Exercise and time spent in the gym???

[jen36 1]

How long on average is everyone spending in the gym daily, how many days a week and about how many calories are you burning? I spend a little over an hour there about 4 to 5 days a week and burn between 400 and 500 each time but is that enough? And I know the equipment isn't really accurate so should I be doing more?

[Noturningback15 45]

I just left the gym and I spent 30min on the eliptical and 30 min on the bike at a moderate pace for the most part. I increased the incline and went faster thoughout the whole workout. I weigh 322 and according to www.healthstatus.com calculater I burned at total of 1342 calories. 512 on the bike and 831 on the eliptical. I would say that it may not be quite accurate but I do burn more based on my weight. I lost 4 pounds last week eating around 1800 calories a day. M-F everyday for one hour in the gym. MWF I do my resistance bands and a little walking.

[Melissannde 41]

The estimates on the machines are really inaccurate.

When I would record my exercise at livestrong.com/thedailyplate, I would cut my time in half. ie: exercise 60 minutes.. record it as 30 to make up for the discrepancies.

Then I got a Polar HR Monitor and was shocked to find that even cutting my workout times in half, I was still getting credit for too much work done.

If you have the funds available, I'd try getting a HR monitor, preferably one with a chest strap. I had a cheapie w/o a strap, it didn't work very well. Polar makes good ones, or there's the Bodybugg, GoFit Wear (I think is a bb clone). Omron makes excellent pedometers, I bet they make good HR monitors too.

As to how much time in the gym?

Mon: 3 to 4 hours (weights, RPM, Zumba, Yoga, abs class)

Tues: 90 min (Yoga, Cardio)

Wed: 2 Hrs (Body Pump, RPM)

Thurs: 90 min (Pilates, Cardio)

Fri: either a day off or 1 hr of Body Pump

Sat: If I worked out Friday.. 1 HR of Zumba. If I didn't work out Friday.. 2 Hrs.. Body Pump & Zumba.

Sunday: Rest.

I do extra Zumba classes when I feel the need and have the energy.

Calorie burn for me.. according to HR monitor.. is an average of 200 cal/hour. But it can depend on the class, the instructor and other variables.

For example: today, Yoga was 75, RPM was 216, Zumba: 267, Weights: 295, Abs: 44 (the Yoga class was 30 min & Abs class was 15 minutes).

Hope this helps

Edited September 27, 2010 by Melissannde
adding calorie burn info

[jen36 1]

Are you kidding Melissannd? Really in half? I feel like I have been doing all the exercising for nothing!!!!!! Boy I would have to be there for 2hrs just to burn a legit 500 calories!!!! Wow how unmotivating.

[MollyRN 28]

Machines are really bad at guessing. You can get a better idea online playing with the different calculators.

I don't have the time to spend 3-4 hours a day in the gym (I would if I could) - so I do interval training. We have a track around our gym so I walk or run two laps, do a weight exercise, run 3 minutes, do a weight exercise, stair climb 3 minutes, do a weight exercise and so on for 40 minutes every morning (5 days per week) - and so far, this has been great. Plus my calorie burn is pretty high because my heart rate really spikes in those intervals. I think it is a great workout when you have limited time.

[vlp1968 83]

Remember, it's not just the calories you burn during the workout. Cardio increases your metabolism across the day. I do 40 minutes on the treadmill about 5 days a week. I walk for 2 minutes, jog for 3. I also do weights with a trainer 3 times a week. I highly reccomend it if you can afford it. I think it's money well spent. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn across the day.

[Melissannde 41]

Are you kidding Melissannd? Really in half? I feel like I have been doing all the exercising for nothing!!!!!! Boy I would have to be there for 2hrs just to burn a legit 500 calories!!!! Wow how unmotivating.

I don't mean to be unmotivating.. but yes, it is shocking that we probably aren't burning as much as we hoped.

I figure it's better to UNDER estimate what I'm doing (and be pleasantly surprised) than to over estimate and wonder why I'm not getting the anticipated results.

You haven't been doing the exercise for nothing. You're getting your heart and lungs in better condition, you're toning and building muscles. Muscle is much more efficient at burning calories than fat.

Just if you've been using the machines calculations..it just might not be as much of a burn as you thought. I said Might not.. it also might be right on target or below.

[jen36 1]

I do alot of that on the treadmill, running/walking and going up hill I do all of that the hour I am on there. So let me ask this does the machines at the gym calculate higher calorie burn as your heart rate really increases? Is that how it works?

[Jachut 487]

I rarely go in a gym, but I do exercise five or six days a week of varying intensities.

