Stair Climbing and Decreasing Time Affecting Calories Burned

Shuutnstar

Hi there! My friend and I walk up and down the stair well at our work 2x a week. It is 4 flights of stairs, each with 24 steps up and a landing. :blushing:

In the beginning (about 1.5 months ago) we could only do 3 flights of stairs which took us about 20 mins. We had figured it to be about 281 calories (using the daily plate’s exercise calculator)…

This month, we went to 4 flights, which took us about 30 mins, at about 421 calories.

This week, we did 5 flights… but It took us about 20 minutes… so back down to 281 cals?

But today, we did our 5 flights, and it only took 15 minutes!!

But now I am noticing that we are becoming faster at the stairs, shorter resting periods and adding more steps as we get better... we are earning less and less calories burned.

My question is… as we are getting faster… it seems like we’re burning less calories because today it only took 15 minutes to do what used to take 30. So our exercise calorie count got slashed in half. It doesn’t seem right (or fair:grumble: ) that we are working out harder and faster… but burning less.

Anyone have any idea on how to calculate for this change?? Thanks!

savvystephy

Your best bet would be a heart rate monitor.. It really depends on how fast your heart is pumping. So, if you your heart is getting stronger - so the rate isn't going up so high, then yes you would burn fewer calories.

iplayoutside19

Same thing when you lose weight. There's less of you to pull around so it takes less energy. Your cardio system is more efficient, so it takes less energy.

That's why the work out I'm doing now will be no good in six weeks. Time to do something else.

Azdak

Number of calories burned = Intensity x duration x weight.

So, first of all, if two of you are doing the climbing, you are expended different amounts of calories unless you weigh the same.

Next, if you are climbing at a faster rate, then intensity is going up.

If you are doing 5 flights in 20 minutes, that is definitely more work (and more calories expended) than 4 flights in 30 min, or 3 flights in 20 min. I suspect you are not entering your data correctly.

Actually, your numbers don't really add up. You say each flight is 24 steps and you did 5 flights--that's 120 steps total. If that took 20 min, then it works out to 6 steps/min. So, I am not sure we are getting all the information correctly about the total amount of exercise you are doing. 6 steps/min would translate into something more like 50 calories in 20 min, which doesn't sound right either.

songbyrdsweet

Number of calories burned = Intensity x duration x weight.

So, first of all, if two of you are doing the climbing, you are expended different amounts of calories unless you weigh the same.

Next, if you are climbing at a faster rate, then intensity is going up.

If you are doing 5 flights in 20 minutes, that is definitely more work (and more calories expended) than 4 flights in 30 min, or 3 flights in 20 min. I suspect you are not entering your data correctly.

Actually, your numbers don't really add up. You say each flight is 24 steps and you did 5 flights--that's 120 steps total. If that took 20 min, then it works out to 6 steps/min. So, I am not sure we are getting all the information correctly about the total amount of exercise you are doing. 6 steps/min would translate into something more like 50 calories in 20 min, which doesn't sound right either.

You'd have to be going up those steps REALLY slowly.

Shuutnstar

Well it is not just up. It is up and down 5 filghts. So 240 steps... but that still it doesn't seem to add up either. We take a short break ever time we hit the bottom landing (probably 15-30 seconds). Drink some water... wipe down.

But we used to have to take a longer break at the very top and bottom. 30-55 seconds, I would guess. We were panting very hard back then. We've come a long way... but I don't know how else to caclulate it.