RemyLebeau97

I always wondered how people can figure out how many calories they are burning and not exceed their calorie intake??? I've read that your calorie intake plays a critical part in gaining weight. I also learned that if you burn more calories than your intake, then you will more than likely lose weight instead of gaining it. Ok so my questions are.......How do I find the right calorie intake for my weight and height? Second, how do I figure out how many calories I am burning? Third, is cardio the fastest way to burn calories? And fourth, how many calories equal out to a pound? I know some of these questions may be kind of dumb but Im just now starting to get into the health aspect or exercising, I would normally eat what ever I want and work out 4 times a week but that is driving me further and further from my goals. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks everyone.

st33lr4t

www.bodybuilding.com ...enjoy.

forseti-6

Those aren't dumb questions at all....
How do I find the right calorie intake for my weight and height?
Second, how do I figure out how many calories I am burning?

Sign up for this site: www.fitday.com
They give you an estimate of how many calories you are taking in and how many you are burning based on your activities. The caveat is that it's an estimate at best, but it's a good guideline.

Third, is cardio the fastest way to burn calories? I believe so. Activities such as running, swimming, biking, etc will burn a lot of calories.

And fourth, how many calories equal out to a pound? Approx 3500

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RemyLebeau97

Thanks for the feedback guys, greatly appreciated.

Plan9Senior

Remy, do some searching in these forums. I think I have covered all that you asked many times in different topics. After you do a little research, if you have anymore questions fire away .

BigBlueWrecking

The other thing you really have to do to burn calories is some sort of weight lifting if you are able. Lifting speeds up the body and will cause you to burn more calories. One thing that burns a lot of calories (not as much as running a marathon or anything) is muscles repairing themselves.

You also need one very important supplement:

Water!!!!!! Drink a lot of it.

You need a mix of all od these things. You will find with the more research you do, the more people have varying opinions.

zenmaster10665

fitday is a GREAT site!! thanks!!

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skysooner

Just remember that all of these are estimates. 3500 calories does equal a pound, so eating 500 calories less or burning 500 calories more or a combination of the two should theoretically cause you to lose one pound a week. I have found there to be so many other variables to this. When you exercise or when you eat also has a large effect on your weight loss. I have found that morning exercise or not eating after 7 pm (beyond water intake) leads to more reliable weight loss. I have averaged close to 2 lbs a week in weight loss, and I haven't done near the 1000 calories a day (combined exercise and less food intake) to achieve this.

What is strange to me is how different the different exercise machines I use are in calories counted. I can use my bike at home and burn 250 calories in about 25 minutes of good cardio. I can use an exercise bike at the gym with higher resistance and work harder (I'm basing this on how fatigued I get and how high my heart rate is) for the same time, and it lists me at 150 calories. I think the best measure is just figuring out how intensely you are working for a certain length of time. I aim for 25 to 40 minutes of cardio 6 days out of 7 in a week, and this has served me well.

kulrblind

good tips, skysooner... It's disheartening to see the way different cardio machines calculate your calorie burn. It's perhaps easier to rank the machines in terms of calorie-burn-ability (calorieburnability!) ... bike, elliptical machine, treadmill (running), and so forth. It seems that every year something new comes out, it's got a new way of calculating your rate of burn.

skysooner

That and the miles vary so significantly. Some bikes have me doing 3 miles while others are around 10 miles in the same time.

I aim to do 2 things. I have a fat burning workout where my heart rate is between 109 and approximately 140. In excess of 140, I consider myself to be in the cardio range. The best workout I have found to date though is the aerobic step class I take with my wife. The other workouts tire me out. I've been doing the step class about a month, and I come out of that sweat soaked.