Questions about calories [calories] [treadmill]
Ok, Ive walked on my treadmill and wondering what is the difference between calories and fat and calories per day is good to burn? For example the other day I walked 2 miles and said I burned 250 calories and 80 fat calories, and if anything. What should I go?
Reply:I presume the treadmill is giving you a breakdown in calories and fat calories. I wouldn't even read the figure you are reading for fat calories and would use the total calorie figure as a guide only. If you enter your age and weight on the treadmill, the total calories burned can only be a rough estimate as we all burn calories at different rates. A more accurate figure would require, age, weight, height, sex, heart rate and body fat % etc, and to my knowledge no machines are readily available to do all of this.
The theory goes that you need to do aerobic exercise to burn fat, and the only way to estimate your activity level outside a lab is to measure your heart rate. Your target aerobic training zone is generally 60% to 85% of your maximum heart rate (MHR is 220 minus your age). If you are 30, your MHR is 190 (220-30) and your target heart rate is between 60% and 85% of 190 (114 to 161 beats per minute). However you are still burning calories outside of this fat burning zone.
I would suggest you not worry about the fat calories at this point, simply exercise using the treadmill 'calories burned' figure as a general guide. For a guide to exercising aerobically, you can use a much repeated test that says if you are puffing too hard to carry on a conversation, you are working too hard, if you can sing your national anthem, you are not working hard enough. Remember that weight loss will only occur if your total calories taken in is lower than your total calories expended (exercise and normal metabolic calorie usage).
