I was reading this weekend :eek: about the deep internal fat thats behind your abs and causes you to have a large waist line ..and I found this interesting...
They claim that when you take into account the VO2...weight..age..HR etcc., that your burning alot less then the machines are showing you..
They said on an avg.. most people are burning only around 187 cals. when in the fact the treadmill is saying 350 cals.. :confused: So if you take into account this alot less figure , some might see where they haven't been burning and reducing enough cals(3500) in a week to even lose a pound..
So for the heck of it I've built a couple of custom workouts.. one for cardio burning 187 cals in 3 miles(got to get in my 20 miles for optium belly fat burn) and Lifting 187 cals for 50 min.. in my fitday program
So in theory I cardio 7 day @ 187 cals = 1309cals and I lift 4 days @ 187 = 748 total 2057 cals.. I still need to burn or reduce intake app 1500 cals.. for the week divided by 7 = 214cals per day reduction for what is recommended or burn 214 cals more per day.. and if you have a cheat day/meal.. Well you see how this could effect your weight loss..
So if your not losing..or very slow..take into account you might burning alot less then you thought
Which I beleive has been partly my problem in the past..

Of course everything is theory :)..

... that your burning alot less then the machines are showing you. They said on an avg.. most people are burning only around 187 cals. when in the fact the treadmill is saying 350 cals.. :confused:

We've long since said that it's a mistake to put much stock in what a treadmill's generic calorie counting routine generates. The most glaring error in exercise machine calculations is that they don't take into account body composition (200-lbs. at 25% body fat burns calories differently than 200-lbs. @ 8%). I have never paid any attention to what the machine tells me. It's garbage based on a generic algorithm that doesn't necessarily reflect my body's ability to burn calories.

There's just as much slop in the equations we use like Harris-Benedict and Katch-McArdle. H/B doesn't take into account body composition. K/M doesn't take into account anything but body composition. All the tools we use to estimate have some weakness in them. They're all just good rules of thumb and aren't numbers one should ever hinge their day on.

-R

in addition to what Bluestreak said, you also have to take into account that (especially if your doing fasted morning cardio) your body doesn't stop burning calories just because you've stopped doing cardio... you will continue to burn calories untill you eat... so by waiting an hour to eat you are increasing your calorie burn... just something to take into consideration... don't stress too much about the numbers... find something that works for you and just do it :tucool:

I would certainly agree that many machines overstate calories burned, but that seems like quite a difference. I generally burn 375 calories (according to the treadmill) in about 25 minutes. While it may in fact be less than that, I would estimate it closer to 250-275 cals.

Either way, I don't put stock in the machine's reading. Everything in fitness is based off of estimates, so if you just stay steady with the methods you use and adjust until you are burning the maximal fat you can, the rest all falls into place.

I only use the calorie monitor as a means of measuring progress....I don't consider the numbers for anything other than that.

It's very true. Most machines are terribly optimistic of calorie burn and blatantly lie about it. I've seen people claim to have burned 500 calories in 25 min on an elliptical and, though that's possible, it would require a very fit individual going HARD. I mean HARD HARD, not just "I'm kind of sweating". Running typically burns around 100 caloires per mile (walking much less, per mile, as there is little vertical component). I would put no trust whatsoever in the calorie burning of a machine. They lie just to make people feel better.

I recently purchased a Heart Rate Monitor that estimates VO2 Max based on resting heartrate. (I dunno how accurate this estimate is.) Usually when I am done doing cardio there is a 100-200+ calorie difference between my HRM and the Elliptical machine. I go by the HRM. I wear my HRM whenever I workout to give me atleast a decent estimate of the calories used.

-- Jeremy

I think my HR monitor does that too..better read the book again..

I figure if I use the low est. of 187cals.. it will force me to 1. either work harder 2. work more 3. eat less

It's more of a mind game :) trick I'm playing on myself to kick it up a notch..plus I think it's more accurate from me then I'd like to admit :)
If I go by my Fitday ratio's for the last 30 days.. I burn between baseline and workouts..3500 cals aday... but my food intake avg. is 1690cals.. this isn't counting one weekend day(Cheat day).. but in theory I'm in the neg. 1800cal per day...x 7 = 12,600 / 3500 = 3.6lbs per week I should be losing.. but in fact I"ve only lost 2-3 lbs.. when I should of lost 3.6 x 4 = 14.4

So if I take away my over calculates for workouts...lets say 300 cal a day x 7 = 2100 cal - 12,600 = 10.500 / 3500 = 3lbs per week or 12 pounds total I should of lost..
but if you take into account my BF % lost app 4% into 206 x 4% = 8.24lbs and I gained 6.51 lbs LBM ...8.24 - 6.51 = 1.73lbs loss.. Which is real close to reality..

So for me ..187 cals per workout seems to be accurate.. or dang close.. Gotta kick it up a notch :) which I have by making sure I do at least 3 miles in 45-50 min 7 days a week
And I'm doing SGX also and my weight training has gone up a notch :)