How many calories am I really burning?

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Maripoza28
Maripoza28 Posts: 15 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi All,

How do I find out how many calories am I really burning when I work out? I mostly use the treadmill, do I go base on what the treadmill says? The tredmill has never asked me to put weight and height, so how do I know how many calories am i really burning? thanks love to hear some feedback!

Replies

  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    The only way to really know is to invest in a heart rate monitor. There are also several online calculators that will tell you, but again those are just estimations themselves.
  • elliecolorado
    elliecolorado Posts: 1,040
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    If you don't put in your weigh/height than the treadmill probably isn't giving you an accurate estimate you could estimate from the calories on here, but they probably aren't accurate either. The only way to get an good estimate is by getting a heart rat monitor and using that when you work out. To get a good estimate from that you need the kind with a chest strap.
  • juliapurpletoes
    juliapurpletoes Posts: 951 Member
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    Yeah - heart rate monitor with chest strap is really one of the best ways because you tell it all YOUR info and it takes a constant heart rate reading. All those things are really important....if not it is just based on averages.

    I have a Polar FT4 and love it.
  • happychix
    happychix Posts: 27 Member
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    most treadmills are set for the mysterious 150lb man and base the calories burnt estimate on that mysterious person. You can enter your weight to help but very few offer the chance to change the gender from male to female. HRM is the way to go if you really want your calorie burnt number and not a guess.
  • maryloo2011
    maryloo2011 Posts: 446
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    If you have ~$70, I strongly suggest you invest in a HRM as well. It is by FAR my new favorite gadget and is way more accurate than any machine. I bought Polar FT4 on sale for $60 a couple weeks ago - check Craigs List, Amazon, eBay....?
  • l3ugjuice
    l3ugjuice Posts: 233
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    I had the same questions. I used all the online calculators to get a good 'guess', but I knew they were guesses. That...bothers me. It's hard to obsess over numbers if I dont have any numbers; so the guesswork was going to be a problem with my diet change.

    I first tried a heart rate monitor/watch. Worked okay when I wore it while working out, but a) it was still guessing (though the 40 dollar one I had was actually pretty accurate, I found later) and b) it can only monitor when you have it on and running...so I STILL did not have a reasonable guess for a 24 hour day. So, I bought a bodymedia fit monitor that I have worn damn near 24/7 for the last month and a half. Enormous improvement. It's still a guess, but a much more accurate one....and I wear it like 18-22 hours a day, so it's a reasonably accurate 24 hour guess rather than a hour to two hour window guess.

    I will say this though, my fitness pal's nutrition logging is so much easier because they just have a bigger database. The bodymedia software just doesnt have as big of a database, so I end up manually logging nutrition information at least once a day (for the first couple weeks it was pretty much every meal, until I got my staple foods entered in...now it's easier because I've already entered them once)...but the log reports from bodymedia are much more useful, IMO. I wish the two sites could merge...

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