How to Calculate Calories Burned

How To Burn Your Calories

Calculating the calories you burn is an overwhelming task and especially for those individuals who are interested in shedding some weight. However, with the advancements today, nearly all daunting tasks have become manageable if they are broken down to simple steps. Starting a weight lose program is a great idea if you want to burn calories and live healthy. 

The calories you burn during any exercise depend on some factors such as the method used, the exercises you carry out, the intensity, frequency, and consistence. Calculating burned calories helps individuals get motivation and track of their weight records therefore; it is an important activity to carry out. 

Here, we will look at some exercises that will help you burn calories

Running and walking

Walking or running are great activities that help you burn calories. The amount of calories you burn while walking or running depends on a number of factors, which include weight, sex, and speed. However, the most important factor is your weight because the heavier you are the more the energy you require. 

Stair climbing

At work, it is appropriate if you make use the staircases instead of using elevators. This great and simple exercise helps you burn some calories every single day. In addition, during lunch, you can allocate about twenty to thirty minutes for exercises and during this time, you can climb several fleets of stairs, and then go back to your office. 

Swimming

When swimming, you require a lot of energy because of water resistance. However, the type of stroke you use and the swimmers ability influence the amount of calories burnt. 

Bicycling 

Cycling is another exercise that helps you burn calories. The energy required to cycle uphill is more that the one required to cycle downhill or on a flat ground so if you want to burn more calories, you should cycle uphill. When cycling, speed is a crucial factor that you should consider – the more the speed the more the energy you require and thus the more the calories you shed.  

Aerobic dance 

This popular exercise has a range of styles and has varying degree and intensity. Aerobics of high impact and intensity can help you lose about ten calories per minute. 

In conclusion, we also have some supplements that burn calories and they include fat burners that contain bitter orange (citrus aurantium), caffeine, green tea, yerba mate, and creatine.

HOW CAN YOU DETERMINE YOUR CALORIE BURN?

What number of calories do you think you burned during your workout today? That’s the question we ask ourselves daily considering that the main purpose of working out is to burn calories. Most people would like to calculate the amount of calories they burn everyday so that they can compare it with the amount of calories they consume therefore using the deficit to lose weight. However, this is not possible as they don’t know how to calculate calories burned. 

This estimate can only be achieved by tracking your workouts and calculations amid factors like intensity of the workout, heart rate, weight and age. Wearing a heart monitor i.e. a sports watch can be used to calculate this. However, when using a sport watch you need to ensure that it’s constantly in contact with your skin for accurate results. This may not be the case always as too much sweat may break this contact.

CALORIE EXPENDITURE FORMULA

Therefore the most accurate method on how to calculate calories burned is the use of calorie expenditure formula.

MEN:

Men use the below formula.

Calories Burned = [(Age x 0.2017) + (Weight x 0.09036) + (Heart Rate x 0.6309) -- 55.0969] x Time/4.184

On the other hand women use the following formula.

Calories Burned = [(Age x 0.074) -- (Weight x 0.05741) + (Heart Rate x 0.4472) -- 20.4022] x Time / 4.184

OTHER METHODS

HARRIS BENEDICT

This also takes into account age, weight, height and sex to determine the BMR. The activity level is arrived at by multiplying the BMR by the activity multiplier

FORMULA

MEN: 66 + (6.23 X weight in pounds) + (12.7 X height in inches) – (6.8 X age)

WOMEN: 655 + (4.35 X weight in pounds) + (4.7 X height in inches) – (4.7 X age)

Katch and Mcardle Method

This method includes the body composition in determining the BMR hence considered to be more accurate.

FORMULA

BMR (Men + Women) = 370 + (21.6 * Lean Mass in kg)

Lean Mass = weight in kg – (weight in kg * body fat %)
1 kg = 2.2 pounds, so divide your weight by 2.2 to get your weight in kg