Assessing Calorie Cardio Burning For Weight Loss
Have you ever walked off the treadmill feeling good about yourself because you just burned off close to 500 or more calories?
Or, perhaps you slaved away on the elliptical trainer and burned off that piece of cheesecake you indulged in the night before.
Whatever the case, having those handy little calorie burn read-outs makes many people feel very accomplished after finishing a cardio workout. But, just how accurate are these? Here are some things you should be keeping in mind.
Your Height/Weight
The first issue with those calorie burn readouts from the cardio equipment you’re using is that they don’t factor in your height or weight. These two factors alone will significantly impact how many calories you are burning during your cardio training so if the particular machine you are using doesn’t ask you to input this data, that’s your first signal that they aren’t entirely accurate.
The Type of Cardio You’re Performing
Another issue with those calorie burn readouts is that they aren’t really assessing the type of cardio you’re performing. If you’re doing higher intensity cardio, you’re going to burn a great deal of calories after the session is completed, which isn’t accounted for by this reading.
There are also a number of other benefits that occur when you do more intense forms of cardio, all of which those machines aren’t going to explain to you.
Your Current Fitness Level
Finally, the third main factor that will have some influence on how many calories you’re burning during your cardio training is what your current fitness level is. If you’re incredibly fit and doing moderate intensity cardio, you may not burn as much as someone working at the same pace who isn’t nearly as fit.
Obviously to them this will be a higher intensity form of cardio, but the difference in fitness levels means they will have to work quite a bit harder just to accomplish the same task. This will increase their calorie burn.
So, keep these points in mind before you’re so quick to take that number exactly as you see it. If you’re using that to determine how many calories you can eat during the day, you may find that your body weight is not moving in the direction you want it to be because of this misinformation.
Related posts:
Leave a Comment