Calculating Calories

beckywilkeherbst
beckywilkeherbst Posts: 139 Member
edited October 5 in Fitness and Exercise
So I am looking for some help and cannot seem to get one answer. I have been using my wii fit to get a workout in because I have young children and can't get outside for a run and don't have a sitter to go to any gym. So, the wii fit says I burn an estimated 140 calories in a half hour of the "free step" and 240 calories in a half hour of the "free run" - roughly. So I didn't feel that this could be accurate because the amounts didn't vary much when I increased or decreased intensity. I bought myself a sportline S7 HRM this week which has the built in calorie burned on it. When I have used this for the free step it and meausured hr about every minute it says sI burned around 170 calories. When I use it for the free run checking each minute it says I burned 375 calories. I am just so confused. How am I supposed to eat my excercise calories back if I dont accuratly know how many I burned?

Replies

  • TNAJackson
    TNAJackson Posts: 686 Member
    As long as your HRM has a chest strap, I always go based on that. :happy:
  • Its_ali_bella
    Its_ali_bella Posts: 27 Member
    It says you burned 170 per minute? Or per hour?
  • cppeace
    cppeace Posts: 764 Member
    I just went through your same stress hon. Find your average heart rate and use this http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/calculators/calories-burned-calculator-based-on-average-heart-rate/
    calculator to double check your hrm. I checked against doing the actual math and it is within 35 calories so I'm comfy with that range. :) If you wanna do the math yourself google livestrong.com calorie burn on average heart rate :)
    hope this helps
    Kimmy
  • beccala18
    beccala18 Posts: 293 Member
    I say just use this to experiment. Try eating back all of the calories your HRM says you burn (minus the ones you'd burn anyways), and if that doesn't work, then eat back half. Everything you do is an approximation, it is just finding the best approximation for you.
  • Liopleurodon
    Liopleurodon Posts: 63
    Wii Fit works on a general idea of how many mets an activity is. So it doesn't really take into account how hard you work, only how much you weigh and how long you did the exercise for, and gives a ballpark figure based on that. Your heart rate monitor knows how hard you are actually working and therefore will give the more accurate figure.
  • beckywilkeherbst
    beckywilkeherbst Posts: 139 Member
    It says you burned 170 per minute? Or per hour?

    Total....170 calories using hrm in a half hour and 375 calories using the hrm in a half hr doing the free run.
  • DanWhittaker
    DanWhittaker Posts: 12
    Calorie count during exercise is a huge and controversial topic, so many factors play a part in it that to get a true accurate count is very difficult. One of the biggest factors is body composition (this is the ratio of your body’s mass, anything that is not fat is classed as fat free mass, and this includes bones, soft tissue and muscle). Fat free mass is more metabolically active than fat mass however there is no machine or heart rate monitor that you can enter this information in. This is also to say that as you exercise the metabolic activity of your fat and fat free mass does not change.

    Heart rate also plays a vital role as to does recovery rate and pre and post nutrition. Your best bet is to take whatever your heart rate monitor tells you (as this will be more accurate than your Wii) and know that it could be 100-150 calories wrong either side. Don’t forget that there is 3,500 calories in 1lb of fat so don’t beat yourself over the head for being a couple of calories out.

    I am a personal trainer by the way so if you have any more questions or would like any more help than feel free to inbox me.
  • beckywilkeherbst
    beckywilkeherbst Posts: 139 Member
    Wii Fit works on a general idea of how many mets an activity is. So it doesn't really take into account how hard you work, only how much you weigh and how long you did the exercise for, and gives a ballpark figure based on that. Your heart rate monitor knows how hard you are actually working and therefore will give the more accurate figure.

    Is this so even though my HRM doesn't ask for a weight only age and gender?
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