How do you calculate calories burned?

[etothepii]

I was reading an article by John Berardi and got very confused. In figuring burned calories due to exercise, I'd usually look up (on the internet) whatever is considered standard calories burned for a certain activity and multiply by the number of minutes.

Example: Heavy free weight training: 6 calories per minute. Workout time:45 minutes. So,calories burned = 6*45 = 270.
This seems to be the way fitday.com, and some other web sites I've seen does it.

Well, Berardi takes that number and multiplies it by body mass (in kg) and then by workout duration (in hours).

So for me, 6 * 70kg * .75hrs = 315.

Can anyone help me out of my confused state?

Thanks.

[Maxgain]

Honestly none of them are probably right so just pick one set of guideline and stick to it. Taking in your body weight may be a better idea

[Pelon]

It is difficult to really know how many calories you are burning during an activity. The information on all these websites are based on averages that may be way off for an individual. For instance, you commonly see cycling calorie burn rates based on average speed. The higher your average speed, the more calories you are burning. The problem with this is that environmental factors (hills, wind, etc.) can drastically reduce your speed without reducing your effort. A better way to calculate calorie burn rate would seem to be through measuring your heart rate during activities. I know that Polar and other manufacturers calculate claories burned in this fashion. Unfortunately, I've never been able to find an equation that shows how they come up with their numbers.

I agree with Maxgain in that the important thing to do is to pick one and stick with it. It may not be totally accurate, but at least it will be consistent.

Not sure if this helps or not, pelon:

A healthy 35-year-old male of average weight (170 pounds) who has not been sedentary would have a VO2 max around 2.5 liters per minute. To convert that to calories burned, multiply by 5, which equals a VO2 max of 12 calories per minute. However, this is the amount of calories burned at maximum intensity; an untrained person would be only to able to hold this level for one to two minutes. With increasing fitness, your VO2 max rises, and the amount of minutes you can spend at higher levels, closer to your VO2 max, also goes up.

That same 35-year-old male who begins a serious aerobic exercise program could bring that VO2 max up to 18 calories per minute. Assuming he could hold exercise intensity at 80 percent of maximum for 45 minutes, he would burn 650 calories. And this would not include the extra calories burned post-workout as his body recovers. Add in some resistance training to increase muscle mass, and the total caloric burn rises a little more.

[Pelon]

That is helpful. Where did you find that information? It wold be interesting to see how bodyweight would affect the numbers.

Try this link.

[Pelon]

Thanks. There is some good information in there. Now I just need to find out what my VO2 Max is.

There are several ways to calculate VO2max. Here is one provided by Bodybuilding.com

And another provided by, I think, Sports Coach.