Re: [Paddlewise] calories

|Another writer mentioned, regarding the heart-rate monitors which are worn
|while exercising, that "Some of the monitors record calories burned during
|excercise..."

|These estimates of calorie consumption are the vaguest of guesses, based not
|on direct measurement of energy expended but on average estimated expenditure
|which in turn is derived from other averages.....and so on.

Twas I!  I figured that they were guestimates.  The dreadmill in the gym just
takes my weight and passed on angle of attack of the treadmill and speed comes
up with a
number of calories burned.  Gotta be a guess.

I had a Nordatrac a few years ago.  It had a computer that took into account
your gender, age, weight, etc., to calculate the number of calories burned.  It
also had a little gadget that you wore to detect your heart rate.  When you
heart rate was above a certain level it would beep at you.  One day I forgot to
put on the heart rate detector.  Twas Amazing!  The computer kept on working!
Told me my heartrate and calories burned, etc!

Could it be the heart rate detector did NOTHING?

|Simple heart-rate monitors are very helpful to record heart rate as such,
|which is what they're really designed for and all they really do with
|accuracy. All the other data are derived from the heart rate. They're fun to
|fool around with and they're nice distractions if you're bored with your
|daily run or treadmill time (or even your daily self-torture on the
|computerized multi-program "bicycling" or machine at the local fitness
|center. But they don't really measure calories, and are often quite
|inaccurate.

There is value in the heart rate monitor even the ones that guess on the number
of calories burned.  The monitor does indicate how hard you have work over a
period of time.  Which is really why I wanted to get one. I think you are right
about their accuracy concerning calorie burn.  But as long as its consistent in
its computation of calories burned its still usefull since that is an indication
of how much work one did.  I would hope they are roughly in the ballpark.  I
would hate to be told I burned 1000 calories when I did 250!  8-)  Or maybe its
the other way around that I would not like?  8-)

Thanks for the info....
Dan McCarty


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