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This morning I was sweating away to Maroon Five on the gym's elliptical trainer. I got a good 45 minutes in -- plenty of high intensity intervals thrown in the mix -- I was feeling strong, empowered and ready to start the day.
But before I hit the shower, hmmm... Let's see. How many calories did I burn? I check out the display on the elliptical machine:
Whoa! Holy cow! 584 calories in 45 minutes! Oh, yeah! I was workin' it, baby!
Wait a minute, what about my trusty heart rate monitor? What?!? Only 366 calories? Who is right? What gives?
Sorry, to break it to you, gals, but the heart rate monitor is more right. Cardio machines at a gym or at home are as notorious for lying as my first grader was (that was a frustrating phase!). The machine spits out greatly exaggerated numbers for calories burned, often up to 30-40% more than the actual calories expended.
So, treat the cardio machine like your aunt who exaggerates everything (I had all my babies with no anesthesia, I only gained 10 lbs per pregnancy, I cooked for 300 the night after I delivered my 5th child, I used only cloth diapers, I ironed my husbands shirts every morning, etc.). Check it out, politely smile, then mentally slash it in half and that is the approximate truth. If you are a numbers freak like me, get a good heart rate monitor (I will post on this in the future) and it will be much more accurate.
1 comments:
Well that's just depressing! :) You are a good/funny writer. I love reading your stuff.
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