How Do Treadmills Calculate Calories?
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What is a Calorie?
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A calorie is a unit of measurement that equals the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius. When someone is on the treadmill, he might want to know how many calories it takes to burn one pound of fat. One pound of fat equals roughly 454 grams of fat or about 3,500 calories.
Factors Affecting Caloric Expenditure
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The amount of calories that a person will burn is based on two factors: the amount of lean mass that the body has and the heart rate at which the body is performing. The heart rate responds to the body's need for oxygen, which is in response to the amount of work that the lean tissue is exerting. To accurately measure the amount of calories that the body is burning during exercise you must know two things: What is your lean body mass and what is your heart rate for the duration of the exercise?
Treadmill Calorie Counters
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Most treadmills have display functions that show different values, such as speed, incline, calories burned and metabolic units. The figures that you see, for the most part, are gross approximations. Lets take speed, for instance. When you set the speed for 7 mph, it is the speed at which the belt is moving underneath you, not the speed you are running. You are not moving at all. Most cannot even approach the speed they run on the treadmill when they are on the street.
The calorie counters on treadmills vary greatly. Most take data from the average person that uses a treadmill--a 170lb, 40-year-old man--and inputs the data into the computer. It then averages the speed and incline to guess how many calories you have burned.
These can be off by as much as 40 percent depending on whom is on the machine. The more advanced treadmills ask for your age, weight and have you wear a heart rate strap. These can calculate the calorie burn more accurately.
The only way to accurately measure your heart rate is to buy expensive equipment, wear a mask and measure the amount of oxygen you consume during your treadmill workout.
Reality of Treadmills
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Treadmills can give you all sorts of information, but it needs to be taken with skepticism. You should see what the treadmill says and realize that you are probably burning a little less than it tells you. If you can find one with heart rate capabilities and can wear a heart rate monitor, you will get as close to determining the calorie expenditure of your workout as possible.
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