Anyone else work out at high altitude?

mtnstar

I live and work out at 8500 feet. After a brief consultation with Dr. Google, I found out it's possible that working out at high altitude burns twice as much calories? I don't know if this is true if you live up here all the time, or if you move from sea level to high altitude. When I just entered a typical food and exercise day into MFP, it looks like I might need to be eating more, but any idea how to adjust this again for high alt?

HappyElizabeth

My evidence is completely anecdotal, but I completely agree that you burn more calories at a high altitude. I used to have an office in Colorado (I think it was around 9000 feet) and I would live there for weeks at a time, and eat (and drink!) way more than I did at sea level and actually lose weight. I could never understand it - I would eat way more food, and my clothes were always baggy by the time I went back to Connecticut.

mtnstar

I like anecdotal evidence. :-) I never counted calories before, and just entered all my stats into MFP to see if I was on the right track, so I was surprised at what I came up with. I would like to gain some muscle, so I'm thinking maybe this is one of the reasons why I haven't despite doing a fair amount of strength training.

bostonwolf

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/high-altitude-weight-loss/

mtnstar

Interesting. Well, maybe I should just quit my job and start a weight loss camp up here!

PM560

After living my entire life at nearly sea level, I now live at an elevation of 7,675' and have wondered how that might affect the number of calories burned during exercise. The little research I've done seems to indicate that there may be an increase in calories burned initially when one goes from a lower to higher elevation, but then the body acclimatizes to the new altitiude and caloric burn returns to average.

Here are some articles that helped:

Do You Burn More Calories at High Altitudes? - http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/burn-calories-high-altitudes-7235.html

Do You Burn More Calories When Your Heart Beats Faster? - http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/burn-calories-heart-beats-faster-8069.html

Hope this helps!
PM560

skylark94

I moved from the coast of Florida to Colorado Springs (6,000 feet) about 3 months ago. I took two months off to acclimate. Now that I am working out again I have not noticed any increase in HR or calorie burn data from my HRM from when I was living at sea level.

LilRedRooster

You know, that would largely depend on what you're doing at altitude and when you went to that altitude, because the only affect that altitude has initially is that your body has to work harder to be more efficient with oxygen supply, since that's lower at higher altitudes. Initially, that's tougher, because of the fact that people from lower altitudes (mostly those around sea level) don't usually have enough red blood cells to compensate, but within about a month, most people have no problem and it isn't any "more" effort past that point, since their bodies produce enough to compensate and become efficient enough to make it less of an effort.

I live in Colorado at an elevation of about 5300ft, and I honestly don't notice any difference even going higher than that. I did a run last year at 10000ft, and had no problem, and my average heart rate didn't fluctuate past where it usually sits.

Azdak

Except for a brief transition period, you will not burn any more calories at altitude. You certainly won't burn any more during exercise and in fact you will likely burn less. Until you acclimatize, the decreased oxygen will lead to a decrease in performance, meaning you will not be able to exercise at the same intensity. Heart rate will increase but, as I mentioned numerous times, that heart rate increase does NOT reflect more calories burned because there is not the same increase in oxygen uptake.