Calories

How many calories do you burn each workout?

 

This is a question that up till a week ago, I could not have answered.

 

My response was, "enough?" ... but it got me thinking, how many calories AM I burning?

 

Typically my daily exercise lasts an hour and a little bit, so I thought I high time to strap on a POLAR heart rate monitor and test out some of my gruelling routines to see how effective they really are.

 

Now besides the POLAR watch for recording, I did also try some other methods, these other methods though were either too hard to use (having to input every weight, rep and exercise) or inaccurate compared to the heart rate monitor method.

Here are the stats, tabulated for your viewing pleasure. 

EXERCISE	REC METHOD	TIME (HR:MIN)	CALORIES	MAX HR	AVE HR	NOTES
BICEP	POLAR	1:20	853	N/A	N/A	FORGOT TO GET HR AFTER EXERCISE
	IPHONE APP	As above	668	N/A	N/A
JOG	POLAR	0:30	467	180	166
	MAP MY RUN	As above	613			5.74KM JOG
ABS	POLAR	1:11	674	199	123
UPPER LEGS	POLAR	1:20	988	180	143
CALVES	POLAR	1:12	613	167	114
CHEST	POLAR	1:12	880	167	136
TRICEP	POLAR	1:12	770	155	126

 

The only exercise that is not on the list yet is shoulders, but judging by my other exercises it is going to be above 500. I will update these stats as soon as I get one of these done!

 

So a few things to consider.

 

You will notice that each workout has at least one hour invested into it (with the exception of the jog) and for some people this is too much time to invest. I’ll have to test it at some point but research would suggest that similar calories could be burnt utilising HIIT training such as the GRIT series from Les Mills.

 

You should understand that I do not run a Calorie count when it comes to food consumption. I intake as much nutrients as possible and at what I feel is a healthy portion AND to suit YOUR goals! If you are looking to find out what your intake should be, there are many sites that offer this. My tip though is to listen to your body and adjust your intake to suit your energy needs.

 

The myth about burning  extra fat due to having more muscle is also not really 100% true, there is a small amount of extra burn compared to someone that has less muscle mass but it is marginal. So you couldn't say that by having lower boy fat makes me burn more calories, in fact those that are fitter often have to work harder TOO burn more in exercise as their bodies have adapted to it. 

Whatever the case, I think it is important to know that what your doing is working, if that means recording your burn to monitor your progress, so be it. If just seeing the results gets you by, then don't go paying a mint for a piece of equipment that is going to tell you what you are already seeing.