Increased VO2 Max and Calorie Burn

uwdawg07

My VO2 Max increased - yay! Went from 43 to 56 (female). I looked online and it says 56 is very good. So that's exciting!

I noticed that after my VO2 Max increased, my calorie burn did as well. I'm burning an additional 100 or so calories per workout. That seems like a lot to me! Should I trust the number my HRM is giving me, or should I enter in lower caloric amounts into the fitness tracker?

Thanks!

Cyclink

No.

Your VO2max has no effect on the calories that you are burning at any given intensity. It does mean that you can go harder than before, and it's going harder that burns more calories.

It also can mean that your BMR has increased, possibly through a higher percentage of muscle mass in your body, but not always. Sometimes it's just from a more efficient cardiovascular system.

Azdak

My VO2 Max increased - yay! Went from 43 to 56 (female). I looked online and it says 56 is very good. So that's exciting!

I noticed that after my VO2 Max increased, my calorie burn did as well. I'm burning an additional 100 or so calories per workout. That seems like a lot to me! Should I trust the number my HRM is giving me, or should I enter in lower caloric amounts into the fitness tracker?

Thanks!

Two things--how are you measuring VO2 max? That's a big increase and 56 is a pretty big number for a recreational athlete. That would put you in line for winning age-group awards for 5K and 10K races, so you can use that as a guideline.

An increase in VO2max per se will not increase calorie burn for the same workload--the calorie burn for aerobic activities is relatively fixed. An increase in VO2 max will allow you to work HARDER at the same level of PERCEIVED exertion. The harder work means you burn more calories (if weight is the same).

When you take calorie readings from an HRM, it's a different issue. A HRM estimates calories burned based NOT on the actual workload you are performing (e.g. running at 6.0 mph), but on how hard you are working AS A PERCENTAGE OF MAX HR.

In other words, the HRM calculates that heart rate "X" is a certain percentage of your max HR. It knows that if your heart rate is "X" percentage of max, and if it knows your VO2 max is "Y", then it can estimate your VO2 for the exercise workload as "X%" of "Y" and then use that number (along w/weight) to estimate calories.

The VO2 max reading helps set the parameters of the "scale" that the HRM uses to estimate calories based on heart rate.

Since you VO2 max reading increased, you now have a higher "scale". That means that, yes, at a given % of max HR, you are now burning more calories than when VO2 max was lower. But that is only because you are working at a higher aboslute workload.

This is the opposite of the effect that most people see. Most people see their calories burned for the same workout DECREASE over time, based on the HRM. That's because they don't update the HRM settings. But it's the same principle.

I hope this makes sense. I know it probably sounds disjointed, but that's just the way the human body and HRMs work.

NikkiDerrig386

What exactly is VO2?

Cyclink

To clarify something I said earlier:
Your VO2max has no effect on the calories that you are burning at any given ABSOLUTE intensity. It does mean that you can go harder than before, and it's going harder that burns more calories. For example, you burn more calories by running an 8:00 mile than you do by running a 9:00 mile, regardless of heart rate.

At the same time, you might have run a 9:00 mile at a heart rate of 155 BPM before. At the new higher VO2 value, you might now run that same 9:00 mile at 148 BPM. You still burn the same number of calories as you did before.

VO2max is the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can process and deliver to the working muscles. It's based on a combination of your lungs' delivery capacity, your heart's delivery capacity, and the amount of muscle tissue in your body. It's expressed as ml of Oxygen/kg of body mass or as a total volume of oxygen, usually in liters.

It has nothing to do with how much you breathe. It's based on how much your body actually processes, which you don't have manual control over.

Some heart monitors claim to be able to estimate it for you, but the only accurate way I'm aware of amounts to a stress test while breathing through a tube that analyzes all the air you inhale and exhale. Not fun.

It's also a major determining factor in an athlete's genetic potential. While an average male who is really fit can get into the 60s and 70's, a world class athlete can get into the 90's.

nphect

breathe heavy on purpose! when you get tired your body needs oxygen!