Calorie Calculation

joescott

First 400 Flame Out

posted: 5/5/2009 at 9:00 AM

Eric, It looks like the calorie calculation -- I am now paying attention to it for the first time ever... Cry

-- is calculating gross calorie burn instead of net calorie burn. Although the gross number makes people feel better it is misleading. The net number is what will better help guys like me lose a few pounds because it accurately reflects the energy expended as compared to sitting on the couch. You might have a look at this RW article from a while back to understand better what I am talking about: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304-311-8402-0,00.html Best regards, Joe

- Joe

Goals: A good mile in June, all things considered. A BQ before registration opens.

eric :)

posted: 5/6/2009 at 12:40 AM

joescott, I agree that there are two numbers when it comes to calories expenditure. There's the total number of calories and the net calories. The total calories value is easy to calculate. As Amby said, it's simply Newtonian motion, and can be calculated quite accurately without fancy laboratory equipment. The net calories burnt is not as simple. Each person has a different basal metabolic rate. No equation can determine this value. The best we can do is find the average for a given population. Even if we have this average which we can use to come up with net calories burnt for an average person, it probably does not represent your net calorie burn and is therefore useless. eric :-)

joescott

First 400 Flame Out

posted: 5/6/2009 at 8:02 AM

Eric, OK, we will have to agree to disagree on this one, but no hard feelings. You will note that Amby provides a very simple and straightforward formula for NCB at the end of his article. This would be very easy to implement. I am sure there are differences in base metabolic rate for sure, but over the course of a 30-90 min (the time it takes for most of us to do a typical run) I would wager my paycheck that the differences between individuals are not nearly as significant as you think. At any rate, you have to agree that TCB is not a useful number for weight loss planning -- it is a gross overstatement of the effect of exercise and that fact is really indisputable. Whether it is a 25% or 35% overstatement may depend on the individual but it's going to be in that ballpark. Best regards, Joe

- Joe

Goals: A good mile in June, all things considered. A BQ before registration opens.

Calorie Calculation (Read 545 times)