It is the end figure illuminated on the treadmills display that often dictates to someone whether or not they've had a productive workout. If an hour passes and they're not happy with the figure displayed they'll often stay for an extra half hour/hour to help increase it - nevertheless this is all well and good but do any of these people know exactly what figure their trying to achieve?! I mean what figure do they reach before they decide; time's up!
Well for most people who either run, row, cycle, etc their main goal is probably fat loss. (although we already know, looking back at a recent blog post that long duration cardio has a negative impact on fat loss)
With this goal in mind then, how many Kcals are needed to burn... lets say a 1lb of fat?
If you type into Google "how many kcals are in one pound of fat" the answer you get is about 3,500kcals, however if we look at the science the figure is more like 4,082Kcals.
That's right - 4,082Kals Equate to One Pound of Fat
Now I'm not saying jump on a treadmill and reach 4,000kcals every workout, that would be ludicrous. What I am saying is, we now have a better idea of the figure we need to reach in order to burn a pound of fat.
E.g If you need to lose an extra 5lbs then you should aim for a calorie expenditure of 20,410Kals over a period of time to help with this weight loss.
Bare in mind this doesn't have to come from exercise alone, by adjusting your diet, taking into account your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR - amount of Kcals you burn while resting) and eating the right foods at the right times will help with total calorie expenditure.
Let this be quick reference, something tangible, to help keep you focused and on the right track. This figure can be used as a goal, something to aim for when training without over complicating things.
Remember though the science of fat loss and body re-composition isn't as simple as calories in vs. calories out.
But how do you know how much fat you need/want to lose? Is there a formula to calculate how much actual fat is in your extra 5 pounds of body weight?
ReplyDeleteThe only way you could do that is to have a qualified trainer take your body fat measurements and weight, from there they would then be able to calculate it out.
ReplyDeleteCool, thanks, Chris!
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ReplyDeleteHow many calories in a pound of fat
ReplyDeleteGood luck ,Great post,y love you!Thanks for the info it had cleared out too many things in my mind. Your recommendations are really good.