Estimating caloric burn for cardio

[Titan]

So I recently bought a polar heart-rate monitor. After consulting with a very good holistic trainer he decided I should do longer workouts with a HR at only 130. The reason for this is I am a very high-strung person who works a stressful job (programming) and I am kindof always in a persistent state of mild (but manageable) anxiety that I get from my parents. I burned out once, I've talked about this before here, so I agree with him it's a good idea to not spike my cortisol levels unnecessarily. I am stressed out enough. I always walk fast everywhere and outpace people in the mall, at 350 pounds. So I'm focusing on doing something I've almost never done in my life - stop rushing. I have to tell myself to go slower and I will still get there. I've been having a semi - successful battle against this trait of mine and have moments of peace and clarity. I am so used to putting the blinders on and charging ahead that I can function and do almost anything in that mode. But it's not healthy for me. I like the peace that comes when I can clear my head for 10 minutes or a whole morning. Doing these 55 minute cardio sessions with a HR of 130 has been helping me a lot in this regard. So please don't dispute the usefulness of this low-impact workout for me, at least without thinking about all I just wrote here.

Anyway, to get on topic, I am wondering roughly how many calories a day I am burning. I am doing 55 minute sessions of cardio where the machine calculates 2.5 miles of equivalent distance. I enter my bodyweight at the beginning into the machine. My bw is also in my HR monitor. So after one 55 minute session, the machine says 400 calories, and the wrist-monitor calculates about 700 calories. It doesn't measure my body temperature.

I first thought that the machine tracks things like watts and I know my physics so was thinking the machine would be more accurate, it can actually monitor the energy expended into the activity.

But then I got to thinking no machine is 100% efficient, especially the human body, so I am probably burning more than what the machine measures, unless they adjust for that. But how could they? Everybody is unique.

I move really well for a 350 pounds (6'4") man so I am guessing it's somwehre between 400 and 700. Maybe 500 calories?

I like the Polar monitor how it talks to the elliptical machine and wirelessly sends the data to the machine so I can just glance at the machine for updates and not have to check my wrist or hold the dumb electrodes.

I found this site

http://www.internetfitness.com...lators/calburncalc.htm

And a 3.5 MPH walk for me comes out at 630 calories. That's about my pace.

So I am doing this twice a day, am I really burning over 1000 calories in 2 hours?

I know if I wanted to go get tested for this I could, but I'm just looking for rough ballpark guidance. So am I closer to 400 calories or 700 calories?

 

[katank]

My gut feeling is that it's virtually impossible to estimate to any degree of accuracy. The question is whether the exact number actually matters.

It's clear that exercising like this is providing benefits to you both physical and mental. If you have specific goals in mind (performance or weight), you can tweak your diet to achieve them.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

I was on the bodyrecomp forums and i saw this thread yesterday. Neat little device that's supposed to track how many calories you've burned throughout the day. Looks pretty expensive.

http://forums.lylemcdonald.com/showthread.php?t=3461

 

[SociallyChallenged]

There's no real way to fully and accurately figure out how many calories you're burning. The best way to tell is the surefire test. Over a 5-day average, are you decreasing your body weight? If you are at an average rate of about 1-1.5 pounds per week, then you are in a deficit of about 500 calories. Don't overthink things. You can lose weight at the correct rate without any technology at all. Well, except a scale of course.

 

[Check]

Referring to the OP's link:
Under the "Daily Life Activities" portion there is "Sex: Moderate Effort".

I would like to see an estimate for "Sex: Porn-like"

 

[KingGheedora]

You're right, no formula will ever accurately predict for everyone simply based on height and weight. You can get your metabolic rates tested empircally. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5834219 . New Leaf has sites all over where you can get tested (there's a thing on their site where you put in your zip code and they'll tell you the centers nearest you where you can get tested).



I just got a Garmin Forerunner 310xt wrist watch style pedometer, along with a wireless heart rate monitor (chest strap). It's pretty cool, and there's an option to have Garmin's calories burned calculation be based on data that was collected specifically from New Leaf. I thought about getting it done since it's only around $150, but I'm not that motivated to do it since for me it'd be more out of curiosity and novelty rather than necessity. It sounds like in your case you would want accurate data for this given your weight so you might want to consider something like this.