Fit With Z: Burning Calories

Q:		How many calories do I need per day to lose weight? How do you figure how many calories you burn riding an exercise bike for 30 minutes each day?Is there a formula like for BMI and etc (Height,Weight, Age)?

A:		Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. First, let me direct you to a website that will tell you about how many calories you should be consuming each day to stay at a weight you are: http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/calories-burned.php then to get to your target weight: http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/calories-goal.php There is even a more exact way to determine your daily caloric requirement, taking your body fat, activity level, and type of foods you consume into consideration that I could do for you if you wanted. Now here comes the hard part. To determine caloric expenditure for an activity, you need your weight, height, sex, body composition, and exact heart rate for the duration of exercise. Because all of these, except your height and sex, are not constant, it is impossible to determine caloric expenditure that will apply for two same exercise sessions. That's why when I was talking about heart rate monitor that have caloric expenditure calculators built in, they will account for those constantly changing variables. You have to remember that the more you do of something, your heart and your muscles will adapt, and you will need to work harder at that same exercise, or pick up something new in order to burn the same number of calories. Having said that, you can still get an 'estimate' of how much an activity like this would burn based on weight and duration. See http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/jumpsite/calculat.htm Keep in mind that this is an estimate at best. Finally, don't fall for this common error. If you go bike for 30 minutes instead of sitting on the couch, and you burn 300 calories for example, it does not mean that you lost 300 calories extra for that day. Sitting on the couch will burn about 1/3 of those 300 calories, so you need to subtract that off of the activity that you just did.