Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: Carolyn on 25/01/2008 19:31:22
-
Not sure if this is the proper section for this, so mods please move if not.
This morning I went to they gym and walked for an hour @ 3mph. The computer on the treadmill said that I burned 229 calories. How does it know?
I thought the amount of calories we burned was based on how our individual metabolism works, our amount of muscle, and our body types.
Surely we don't all burn calories at the same rate........do we?
-
It's making a guess based on what an "average person" would burn.
-
It's making a guess based on what an "average person" would burn.
Now it just needs to find an average person, then it will be right.
-
It's making a guess based on what an "average person" would burn.
Thank you BC.
-
It's making a guess based on what an "average person" would burn.
Now it just needs to find an average person, then it will be right.
My thoughts exactly. [:D]
-
You can't be sure of your personal metabolic rate but you CAN treat Calories as 'relative'. Count what your present intake is over, say , a week - or, better still, a typical month in your life. You need to be honest and accurate. If you are not putting on or shedding weight, then this is your personal requirement. Compare this with what the book says. If your intake (in calculated calories) is 5% higher than the requirement that the book gives (for your weight, job type etc,) then you can correct for it when you read what the Gym machine tells you. In that case, it would be reading, effectively, 5% low. There is a lot of error in this sort of thing and it may not be worth while.
I think the best policy is just to eat slightly less each day and see if it makes you feel better and if you lose a bit of weight. As they say (rather inappropriately, here) "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".
Counting Calories (input or output), in itself, can have no effect on your health or weight.
Some stupid woman on TV the other week claimed that her over-weight was due to a very low metabolic rate. She claimed this on the basis that she had been in hospital for some time, ON A DRIP(!!!!!!!) and had not lost weight.
Eat to live - don't live to eat.