Tuesday 21 February 2017

You Aren’t Burning As Many Calories As You Think

Don’t Be Fooled

You know that calories are the most important factor in weight loss. How can you know how many you are burning? If you step on any cardio machine, it will give you this little miracle number of how many calories you are burning. But is that accurate? If you aren’t completely sure, then you can’t be completely sure that you will lose weight.

The Treadmill Doesn’t Know You

The cardio machines don’t know you. Even if you put in your age and weight, it doesn’t know if your weight is mostly body fat or muscle. Muscle burns more calories than body fat because it is a high maintenance tissue, meaning that it takes more energy to maintain. Even if the total weight is the same between two people, the person with more muscle will burn more calories. That is why a 200 lb, 6 ft man that is mostly muscle will burn more calories than a 200 lb, 5 ft female that has more body fat. It also explains why men typically lose weight faster than women. They burn more calories because they have more muscle. So, when you put in your weight on a treadmill, it doesn’t know you and can’t give an accurate calorie burn.

Is It Really That Far Off?

Yes. University of California, San Francisco’s Human Performance Center tested the accuracy of various cardio machines. Treadmill’s were found to overestimate caloric burn by 13%. Stair climbers were found to overestimate caloric burn by 12%. The elliptical was the most shocking by overestimating caloric burn by a whopping 42%. The following table demonstrates the difference between what the cardio machines are telling you and what you may actually burning.


Equipment                                         Estimated Caloric Burn                                                 Actual Caloric Burn

Treadmill                                                         800 calories                                                                    696 calories

Stairclimber                                                    800 calories                                                                    704 calories

Elliptical                                                           800 calories                                                                    464 calories


 If you are eating as if you are burning 800 calories when you are actually only burning 464 calories, you could be overeating  by almost 500 calories every single day. This would result in GAINING 1 pound per week.

So What Can You Do?

Ignore what the cardio equipment is saying and get yourself a wearable tracker, like a fitbit or apple watch. By wearing a tracker, you can customize it to your own personal body as well as track your calories throughout the whole day. Most trackers allow you to input your height, weight, body fat percentage, health history, and lifestyle. This allows for a more accurate caloric burn estimate. Wearing a tracker also allows you to track all of your movement. Your workout is only 1 hour of your day. But what about the other 23 hours? What you do the rest of the day will make a significant impact on how many calories you burn. A wearable tracker is the best way to go.

Get Fueled!

The cardio equipment will fool you. It can often be as much as 42% over when estimating your caloric burn. This will greatly impede your weight loss goals. The best thing to do is get a wearable tracker, such as a fitbit, to determine how many calories you burn in a day. Take control of your caloric burn and take control of your life.

 

Related Links

The post You Aren’t Burning As Many Calories As You Think appeared first on Access Change.

Thursday 2 February 2017

How To Tell The Difference Between Protein And Fat

Is It A Protein Source or a Fat Source?

What’s a good source of protein? Peanut butter has protein in it right? How do I know if it is more fat or more protein?

You’ve probably asked yourself questions like these before. Food labels can be confusing. It tells you how many grams of fat and protein are in it, but what does that mean? When you’re working on eating a balanced macronutrient meal, it is important to understand exactly which foods are fat sources and which foods are protein sources. Here is how to tell the difference between the two.

Just Because it Has Protein, Does Not Make it a Protein Source

Did you know that Hostess twinkies have 2 grams of protein per serving? That counts right? Wrong. Just because the food contains protein, does not make it a protein source. Small amounts of protein are actually in a wide variety of food, especially those with anything that contain any dairy or nut product. Protein sources are determined by whether or not the majority of calories come from protein.

Food Label Math

The way to figure out how many calories come from protein and how many calories come from fat is a simple math equation. Protein has 4 calories per gram whereas fat has 9 calories per gram. Take the amount of protein in grams and multiply it by 4. Then take the amount of fat in grams and multiply that by 9. This will tell you how many calories come from fat and how many calories come from protein. If the number of calories from fat is higher than the number of calories from protein, it isn’t truly a protein source.

Let’s look at peanut butter, for example. One serving of peanut butter has 6 grams of protein and 16 grams of fat. This may look like a good enough amount of protein to make it a protein source, but we can’t stop there. We must figure out how many calories come from each by multiplying as shown below.

6 grams protein x 4= 24 calories from protein

16 grams fat x 9= 144 calories from fat

When 144 of the 200 calories per serving of peanut butter comes from fat, it is clear to see that this is a fat source, not a protein source.

The Power Is In The Knowledge

Now you know, in order to tell the difference between protein sources and fat sources, it is just a simple math equation. Multiply grams of protein x 4, then grams of fat x 9. This will tell you how many calories come from protein and how many come from fat. When the calories from protein are higher than the calories from fat, you can be sure that you are eating a true protein source. For more information about protein and fat, speak with a trainer today!

 

Related Links

 

The post How To Tell The Difference Between Protein And Fat appeared first on Access Change.