How many burnt calories make a great workout?

2

Replies

  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
    Release yourself from this kind of thinking. A good workout has nothing to do with calories.
  • Cr01502
    Cr01502 Posts: 3,614 Member
    A "good" workout in my opinion is one that is intelligently designed to meet your goals.
  • danasings
    danasings Posts: 8,218 Member
    Zero. 0.00. Nada. I don't work out to get a "great burn". I don't work out so that I can eat more food.

    I work out to accomplish a fitness goal. To lift a certain weight a certain number of times. To run a certain distance. To do something in a shorter amount of time that I did it before. To do more reps in a set amount of time.

    Did I do one or more of those things? Yes? Then I had a great workout

    ^^^ Ditto this! I work out to be a fit & healthy person. And, because I honestly enjoy it, it's a stress reliever and my 'therapy'. the weight loss, body composition change, calorie burn and extra food are all just bonuses!

    ^^^Ditto, ditto!! Exercise is my therapy!!! :happy:
  • Lalouse
    Lalouse Posts: 221 Member
    Are you going to obsess about calories for the next 30-50 years .. or however long you are going to live?
    I don't think so. I'm hoping you are planning on reaching a point in life where you don't obsessively count calories, but where you generally eat healthy, workout regularly, and make smart choices.

    Most mainstream health experts say you need to work out for 30 minutes, 5 days a week. If you want to lose weight, you have to do more than that and that you should be trying to do 30-60 minutes of cardio several days a week.

    Here is the Harvard School of Public Health's brief take on activity: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/staying-active/index.html
  • aloranger7708
    aloranger7708 Posts: 422 Member
    Honestly I only burn about 200-400 (on a good day!) and that feels like enough for me. Personally I think that as long as I'm burning SOMETHING and MOVING then I don't mind if I burn 100 or 1,000 calories. Working out just makes me feel good, but I really concentrate my weight loss efforts in the kitchen.
  • trijoe
    trijoe Posts: 729 Member
    I must join in with many others. Calories burned has nothing to do with how "great" my workout was. Come to think of it, your definition of "great" seems deeply entrenched in "average", or "everyday". Every workout isn't great. Few are. Most workouts are, you know, workouts. "Great" ones need a reason for that designation. Like say for instance, it's race day. Or I just realllllllly want to hammer those hills. So in that sense, the "great" workouts are few and far between. When they DO happen, the usually end up being anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 calories.

    But, again, the actual calorie count is meaningless to the "great" designation.
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
    Zero. 0.00. Nada. I don't work out to get a "great burn". I don't work out so that I can eat more food.

    I work out to accomplish a fitness goal. To lift a certain weight a certain number of times. To run a certain distance. To do something in a shorter amount of time that I did it before. To do more reps in a set amount of time.

    Did I do one or more of those things? Yes? Then I had a great workout

    This. Calories are a measure of energy, not a measure of effort or intensity. Some of my best work outs I bet I didn't burn more than 200 k/cal. You know the ones where you can barely walk and have trouble driving home from the gym.
  • abnerner
    abnerner Posts: 452 Member
    To me, any workout is a good work out. As long as you have a little sweat, you are trying hard and you are being active it's good. For me, if I go to the gym for an hour it's about 600+ cals burned, but if I stay home and place Just Dance or do an OnDemand Fitness video, it's more like 150-300 and to me, that 150-300 is certainly better than nothing.
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
    Have you tried reading, researching and learning on your own before asking us to figure it out for you first? just curious.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    Exercise calorie burns are irrelevant, only useful for planning out how many calories to eat. They have absolutely no bearing on how effective a workout is for improving fitness and body composition.

    Workouts should be measured in pounds or kg lifted, miles (or km) run or cycled, or time spent. Calories burned should be the last thing used to determine whether you had a good workout or not.

    ^^ This


    It is very rare that I've burned 500 calories in one day. But it's rare that I do more than 30 minutes of exercise too, except for walking.
  • jlapey
    jlapey Posts: 1,850 Member
    If I do 30-day shred (level one), I burn between 160-180 calories on average. Doesn't sound like much, but I promise, it's a good workout for toning your body. I can burn close to 400 if I go for 4-mile walk. That's good too, I stay in fat-burning mode but I'm not really toning anything. I can burn close to (if not over) 1000 calories by raking my front yard. Wonderful for strengthening my heart. Calorie burn is not what indicates the effectiveness of your workout. Different exercises are good for different reasons and each will yield a different calorie burn based on intensity, speed, and length of time. Log them for the sake of knowing but just eating healthy and exercising regularly will get you results regardless.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
    Calories burned during workouts is the equivalent to scale weight in terms of fitness and progression metrics. Go by things such as: can I run longer at a higher VO2max; can I lift heavier than four weeks ago; am I recovering between workouts; is my body composition improving over a 3 month period; is my waistline getting smaller each month; etc.

