How Many Calories Are You REALLY Burning?

October 20, 2010 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged Bodybugg, Calorie Burning, Calorie Counting, Cardio Machines, fried zucchini, vegan recipe

In case you missed my BodyBugg post yeterday, I’m wearing a little tracker thing that will tell me just how many calories I’m burning throughout the day. Not gonna lie, it’s pretty fun if you’re a total nerd like me. Because it’s not just one number at the end of the day. Oh no, it’s a chart, detailing my entire day.  I went to the gym at lunch, obviously, and this is where the fun begins!

Do you ever wonder how accurate those cardio machines are? You put in your weight, your age, and it spits out a number of calories you burned during your work out. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I wonder if those numbers are inflated (or deflated!) So here’s what I did:

I went on the elliptical for 30 minutes. I went at a relatively easy pace (I knew I was signed up for the Abs class right afterwards!) and I rode a total of 2.8 miles. In those 30 minutes, the machine claims I burned 275 calories. Now, I hope this is accurate. But it seems kind of high, because I wasn’t really “giving it my all.”

So let’s check the bodybugg. In those 30 minutes (from 11:20-11:50) it says I burned: 197 calories

Don’t get me wrong, that’s still a decent work out… but it’s not quite the workout promised by the elliptical!

If that’s not interesting (you know, like if you’re not a total weirdo like me) then maybe you’ll find this interesting! After my elliptical sesh, I went to the Abs class at my gym. For 25 minutes, I kicked butt! Normally, I’d have no idea how many calories I was burning. It seems harder than the elliptical, but for all I know, I’m burning the same! Thanks to the bugg, I know I burned  150 more. Ah, satisfying 🙂

What’s my total burn for the day? 2417 calories! Not bad for a day at the office!

Later this week, I’ll do some other cardio machines comparisons, and we can see how the exercise bike and the treadmill stack up against the bugg!

Ok, enough with the calorie counting. On to the food! (And to answer Miss V’s question, it does come with software to track your eating, but I think SparkPeople is more user friendly, so if I feel like tracking, that’s usually what I use.) What have I been eating to accompany all that calorie burn?

Breakfast is picture-less, because it really didn’t look that great. But it was some “fake baked” apple, and a banana smeared with Better’n Peanut Butter.

Lunch was baby carrots & hummus, plus:

Trader Joe’s Black Bean & Corn Enchilladas

Ok, so I guess it doesn’t look that great… but looks can be deceiving! This was pretty tasty, not to mention filling. I also had salad from the cafeteria salad bar:

It was pretty good. I’m not usually a fan of the pre-made salads, but the dressing was light, and it was a nice compliment to my enchiladas.

Um, wait. What? I basically ate a Mexican dish with a Mediterranean salad. I guess in reality, they don’t really go together at all. But I didn’t think about it, I just ate what sounded good!

Oh and dinner was some “fried” zucchini, some Vita Mix Soup. Delicious! (There also may have been some soy crisp munching going on, as well as a bowl of extra creamy “ice cream”.)

Do you guys usually have one cohesive meal? Or do you just piece together whatever sounds good? I pretty much just eat what I’m craving, regardless of how well it blends with everything else…

-LLV