How to count burning off calories

Tyler Hawke · Post by **Tyler Hawke** » Wed May 14, 2008 9:22 am

The question may be silly but if your caloric intake for the day is say 2500 calories and you burn off 500 calories doing cardio - does it count to subtract the 500, making it a 2000 caloric intake day - or doesn't it work that way?

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Wed May 14, 2008 5:51 pm

it's no that easy...how do you know that you've actually burnt 500cla's during that cardio??? chances are you probably haven't so you're cal's will be out of whack straight away...don't bother with calorie counting (food or exercise)...simply eat plenty of clean foods and if needed increae activity a little and decrease food a little rather than one at a time

Valgal · Post by **Valgal** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:29 am

Don't forget to take into account your BMR (basal metabolic rate). This is the amount of calories you burn daily w/o exercise... the energy your body engages just to sustain your body throughout the day. There are several calculators online, just Google for one.

Ex: if calorie intake for the day is 1500, BMR is 1400 and I burn 200 calories at the gym... calorie deficit for the day is 100 calories. 3500 calories=1 pound. So you need to see a deficit of 3500 calories to lose 1 pound.

DianaB · Post by **DianaB** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:15 am

Rather than spend all that time calculating BMR, calories in /out, calories burned etc. just go to the gym or take a walk. It's impossible to know with any good degree of accuracy and just makes life annoying after a while.
Being active and eating well should be fun and enjoyable. If every activity or bite of food you take has a numeric value assigned to it, you are loosing the fun part. Unless you really like math.
If you are really concerned about calories and the types of food you are eating, follow Poliquin's advice: if it doesn't walk, swim, fly or grow, don't eat it.

Valgal · Post by **Valgal** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:18 am

I agree. But sometimes when you need motivation or you're frustrated, it help to track things. It keeps you interested, almost like a game. It's a personal preference.

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:11 pm

i'll make this as simple as i can...

there is no way you can even estimate "suppossed" calorie use through exercise...intense exercise has you burning caloires for up to 38hrs afterwards which means you may be cutting cal's too low in genral thus risking muscle loss / metabolism shift which is making you fatter...easy cardio can have you burning far less cal's then you think if you've done it too many and if you haven't decreased cal's to match this, again you risk losing muscle and decreasing metabolism again making you fatter

eat clean, train hard, look in the mirror, notice how your clothes fit and adjust as needed

Valgal · Post by **Valgal** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 5:13 am

Well, everyone can find an article, study, or whatever to support their statements. I do it too. Bottom line, find what works for you. I'm sure you will

Christopheel · Post by **Christopheel** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:09 am

Valgal wrote:Well, everyone can find an article, study, or whatever to support their statements. I do it too. Bottom line, find what works for you. I'm sure you will

You think that a 35 Years Old women, 150lbs, 5'5 that as been active all her life compare too a 35 Years Old Women, 150lbs, 5'5 that isn't active will burn as much calories walking at the same speed ?

Their are TOO MANY FACTORS you can't calculate.

Plus, when you eat often, have high intensity exercises etc. the F BMR doesn't scale anymore, you can't just do the math it won't ever be normalize for anyone.

Now it's your choice, you need article well search them.

And by the way, you are surely starving yourself or don't have the right workout/cardio plan with 1400 calories ... By this, loosing muscle along with fat witch is unhealthy and will kill your metabolism and slow your fat lost.

Boss Man · Post by **Boss Man** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 2:14 pm

I would agree upto a point Valgal. I appreciate you may feel what works best for you is right, but can you truly know if it's right or not?

Some studies are preliminary, and offer vague or plausible insights into a persons physical future.

Calculating caloric burn from exercise is very futile. You would need to calculate it for example, using an interval setting on an Exercise Bike, for 20-30 minutes, with one person using about 14 different makes for 2-3 weeks, to ascertain a common caloric value burned.

Even that would probably be 99% effective. It's just not as easy as calculating Blood Pressure or something like that.