    Exercise is not meant to be a major component to your deficit - it should be from eating less. Exercise's role during a deficit is to maintain or improve one's level of fitness and body composition (when including strength training). Let the diet portion do the fat loss work for you. Besides, its far more economical in terms of time to burn 250, 500, etc by just eating less than it is living on a treadmill.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    Erm.....you're doing it wrong. Workout to get fit. For the sport of it. Almost any reason other than to burn calories.


    Unless, of course, there's a 700 calorie pizza dinner you want and you need to earn it. In that case, it's allowable.
  • sjohnny
    sjohnny Posts: 56,142 Member
    Zero. 0.00. Nada. I don't work out to get a "great burn". I don't work out so that I can eat more food.

    I work out to accomplish a fitness goal. To lift a certain weight a certain number of times. To run a certain distance. To do something in a shorter amount of time that I did it before. To do more reps in a set amount of time.

    Did I do one or more of those things? Yes? Then I had a great workout

    Absofckinglutely this.

    My workout goals are established before I do them. If I'm running then I have set either a distance or a time or a number of intervals I am going to run at a given pace. When I have accomplished or exceeded that I'm done. If I burned 200 calories or 2000 is secondary to the workout itself. If I'm lifting I have a list of lifts I'm going to do and the weight and reps and sets I am going to use for those lifts. When I've accomplished that I'm done.

    ETA: and this:
    Unless, of course, there's a 700 calorie pizza dinner you want and you need to earn it. In that case, it's allowable.
  • lasmit4477
    lasmit4477 Posts: 308 Member
    Calories burned during workouts is the equivalent to scale weight in terms of fitness and progression metrics. Go by things such as: can I run longer at a higher VO2max; can I lift heavier than four weeks ago; am I recovering between workouts; is my body composition improving over a 3 month period; is my waistline getting smaller each month; etc.

    Exercise is not meant to be a major component to your deficit - it should be from eating less. Exercise's role during a deficit is to maintain or improve one's level of fitness and body composition (when including strength training). Let the diet portion do the fat loss work for you. Besides, its far more economical in terms of time to burn 250, 500, etc by just eating less than it is living on a treadmill.

    :flowerforyou:
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member

    Unless, of course, there's a 700 calorie pizza dinner you want and you need to earn it. In that case, it's allowable.

    700? Friggin amateur. Aim higher.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member

    Unless, of course, there's a 700 calorie pizza dinner you want and you need to earn it. In that case, it's allowable.

    700? Friggin amateur. Aim higher.

    Obviously I was trying to be relatable to the gen pop here....my regular dinners are over 1k!!! I didn't want to obscure my point with my own calories. lol!
  • sjohnny
    sjohnny Posts: 56,142 Member

    Unless, of course, there's a 700 calorie pizza dinner you want and you need to earn it. In that case, it's allowable.

    700? Friggin amateur. Aim higher.

    Obviously I was trying to be relatable to the gen pop here....my regular dinners are over 1k!!! I didn't want to obscure my point with my own calories. lol!

    And I figured she just pulled that number out of her *kitten* so I wasn't going to argue about the accuracy of it.
  • PetulantOne
    PetulantOne Posts: 2,131 Member
    Zero. 0.00. Nada. I don't work out to get a "great burn". I don't work out so that I can eat more food.

    I work out to accomplish a fitness goal. To lift a certain weight a certain number of times. To run a certain distance. To do something in a shorter amount of time that I did it before. To do more reps in a set amount of time.

    Did I do one or more of those things? Yes? Then I had a great workout

    :drinker:

    If I based strength training's merit on on how many calories it burns, I'd be pretty disappointed. I want to be able to lift more, run farther, and have my HR return to normal quicker.
  • cboutin89
    cboutin89 Posts: 79 Member
    Like many of you said it depends on your fitness level and what feels great to you. I would say for beginner 300 and above. For myself I get a good 700 on most days.

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