Calories Burned?

dzdame

How do you calculate calories burned when doing cardio/circuit training (I use a variety of dvds), when you don't have a heart rate monitor or one of those other monitors that calculate calories burned? I have been guessing and have been able to find some approx. calories burned for some of the dvds on the internet. I have to guess most of the time, though. I know that I need to buy a monitor, but not in the budget at the moment! I would love suggestions for monitors, too, though, as I will buy one eventually! Thanks so much!

kateyb

Ive just been logging the time as circuit training. Have been told by ppl with hrm that the calculation on here is pretty much on target for them anyway!

stroutman81

I never worry about calories burned. It's too much guesswork so I figure why bother. It's much easier to pick a caloric intake goal and use sane volumes of exercise. From there, every 2-4 weeks or so, if you're not seeing any progress, you know you're eating too many calories, not expending enough, or some combo of the two.

The way I see it is this is and always will be a touch and feel process and for most, concerning themselves with too many very estimated numbers does more harm than good on the psychological front.

That's certainly not the case for everyone.... but figured I'd throw out an alternative view.

mictur

I am new to this web site, but on another site I was told to go to healthstatus.com. They have a list of exercises they will compute the calories you burn. I do a variety of dvds from a fat loss program and that is how I have calculated my calories burned. I have been putting in my cardio burn as low impact aerobics. Hope this will help.

dzdame

Thanks for the input, everyone! The weight is coming off very slowly (sometimes 1-2 lbs/week, some weeks none or a 1 lb gain). I know that is the best way to do it, but I wonder if some days I am over/underestimating my calories burned and if it would help my weight loss if I had a more accurate calculation. I have gone to some websites to try to calculate, but I know that everyone burns calories differently, depending on different factors. It is a lot of trial and error, I guess...I read a lot of information, which can be confusing, as often you read conflicting advice/information. To those people who use a monitor of some type-do you find that it made a difference in your weight loss?

SHBoss1673

you can use the exercise levels listed on here, but they are going to be extremely generic and can be off by as much as 50%.

best thing I could tell you is Google "Rate of Perceived Exertion" This may or may not help you depending on how good your brain is at math and how good you are at figuring out your body. This will give you a basic level of how hard you have worked, and from that, you can find plenty of websites that will give you an approximate calorie burn.

but again, this is approximate, better to find an inexpensive (good ones start at about $60) HRM and go from there. It'll be the best investment you ever make.

PJilly

you can use the exercise levels listed on here, but they are going to be extremely generic and can be off by as much as 50%.

best thing I could tell you is Google "Rate of Perceived Exertion" This may or may not help you depending on how good your brain is at math and how good you are at figuring out your body. This will give you a basic level of how hard you have worked, and from that, you can find plenty of websites that will give you an approximate calorie burn.

but again, this is approximate, better to find an inexpensive (good ones start at about $60) HRM and go from there. It'll be the best investment you ever make.

I recently bought an F4, and I couldn't have been more disappointed. Previously, I was using the MFP estimates for calories burned, eating them all back, feeling great, and losing about a pound a week. My F4 gave me much lower numbers, but I stuck with those for a couple of weeks (after all, what would have been the point if I didn't use what I paid for?). I was hungry and irritable the whole time and basically felt lousy, and I gained a couple of pounds. I do think it's possible I'm the exception to the rule. I have lower than normal blood pressure, and I think that makes my heart rate low in comparison to how many calories I'm burning. I've read enough on here about how people are thrilled with their HRMs (that's why I got one), so I'm sure that those people aren't all wrong, but I just wanted to point at that your mileage may vary. Mine did.