Generally on a Monday I'll go to bootcamp, which is pretty full on, I'd have no idea how much I burn, its very cardio/circuit/interval style stuff and generally someobody pukes, lol.

other days I run, I do an interval run or two in the week and a couple of slower longer runs. Maybe one day a week I'll have a long walk instead. Sometimes I go to bootcamp for boxing on a thursday as well.

I'd guess, but its only a guess, that I'd burn about 700 calories a session.

Mind you, when I started, I run a mere 3kms at a time and burned about 300. Its all relative, it was enough to get weight moving at the time because my body wasnt super efficient at it. I was working as hard then to do that as I do now to burn more than twice as much.

Gym machines just give you an average for the average person doing the exercise. Ellipticals are inaccurate because they sort of assume you're moving, when in fact your feet do not clear the ground. They're good calorie burners but nowhere near the 1000 and hour they tell you, you'd be dropping down dead. If you cant burn 1000 calories in a hour actually running (and most people wouldnt have the stamina) then you sure as eggs cant do it on an elliptical where you're not actually moving across the ground.

Edited September 27, 2010 by Jachut

[Noturningback15 45]

I rarely go in a gym, but I do exercise five or six days a week of varying intensities.

Generally on a Monday I'll go to bootcamp, which is pretty full on, I'd have no idea how much I burn, its very cardio/circuit/interval style stuff and generally someobody pukes, lol.

other days I run, I do an interval run or two in the week and a couple of slower longer runs. Maybe one day a week I'll have a long walk instead. Sometimes I go to bootcamp for boxing on a thursday as well.

I'd guess, but its only a guess, that I'd burn about 700 calories a session.

Mind you, when I started, I run a mere 3kms at a time and burned about 300. Its all relative, it was enough to get weight moving at the time because my body wasnt super efficient at it. I was working as hard then to do that as I do now to burn more than twice as much.

Gym machines just give you an average for the average person doing the exercise. Ellipticals are inaccurate because they sort of assume you're moving, when in fact your feet do not clear the ground. They're good calorie burners but nowhere near the 1000 and hour they tell you, you'd be dropping down dead. If you cant burn 1000 calories in a hour actually running (and most people wouldnt have the stamina) then you sure as eggs cant do it on an elliptical where you're not actually moving across the ground.

That's so funny!!!! (The eggs comment)!!!! LMBO!!:smile:

[neenee717 37]

Gym machines are okay. I focus on being active. Sonetimes we get too caught up in calorie count or burn. If u put in the 30 min or 1 each day and build muscles you will burn the calories even at rest and you will see differnece in body shape even when the scale isnt dropping. Muscles burn fat anyhow. I'm gonna definitely try and get into weight training boot camp style stuff. It really works

[SVM10 6]

Well, This is very interesting. I use LIVESTRONG.COM - Health, Fitness, Lifestyle | LIVESTRONG.COM daily and I get pretty accurate results from my input from the machines and my calories I eat. I always put my weight and age in the machines and remember to input the displayed calories burned into livestrong.com when I get home. I clearly see when I burn more calories than I ate and those are the days I lose and when its pretty even I maintain and when I eat more calories than I burn I gain. It must be different for different people. My input from the gym machines and my weight lifting is rarely off.

[BeachBabe 0]

I do a bootcamp 3 times a week for one hour. In general you burn 400-500 calories for every hour of moderate to medium excersize. I would definately not think that you should cut whatever you think you are burning in half! The LiveStrong website is pretty accurate.

[Melissannde 41]

I use the livestrong site too and I don't find it to be accurate at all. :smile:

[Jachut 487]

You cant actually know unless you're somehow measuring the output of YOUR body. You will in general burn more than average if you're heavier, less than average if you're lighter. I can set my treadmill to 4.5 miles an hour and walk that, but I can also jog that slow, and I am burning more calories jogging it than walking it because I use that extra bit of muscle to clear the ground with both limbs (the argument that running and wallking burn the same is a myth, there's not a lot of difference but there is a difference). Either way the treadmill will say I burned the same.

An average worked out on your height, weight, age and level of intensity will be pretty accurate, but not 100% because people are not averages. But my treadmill doesnt ask for input of personal stats so I pay no mind at all to what it says.

It doesnt matter really though, you're unlikely to be out by hundreds of calories and lets face it, there's huge inacccuracy in weighibng, measuring and apportioning calories to food too - and most people are not able to acurately predict their resting metabolic rates either. If you have a deficit then at the end of the day you'll lose weight. If you absolutely HAVE to know all those figures exactly so that you can be sure you'll lose exactly 100.75lb in 43.74 weeks, then you need a hobby, urgently, lol.