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Originally Posted by Blackadar
But I strongly suggest that you don't get caught up in burning calories as a number in relation to food, but only as a barometer of how hard you've worked.
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I do. I did the P90X Kenpo routine a few times with the HR monitor and I was burning (according to it) 550-600 calories per workout. If Week "0" of C25K (sorta invented a new first week to ease my way into it - running for 30 seconds and walking for 60 - Week 1 is running for 60 and walking for 90) only used 300 or so then I'd probably stop doing it and do more Kenpo.
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I doubt any machine is very accurate because calories burned does depend on so many factors. So I figure every machine is wrong.
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So do I, but I'm more inclined to believe that the total number of calories used is closer (not necessarily close, just closer) to what a HR monitor says than what a "one-size-fits-all" formula (of course, there's also the chance my HR monitor is not accurately reading my heart rate).
But even if that HR monitor was perfect, and I used exactly 737 calories for the workout, there's no way to tell just how many of those calories my body took from body fat as opposed to other sources, so no, I'd never use it in relation food I eat. I thought of this while at work on Mon. but forgot to post it ("My heart rate monitor says I burned 737 calories running today, that means I get to eat 737 calories of chocolate tonight, right?" - "NO SAB IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT!")
And while typing this up, I was googling a bunch of stuff and saw that HR monitors calculate how many calories burned by using your MHR (Maximum Heart Rate - the maximum you heart can beat - IOW it
can not go above this). Mine MHR is set at 195....on Monday, I sprinted my last 30 seconds and my HR got up to 199.....so either the HR monitor is reading my HR as too fast when exercising (throwing off the calories calculation) or my MHR is set too low (throwing off the calories calculation).
So yeah....how about I trust my HR monitor more than websites or one-size-fits-all formulas AFTER I set it up properly....
