Running calorie burn

ladykaisa

Last night I ran 4.7 miles (speeds between 4.0 jogging on incline and 7.0 flat our run level) for 1:13:44 and my HR monitor (Polar FT4) said I burned 750 calories, including the time I left it running during a few off treadmill times.

Now, I haven't run in a while, and it's been a bit since I did straight cardio, but with the steady pace and a HR between 157-171 (minus the flat out run part, I reached much higher there) for 60 minutes, I felt this was accurate. My HR monitor isn't fritzing, it's battery is still good, there was no communication interference between the sensor and the watch portion, so I had no reason to doubt this. With past history of both this HR monitor and the built in ones on machines, this burn seemed normal for the intensity I was putting out.

I'm now hearing people say that for an hour worth of running, 300-400 calories is more accurate for anyone, no matter what a HR monitor or MFP says (given, I don't use the MFP estimated burns).The equation of 0.75 x body weight in lbs = calorie burn was also thrown out.

My question is, should I be trusting my HR monitor or is there a more accurate formula runners use to estimate their caloric burn?

Edit: Total time running was 60 minutes total at a range of speeds. I left the HR monitor on during off treadmill times, mainly because I forgot to pause it =/ So 12-13 min/mile? Does that sound right?

wilsoje74

750 seems high, being that you were running pretty slow (about 13-15 min miles right?) on average I burn 100-120 per mile so is guess around 400-500 cals.

ladykaisa

The thing that was confusing me about everything was the incline I was running on for the slower portions. If I was flat, I'd have no problem with throwing this number out and having a lower number.

Do you notice if that incline changes your 100-120 per mile? What, if any, HR monitor do you use?

brianpperkins

http://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator

Using my weight and your pace/distance came out to 622 calories burned.

ladykaisa

Ah! Thank you

Polarpaly05

The only problem with those calculators is that they are only made for flat running. They do not take any incline into account.

wilsoje74

I run outside, so not sure of my inclines.

wilsoje74

What is your weight/ height?

Polarpaly05

http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/running-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

See what you get with this

CourtneyTGC

Rule of thumb is usually around 100 calories per mile. But it'll vary based on your level of fitness amongst other things. One thing you can do to ensure accuracy is run a lactic threshold run test and find out your unique heart rate zones. You HRM is defaulted to 220-age which is highly inaccurate.

This link will teach you how to preform an LT run test: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=633
Then input your max HR average into here for your custom zones: http://www.digifit.com/heartratezones/training-zones.asp?MaxHR=188&Age=25&RHR=54

Then go into your HRM watch and change your heart rate zones or max, which ever it offers.

This should provide you with the most accurate burn data other than paying to have the test done in a lab with the computers doing the data work.

ladykaisa

The only problem with those calculators is that they are only made for flat running. They do not take any incline into account.

Hm, true. I may spend a few weeks playing around with the runnersworld one and my HR monitor and see what kind of difference I'm looking at after I get back into the swing of running. There may be a happy medium I can use to estimate the advantage of an incline, if any. I can always just count anything an incline may have burned as extra.

EDIT: Thank you for that link that accounts for treadmill incline!

ladykaisa

CourtneyTG - thank you for that link. I'll take a peek when I get home.

Wilsoje74 - 168lbs, 29yo, 5'3"

Polarpaly05

I run outside, so not sure of my inclines.

General FYI... most roads require a specialty permit and signage if they are greater than a 6% incline/decline.

firesweetheart

Bump. To save all these great links for after work!

cwolfman13

Keep in mind that you would also want to deduct your basal calories from that burn on your HRM and otherwise account for some estimation error. I always found that taking about 80% of what my HRM told me I burned and eating those calories back worked out pretty well. You just want to be conservative. I never logged any burn in excess of 10 calories per minute.

n_unocero

if your heartrate was that high then that seems like a reasonable burn. when I really run hard and push myself I'll burn about 600 for a lil less that an hour. I see a lot of people saying 100 per mile and I will agree with that if you're jogging. when I keep my pace to about 10 mins I ususally burn 100 per mile. example: the last race I used a HRM for was a 10k. 6 miles in 50 mins and burned about 650 cals. you were going a lil slower, but the incline affected your exertion too.

