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I've recently begun an exercise and diet program to get my weight down, with emphasis on burning as many calories as possible during exercise while keeping my calorie intake at a constant level (about 2200-2400 calories a day). I've been doing a combination of cardio and weights - basically doing cardio for 5 days a week, and weights for 3.
What I'm curious about is how many calories does one burn doing a particular exercise, and whether those machines at the gym provide a good measure of calories burned. For example, on the standard elliptical, I'm up to 40 minutes, averaging a heartrate of 155-160 BPM, and it says I've burned 450 calories. On another machine, called the ARCTrainer, the same 40 minute routine gets me about 650 calories, which I think is reading a bit high, although this machine is a bit tougher. I currently weigh 240, age 46, so are either these numbers pretty reasonable for calories burned? And how many calories does one burn doing 30 minutes of pretty rigorous lifting? I'm also doing walks over hilly terrain, would it be reasonable to assume I'm burning 500-600 calories an hour doing that (walking at a brisk pace)?
My goal is to burn 1000 calories a day in exercise, 5-6 days a week - don't think I'm quite there yet, although I have gotten in better shape over the past 4 weeks - I can go longer and harder on the cardio, and can lift quite a bit more on the machines as well, and I'm currently losing about 1.5 pounds a week, although that's taking quite a bit of work on the eating side - feeling hungry a lot of the time, etc, so I know I'm going to slack off on the diet sooner or later...lol. But if I can burn those extra calories through exercise, I hope to still drop my weight down at a steady pace of about 4 pounds a month, which gives a time frame of 10 more months before reaching my "ideal" weight of 200 pounds or so. I've started from a high of 253 lbs earlier this summer, so progress is being made - it's just that I've got a long, long ways to go, and I need to make sure I don't get off-track, as I have a real weakness for food (who doesn't...lol).
There's really no way to know, aside from strapping on a mask and measuring gas levels in your breath.
Most online calories are very optimistic.
Here's how to succeed:
Pick a calorie goal. Stick to that calorie goal for 4 weeks.
IF you lost too much weight, eat a little more.
if you didnt lose enough weight, eat a little less, exercises a litlte more
if you lost the right amount, change nothing.
In the real word, 1000 calories a day in exercise would very likely be around 3 hours for anyone that isn't Michael Phelps, regardless of what the elliptical/heart rate monitor says.
Life is a lot better when you diet for weight loss, and exercise for fitness.
Notice it only goes up to 205 pounds - I weigh 35 pounds more than that, so I'd be burning a bit more than the highest numbers shown (that's one advantage of being heavy, I guess...lol. ) If only I could get into good enough shape to run a 5.5 min mile, for a whole hour - that'd be a lotta calories burned...lol. I'm happy if I can burn 700-800 calories an hour - over 5 days (assuming that I work out 1 hour each day, with 2 days off), that's 3500-4000 calories a week - not too shabby.
I dont' know if you're male or female, but I'd lower your calorie intake. 2000 for a male and 1500 for female is the normal range for weight loss.
Unless you are a well trained athlete you wont' be able to sustain 3 hour daily workouts. Get yourself a personal trainer, mine is worth his weight in gold!!
Try the elliptical machine, you can get a full body workout, burn a boat load of calories, and not hurt your joints. Your goal should be 30-45 mins a day, 3-4 times a week.
I dont' know if you're male or female, but I'd lower your calorie intake. 2000 for a male and 1500 for female is the normal range for weight loss.
Unless you are a well trained athlete you wont' be able to sustain 3 hour daily workouts. Get yourself a personal trainer, mine is worth his weight in gold!!
Try the elliptical machine, you can get a full body workout, burn a boat load of calories, and not hurt your joints. Your goal should be 30-45 mins a day, 3-4 times a week.
I'm male, so that'd be 2000 calories - a bit less than what I've been eating, so I'll have to find way to cut back further. I have been doing he elliptical at the gym, I've gotten up to 40 minutes at a good pace, plus I'm lifting weights 2-3x a week as well, plus I do walks here and there depending on the weather.
And this is simple mathematics, removing 1000 calories/day from the diet can be achieved with relatively more or less ease (depending on how bad the diet is to start with); the average beginner simply can’t burn that many calories with any realistic amount of exercise. At a low intensity and a calorie burn of 5 cal/min, that would require 200 minutes of activity per day, over 3 hours. At a challenging 10 cal/min, you’re looking at 100 minutes, an hour and forty minutes. This is simply beyond what most people can, are willing, or have time to do.
Good article, thanks. In my case, I have been training long enough so that I can really push myself on the cardio - I'm pretty much drenched from head to toe after my 40 minutes...lol. So I know I'm doing the 10 cal/min at least, maybe even 12. Since I do not work a traditional job, time is on my side, so I can devote an hour, 90 minutes or even longer to exercise - there's no excuse for me to not to, really.
