Cardio Equipment Lies

I hate to burst your cardio queen bubble, but that faithful piece of cardio of equipment lies to you like Tiger lied to Elin--consistently and creatively.

Jump on any piece of cardio equipment and there are an array of numbers that dance on the screen providing feedback about your current performance. See speed, distance, resistance, incline, heart rate and calories as examples.

As far as speed, resistance or incline goes, you’re pretty safe. Most of the time those numbers are at least close to accurate. It’s near heart rate and calories that thing get very hazy.

The fact is cardio equipment drastically over estimates how many calories a person burns. Even if you put in your weight, age and wear a heart rate monitor. By drastically, I’m talking no less than 250 to 500 calories per session. Back away from the stale donut in the office break room.

I know fitness devotes who live their life to hit that magic number of calories burned. They run or climb or ellipse their way to see that magic number on the screen and then BEEP hit the big red stop button and call it an accomplishment. Well kids, it ain’t.

Let’s frame this conversation and dispel some myths. One pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. That means to lose a pound—just one--of fat a week you need to be in deficient 500 calories per day. Each. Day. Of. The. Week. Sadly, most folks significantly under estimate how many calories they take in and OVER estimate how many calories they put out. This is how the battle of the bulge is lost.

So, my love, when you hardly break a sweat on the elliptical and that darling piece of equipment states you burned 500 calories in 30 minutes, quite bluntly, you didn’t.

To determine how many calories you are actually burning during a cardio workout, you need to determine your basal metabolic rate or BMR. Your BMR is the minimum caloric requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. There are lots of intense mathematical formulas you could use to determine this, but if you didn’t pass advanced algebra, I wouldn’t try your hand at the Harris-Bennett formula. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris-Benedict_equation)

In addition to it being mind bending math, the equation does not take into account body composition, a measure of the percentages of muscle and fat composing your body. It is therefore less accurate if you have a non-typical amount of muscle. This is because muscle burns calories, while fat does not. Therefore, a person with an above average amount of muscle will have a higher BMR or RMR than calculated; a person with a below average amount of muscle will have a lower BMR or RMR than calculated.

Stay with me gang.

There is a better way to determine if you are working "hard enough" to reach your weight loss goals. Ready for it? Go breathless. That's right, work hard enough for short bursts or intervals to literally be breathless. A workout would look like this:

• Pick a piece of cardio equipment that works for you based on level, interest and injury.
• Then do a 5 minute warm-up with your "target effort" being a 5/6 on a scale of 1-10 for rate of perceived exertion.
• At minute 6, kick up your target effort level to a 7/8 and sustain that level from 0:30 seconds to 1:30 seconds.
• You'll know you are working hard enough if by the end of the work interval you are breathless.
• Recover for 2 minutes at level 6
• Repeat for 5 intervals
• Cool-down for 5 minutes
• Rate of perceived exertion: 1-10 1=couch surfing (very easy) 10=wind surfing with 10 foot waves (very hard)

If weight loss is your goal, than think of programming your cardio exercise by these two criteria; variety and intensity. Interval training (period of hard work/breathless to periods of recovery) has been proven to burn more calories through the after burn effect. So, the next time you jump on your beloved stairmaster, resist the urge to go the same speed, distance and time you always have. Shake things up and add the breathless concept to your workout. The benefit: more fun, more calories and more effect.

Now, go get 'em tiger.