I hope you are having a great Holiday Season and are enjoying some much needed time off with your family and friends.
I know you may be eating a little bit more than usual this time of year and maybe even sneaking in a few extra sugary or alcoholic drinks…
I’m here to tell you that as long as you don’t go off the deep end and you limit your cheat meals to a few special holiday parties you’ll be just fine.
Today, I also want to share with you a big fat cardio lie perpetuated by many equipment manufacturers.
It’s kind of sneaky and I wrote about it in my column on NutritionData the other day …
Here’s what is going on:
Many of the ellipticals and treadmills, arc trainers, etc. are misleading you with their calorie burning readouts. These pieces of equipment are telling people that they’re burning 800 – 900 calories per workout!
To be honest, you’d have to be well over 200 pounds and a novice exerciser to ever imagine burning that many calories per hour on an elliptical. The equivalent would be an average exerciser moving as fast as they possibly could NON-STOP for an hour (without passing out of course).
The realistic caloric burning potential for the average 3-5 day a week exerciser would be about 400 – 600 calories per hour depending on your weight, age, fitness level, intensity of exercise, and average heart rate.
The whole reason I felt like I needed to share this with you is that I don’t want you to think you’re burning 900 calories in a one hour workout and then believe you are able to eat more that day without gaining weight.
So as long as you know the MAXIMUM you’re most likely burning is around 500 for an average cardio workout you’ll be better able to gauge how many calories you can consume that day.
I hope this article helped clear up the cardio calorie display lie!
For all my weight loss keys to success check out the program I’ve designed for you below:
>>> http://www.Lose5in7.com
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Committed to your success,
Stephen Cabral, CSCS, CPT, NS
Author of Fatlossity, Lose5in7 Weight Loss System
Health Consultant for MTV, NutritionData, Diet.com, Gather, EDGE
http://StephenCabral.com
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Comments: 7
I would say that people should vary their routines and not stick to one machine all the time, anyway. Your body adapts to those things and makes itself more efficient so that you burn less than what the counter says.
You can still get an excellent workout indoors on an upright bike (not a recumbent). You don't have the same friction as being outside, but you can adjust the tension to compensate and crank up the intensity!
If you are a roughly 200 pound adult skating at an indoor rink nonstop for 2 hours with an 8 year old?
I am under 200 pounds now but when I started I was 240. 5'9, 240lbs I joined a tap dancing class (1 hour a week plus practicing on off days) and I take my kids rollerskating once or twice a week for 2 hours. I have been working out at home playing wii games "Just Dance" and "Your Shape"as well and have been consistently losing 3-4 pounds a week. I am just curious how much the rollerskating is burning.
I have been eating smarter too.