As far as the diet is concerned, I was eating about 3000 calories a day (yes, I know ), resulting in a weight gain of 25 pounds over a two year period - I was able to drop that down to about 2500 a day in the spring, which halted the weight gain, but I didn't lose any, and this summer, I got back into the gym habit and been cranking up my cardio plus weight training, combined with further reduction in my calorie intake to about 2250 a day (average), I've been able to lose about a pound a week for about 12 weeks now, but with 40 more pounds to go to reach my ideal weight, I'd like to push that up to 1.5 or even 2 pounds a week, which is why I've really been pushing myself in the gym, both in terms of intensity and duration. The problem with cutting my food intake even further to say, 2000 calories a day, is that I feel hungry all the freaking time, and it's very difficult for me to maintain that diet level without binging, which I'm prone to doing, unfortunately.
So it's my hope that I can maintain my current diet level with continued increases in exercise, which isn't so bad (I only feel hungry about half the time...lol), and I'm a lot less prone to binging on the weekends, etc. If that means I can only lose a pound a week, so be it, at least it's going down, slowly but surely.
Good article, thanks. In my case, I have been training long enough so that I can really push myself on the cardio - I'm pretty much drenched from head to toe after my 40 minutes...lol. So I know I'm doing the 10 cal/min at least, maybe even 12. Since I do not work a traditional job, time is on my side, so I can devote an hour, 90 minutes or even longer to exercise - there's no excuse for me to not to, really.
As far as the diet is concerned, I was eating about 3000 calories a day (yes, I know ), resulting in a weight gain of 25 pounds over a two year period - I was able to drop that down to about 2500 a day in the spring, which halted the weight gain, but I didn't lose any, and this summer, I got back into the gym habit and been cranking up my cardio plus weight training, combined with further reduction in my calorie intake to about 2250 a day (average), I've been able to lose about a pound a week for about 12 weeks now, but with 40 more pounds to go to reach my ideal weight, I'd like to push that up to 1.5 or even 2 pounds a week, which is why I've really been pushing myself in the gym, both in terms of intensity and duration. The problem with cutting my food intake even further to say, 2000 calories a day, is that I feel hungry all the freaking time, and it's very difficult for me to maintain that diet level without binging, which I'm prone to doing, unfortunately.
So it's my hope that I can maintain my current diet level with continued increases in exercise, which isn't so bad (I only feel hungry about half the time...lol), and I'm a lot less prone to binging on the weekends, etc. If that means I can only lose a pound a week, so be it, at least it's going down, slowly but surely.
Pushing yourself and being drenched in sweat isn't an indicator of how many calories you've burned. What McDonald is saying, in essence, is you need to remove excess calories from your diet because it's nearly impossible to burn 1000 calories a day exercising. Sure, maybe you can burn 1000 calories everyday since you have extra time on your hands, but your body adapts to exercise unless you have measurable increase. Since time is the only way you can objectively increase your cardio duration, you'll eventually get to the point where your body takes 8 hours of cardio everyday to burn 1000 calories. Or you might get sick and tired of going to the gym that long everyday.
A far more efficient way is to start a food journal and track your calories as well as add in full body strength routines. Burning calories through exercise to make up for your diet is a losing battle.
I'm male, so that'd be 2000 calories - a bit less than what I've been eating, so I'll have to find way to cut back further. I have been doing he elliptical at the gym, I've gotten up to 40 minutes at a good pace, plus I'm lifting weights 2-3x a week as well, plus I do walks here and there depending on the weather.
excellent! Keep this up and you'll see results...they wont' be overnight, but you WILL see them.
Hungry all the time could be the food you eat. Eat lot more fibrous vegetables, proteins, and fats. Cut the carbs down a bit.
Not that carb counting will make you lose weight. Veggies, fat and protein just make you feel more satisfied. Go ahead and eat a pound of carrots and tell me you're still hungry.
I've successfully eaten 1400 calories a day in an experimental cut this way. For the record, my maintenance level is around 3200 calories a day.
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) If only I could get into good enough shape to run a 5.5 min mile, for a whole hour - that'd be a lotta calories burned...lol. I'm happy if I can burn 700-800 calories an hour - over 5 days (assuming that I work out 1 hour each day, with 2 days off), that's 3500-4000 calories a week - not too shabby.
), resulting in a weight gain of 25 pounds over a two year period - I was able to drop that down to about 2500 a day in the spring, which halted the weight gain, but I didn't lose any, and this summer, I got back into the gym habit and been cranking up my cardio plus weight training, combined with further reduction in my calorie intake to about 2250 a day (average), I've been able to lose about a pound a week for about 12 weeks now, but with 40 more pounds to go to reach my ideal weight, I'd like to push that up to 1.5 or even 2 pounds a week, which is why I've really been pushing myself in the gym, both in terms of intensity and duration. The problem with cutting my food intake even further to say, 2000 calories a day, is that I feel hungry all the freaking time, and it's very difficult for me to maintain that diet level without binging, which I'm prone to doing, unfortunately. 
