, high intensity to get near 1000 cals an hour.

The best way to know your calorie requirement is to spend a couple of weeks tracking every single thing which goes into your mouth. If you weight doesn't change, you are eating at maintenance. Average it out and you have your maintenance calories, exactly tailored to your lifestyle and workouts.