All about estimating calories spent during exercise

[About Estimating Calories][Advanced Estimation][Table of Coefficients]

About Estimating Calories

The number of calories your body expends during exercise depends on many factors, including:

	The type of activity.
	Your body weight (the more you weigh, the more work you have to do to move your body).
	The amount of time you spend exercising.
	The effort level (or intensity) of the exercise (for example, running uphill requires more energy than running on a flat track).
	Your body's unique metabolism (how efficiently you use the calories that you intake as food).

To estimate the calories expended during a workout, Runner's Log and Cyclist's Log use a simple formula. That is,

(1) Calories Spent = M_activity * Duration of exercise * Body Weight

Alternatively, the program can use the distance instead of the duration of the entry, as in,

(2) Calories Spent = M_activity * Distance traveled * Body Weight

In either case, the program will convert the duration which you enter into minutes, and your body weight into kilograms (kg). In the case of the second method for calculating calories, the program converts the distance you enter into kilometers (km). In other words, you can enter your weight in lbs if you like, your distances in miles, and the duration in hours:minutes:seconds, and the program will take care of the conversions for you.

The factors shown in the equations above as M_activity are known as the "calorie coefficient" and are different for each type of activity. Also, depending on which equation is being used, the coefficient will be different. In other words, in the case of equation 1,

(1) M_{activity = Calories per
minute per kg}

And in the case of equation 2,

(2) M_{activity = Calories per km
per kg}

Since the equations used by the program do not take the level of effort or your metabolism into account, they are only estimates of the actual calories which your body will expend. This means, for example, that if you always run with a high level of effort, the default M_activity coefficient for running may not be as accurate as you would like.

Next... Advanced Calorie Estimation