Calorie Counters Could Be Misleading And Sabatoging Your Workout

I get people that tell me all the time about how many calories they burned during their workout.

"Dude, I had a killer workout. I burned over 500 calories on the stairmaster."

I don't mean to ruin your workout entirely, but some of the calorie counters on these machines could be misleading. They could be giving you a number that is higher or lower than what you are actually burning. I don't have my clients focus so much on counting calories, especially how much you are burning during workouts, but in case you do focus on that, read on.

First of all, those numbers that the calorie counter are spewing out should be used more as a guideline rather than gospel. You need a lot more sophisticated equipment to measure calories than just gripping the handle bars of this cardio machine.

A lot that determines how many calories you burn depends on your own fitness level. The more in shape you are, the fewer calories you could burn. For example, if you are a beginner at level 1, you will start off shedding more calories than a fitness stud at level 1. The fitness stud would have to crank up the intensity to burn the same amount of calories.

To get a better feel for how many calories you are burning, you should probably invest in a heart rate monitor. The machines heart rate sensor shouldn't be the one you solely rely on, so having another heart rate monitor, can help take out a lot of guesswork. Polar's Fitness F4 Training Computer is recommended by Men's Fitness and this could probably work for you. Being able to see where your heart rate is will help determine your intensity level, thus give you a truer indicator about burning the right amount of calories.

According to Men's Fitness, here is what you should expect to burn per minute based on activity:
• Low Intensity Training (softball, golf) 4-6 calories if you're fit, 6-8 calories if you aren't
• Moderate Intensity Training (jogging, rowing) 8-10 calories if you're fit, 10-12 if you aren't
• High Intensity Training (running, boxing) 12-15 calories if you're fit, 15-20 if you aren't