just looked at your stats too....for your weight and height that seems reasonable.

wilsoje74

if your heartrate was that high then that seems like a reasonable burn. when I really run hard and push myself I'll burn about 600 for a lil less that an hour. I see a lot of people saying 100 per mile and I will agree with that if you're jogging. when I keep my pace to about 10 mins I ususally burn 100 per mile. example: the last race I used a HRM for was a 10k. 6 miles in 50 mins and burned about 650 cals. you were going a lil slower, but the incline affected your exertion too.

just looked at your stats too....for your weight and height that seems reasonable.

She was going quite a bit slower, 75 min for not even 5 miles

ladykaisa

if your heartrate was that high then that seems like a reasonable burn. when I really run hard and push myself I'll burn about 600 for a lil less that an hour. I see a lot of people saying 100 per mile and I will agree with that if you're jogging. when I keep my pace to about 10 mins I ususally burn 100 per mile. example: the last race I used a HRM for was a 10k. 6 miles in 50 mins and burned about 650 cals. you were going a lil slower, but the incline affected your exertion too.

just looked at your stats too....for your weight and height that seems reasonable.

She was going quite a bit slower, 75 min for not even 5 miles

75 minutes of total HR monitor time, but 60 minutes on the treadmill running. I failed to pause my HR monitor during a "oh **** I forgot water" break and a "cat is tearing down the curtains" break.

cwolfman13

Keep in mind also that your HR doesn't actually have anything to do with your calorie burn directly. It is just used as a rough estimate of what level of VO2 max you're working at. If all it took to burn some calories was a fast HR I would have been a calorie burning machine back when I had a resting HR of 110...hell, I'd hit 135 just going for a little walk. And really, someone could just come into my office and give me a good scare every 5 minutes or so if HR was that closely correlated with burning calories.

If you have an unusually high resting HR, your burn will be inflated...if you are out of shape, your calorie burn will be inflated. If you are fit and fall within statistical averages for your resting HR, it is relatively accurate for a steady state aerobic event, but still an estimate...and like I said, you'd want to at minimum knock off you basal calories...

STrooper

I know that both Endomondo and Digifit provide the basis for their calorie calculation; Digifit's are as follows with the following formulas:

Men: C/min = (-59.3954 + (-36.3781 + 0.271 x age + 0.394 x weight + 0.404 x VO2max + 0.634 x HR))/4.184

Women: C/min = (-59.3954 + (0.274 x age + 0.103 x weight + 0.380 x VO2max + 0.450 x HR)) / 4.184

Weight is in kg. VO2 max is calculated through a couple of methods depending upon the test method you use (both documented). If the 12-minute Cooper running test is used the formula is:

VO2 Max, we use the formula (Kilne 1987) VO2max = (Distance covered in metres – 504.9) ÷ 44.73.

If the CP-30 Critical Power test is used then the ratio of the maximum and resting heart rate is used (the maximum heart is from the CP-30 test and the resting heart rate is what it sounds like). That formula is 15.3 * (HR max/HR rest).

Your heart rate may be faster for any given level of exertion if your VO2 max is "lower" (and visa versa). My VO2 max is ranging between 55-60 ml.kg/min once I reached the capacity to run marathon distances.

Depending upon my speed, the incline, and other conditions (since my weight is very stable at ~170 pounds), my calorie per mile ranges anywhere from 145 to 170 calories per mile. I ran a CP-30 test this weekend which is a maximal output type test (3.61 miles in 30 minutes) along with a maximal 1-mile run (7:37 per mile). According to my HRM data, the average calorie expenditures were 21.9 and 20.0 calories/minute, respectively, using the above formulas.

Yes, the 30-minute run (which pushed my maximum heart rate during the run to 187 bpm and averaged 175 bpm) calculated out to 600 calories or 166 calories per mile. The one-mile run was 153 calories with an average of 171 bpm and a max of 189. But I had a slight dropout in the middle of the run so it may have been slightly higher than reported.