Really intense work out...

I can identify ... I used the eliptical at a hotel yesterday morning and worked hard for 35 mins and was rewarded with a stated calorie burn of ...... 128. :noway:

The same workout on an elliptical at my gym would have clocked that calories as about twice as much. And the MFP calculator actully plugged in even more than that. I went with the MFP calculator - just to feel better! :bigsmile:

But also know that you CAN reach your goal 213 workout calories at a time - so even if it was right - you can still do this! And make sure to eat your workout calories too ... at least half of them. Don't make the mistake others of us have and hit starvation mode - talk about being un-motivated!

Hang in!:flowerforyou:

It can be discouraging starting out because your fitness level is often not high enough to generate a "big number" calorie burn. On the other hand, if you are young with no underlying health problems, you should be able to ramp up your effort more quickly.

Looking at your weight loss goal, I suspect that your calorie count--wherever it came from--was a little low, although not by a huge amount. Part of what it is telling you is that, in the beginning, you need to invest a little more time to get optimal results with exercise. That means either increasing total minutes to 45-60, or tying to add some other activity along with your "fitness" workouts. If you find yourself watching TV at night, for example, you can try watching while walking on the treadmill, even at a "non-workout" speed, instead of sitting on the couch. I did that a lot at the beginning--either as a 2nd workout or to fill in some calories on a "rest" day.

Another way to boost up your calories when just starting out is too keep the treadmill speed relatively low and crank up the incline. That was another thing I did when I was still building up my running stamina. At first I tried keeping up a brisk speed (for me 4.0 mph) with a more modest incline (5.0%). What I found was that that was almost as fatiguing as running. I dropped down the walk speed to 2.6-2.8 mph and did a hill program that varied the incline, but stayed mostly in the 10%-13% range. It seemed I could tolerate that better -- and I burned almost 75% of the calories in an hour that I could while running. After awhile, I was able to push the speed to 3.0-3.4 mph and the incline to 12%-15%. At that point, I was able to burn 900-1000 calories an hour.

If you are starting out, level walking is relatively easy, but it doesn't burn a huge amount of calories per minute. Yet, you might not have the fitness level or ability to start a running program. Incline treadmill walking can be a good interim solution.