My philosophy is to use the information as a guide and determine what works for yourself. If necessary consult a physician or other trained professional however your body belongs to you and you therefore need to be the one making the decisions and taking responsibility...
Measuring Calories being burnt with exercise
While I measure the calories I burn during cardio exercises on the gym machines this is purely as a way of gaining some form of comparison for each of my work outs. Just spending 20 minutes on a machine is not going to help with measuring progress if that is all you measure. One day you may use level 5, the next level 1 yet you'll have no way of remembering or improving. While not perfect, and also flawed, I try to use calories as the basic measure I use on gym cardio equipment.
A 20 minute high intensity workout that burns 400 calories will still be 'better' for you than a 30-40 minute gentle workout that burns 400 or 500 calories. The aim is to get the heart beating, work the muscles and the lungs, get sweating and push yourself. However this is harder to measure, so I typically keep the machine on the 20 minute interval/high intensity work out and try and push myself that bit harder to burn more calories (as measured by the machine) each day. This shows some degree of progress.
I'm now averaging between 500-1000 calories a day (depending whether a week day or a weekend) on the cardio equipment. That's useful however is it possible to convert that into more meaningful information, such as how much weight I will loose? Some people and books will say yes, others no.. The basic fact is that the calories being burnt will help, however there are plenty of other factors...
The typical view is that there are 3500 calories per pound of body fat. In order to lose just one pound of stored fat we need to burn off 3500 extra calories. Unsure if body fat differs per person but this is a good view. So if I burn around 3500 calories on the machines each week I should be able to burn a pound of fat a week... right? wrong?...
Wrong.. It depends on how much you are eating, your muscle mass and many other factors... This brings me to my next point... I'd recommend not to be fixated on calories. It is a useful guide but also flawed and open to misinterpretation...
Measuring Calories being taken in with food and liquid
It is pretty difficult to measure every calorie that you ingest accurately, it is not worth trying. However a a broad guideline the typical human (if one exists) should take in between 2000 and 2500 calories a day. Typically women will have the lower end of the scale and men the upper end.
However there are a number of modifications to consider:
- If you do very little exercise then you probably want to be reducing your calorie intake a little
- If you do a lot of exercise you want to be increasing your calorie intake
- If you're trying to lose weight (i.e. fat) then aim to have a 500 calorie deficit a day between what you intake and the exercise you do. Trying to do a crash weight loss rarely works in the long term.
Weight
I'm aiming to be 70kg / 154lbs... except I'm not.. I'm actually targeting to be around 14% body fat, down from my current 21%. I just happen to know that unless I try and really bulk up my body like a body builder (not interested!) that at 14% body fat I will weigh around 70kg. Hence for me, measuring my weight is a useful guide on progress, however it is not my real target. I know this from past experience of what I weighed when I was at 14%.
Why is measuring weight flawed? Well fat is less dense than muscle. That means that I could have a higher weight than expected if I build more muscle and lose far. i.e. my weight could conceivably increase even though I am losing fat... Hence weight alone is flawed.
BMI
BMI, or Body Mass Index was invented between 1830 and 1850 by a Belgian called Adolphe Quetelet. It was seen as a useful mechanism for judging whether someone was Underweight, Normal, Overweight or Obese.
BMI is flawed but can be used as a guide. BMI doesn't measure your fitness and some people find it easier to stay light, even if they are very unfit (i.e. walk up a slight hill and they'll be breathing heavily). The two main challenges with BMI often mentioned are:
- The average human is statistically in 2010 than they were in 1830 and hence the formula needs to be adjusted
- BMI doesn't distinguish weight due to fat and weight due to lean muscle. With muscle being more dense than fat many sports athletes would be rated as Obese by BMI even though they have very low body fat.
Body Fat Percentage
So this is why I use body fat percentage as my main goal. There is plenty of information on the internet available to read however a typical range is shown below from the American Council.
| Description | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| Essential fat | 10-13% | 2-5% |
| Athletes | 14–20% | 6-13% |
| Fitness | 21–24% | 14–17% |
| Acceptable | 25–31% | 18–24% |
| Obese | 32%+ | 25%+ |
There are other tables and charts available on the internet which also vary by age and other factors. Body fat percentage also has issues and flaws, ultimately I'm not just looking to weigh 70kg, have 14% body fat.. I'm also look to be 'fit', have stamina and be able to jog a brisk 5-10 miles without suffering a heart attack.
As ever, whatever method you utilise, it should still be considered purely a guide. Everyone is different! There are plenty of other factors and measurements that can be used however no one method is perfect! Body Fat, BMI, Weight etc are not measurements of fitness, you can have acceptable measurements in these and still be out of breath after a half mile jog...
I can't keep up with your blog posting........
ReplyDelete