Good morning, welcome to our third edition of Dear Heather and this week, we’ve got three good questions to discuss. I’m not sure if we’ll be featuring Dear Heather next week, though we’ll let next week take care of itself when it gets here. In the meanwhile, it’s December 21st and we have just 4 shopping days left till Christmas – including today – so I’ll try not to keep you here too long if you’ve got places to be.
Do Calorie Counters Work?
Dear Heather,
I’ve been trying to get my workout in regularly and I have a gym membership. Most of the cardio equipment there features a calorie counter that tells me how many calories I’ve burned. If it reads 350 calories – is that how many calories I’ve burned in that workout session? I need to know because I want to burn 500 calories a day based on that plan you were talking about to burn 3500 a week. Help?
– Lisa Mills
Dear Lisa,
I love the calorie counter on the treadmill, the bike and the elliptical machine. They give me a great mental boost to see how many calories all that sweaty effort burns off and I’m pretty sure you’re feeling good about it right now too. I spent about three months last year pushing myself on the treadmill until the calorie counter hit 500 every day, six days a week with only one day off. I noticed very definitive results. That being said – those calorie counters are not always exact in their accuracy. Most gym equipment has been designed around a healthy young male’s level of physical output. So while you may be programming in your weight and your age, the equipment is using formulas designed around a male figure of the same height and weight. The biological differences between men and women can create a discrepancy in that calorie reader.
There is also some evidence that some machines may actually boost the calorie readout versus the actual output of effort. Your best bet is to remember that you want a steady workout at varying paces for 30 to 45 minutes a day on a piece of cardio equipment. You will burn calories during that workout and your metabolism will continue to burn calories in the hours following the workout. The more you workout, the more your muscles build, the more calories you will burn. Enjoy the calorie counters, but base your workouts more on content than on counters. Good luck.
Six Days a Week? Really?
Dear Heather,
You’ve mentioned that you need to do a cardio workout six days a week to really see results from it. Do I really need to workout six days a week? It’s hard enough now to find time three days a week.
– Kari Webber
Dear Kari,
I feel your pain. You don’t have to do it six days a week, but five days a week is a good goal to target for yourself. You will enjoy taking two days a week off and you might want to work your routine around the rest of your schedule, i.e. Monday workout, Tuesday off, Wednesday workout, Thursday workout, Friday off, Weekend workout – or you can work out Monday through Friday with Saturday and Sunday off. The idea is to work out for a minimum of 30 minutes a session. If you have a hard time with the extra two days, try to break those days up into 10 minute increments three times a day to get your maximum achieved. Good luck!
How Hard Do I Need to Workout to Lose Weight?
Dear Heather,
I want to lose weight. I’m damn near desperate to do it. I’ve tried every diet under the sun and some of them work, but most of them don’t. How hard do I need to ramp up my exercise to achieve my goals?
– Claudia
Dear Claudia,
The short and hard facts say that you need to workout 5 to 6 days a week and you need to combine cardio and weight training to get the best results. You want to workout 45 minutes per session and you want to make the calories you burn ramp up. So imagine if you will, beginning your workout at a light, but steady pace and increasing the number of minutes and the intensity gradually over time. The more you build muscle, the more calories you will burn. You won’t notice the weight loss as quickly as you may like if you judge it only in pounds lost because muscle weighs more than pounds. So for every one pound of muscle you put on, you may burn two or three pounds of fat, but you won’t see the results in those numbers. Before beginning your fitness program, take your measurements around your waist, your thighs, your arms, your chest, neck, wrist and ankles. Every four to six weeks, check those inches. In my initial weight burn program, I dropped four dress sizes, but I only lost about 20 pounds – so don’t let the scale drive you mad. Good luck with your workout.
Do you have some questions you’d like answered?
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