Fit Tip of the Day: The Most Accurate Way to Calculate Calories Burned From Workouts

Struggling to lose those extra pounds and can't figure out why? It may be due to miscalculating the calories burned during your workouts. Here are the top five reasons you are getting it wrong, and how to more efficiently calculate calories to help you reach your weight loss goals. 

    Reason #1: Your Cardio Equipment Doesn't Know You    

This is where I have noticed the biggest failure in recording calories burned. Cardio equipment - treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, etc. - are going off of some vague factors when calculating the number of calories you've worked off. For those of us who like to create our own cardio circuits (i.e. simply hitting the "Quick Start" button and manually increasing speed, incline, or resistance), the equipment assumes you are 150 lb and returns its value based on that weight. If you weight more than that, you are burning more calories, and if you weigh less, you are burning fewer calories. Of course  there are options to enter in more information about yourself - height, weight, gender, and age. The problem is, the numbers are still inaccurate because the machine does not know your muscle to fat ratio, stride efficiency, or bone structure. Because no two bodies are the same, it is impossible to get an exact calculation and the resulting calculation of calories burned can vary from 15% to 20%. 

More reasons and helpful calculations after the jump!

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