"Pursue your goals, but never lose sight of the reality of things." -Amy Suto
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
The amount of calories you burn depends on many factors, including your age, fitness level, gender, and weight.
If your fitness machine counts the calories you’re burning without ANY of those variables, it’s most likely vastly incorrect!
Heart rate monitors are your best bet for accuracy. Here’s the one I use and why it’s awesome.
photo by www.metaphoricalplatypus.com via Flickr Creative Commons
“Front-loading your day’s calories so that you eat more food—especially more lean protein—earlier in the day will help you drop pounds and feel full all day long, according to a Purdue University study.”
Not to mention the fact that it’s a full body workout!
If you NEED to eat something in front of the TV, try something like celery or carrots.
Source: A study from Cornell University
6 Snacking Mistakes That Make You Gain
What do I eat for breakfast? Organic low-sodium low-sugar oatmeal, a banana, and Greek Yogurt. It definitely helps keep my energy up so I can do the things I love, like ride into the sunset on a llama.
Heart Rate Monitors
I talk a lot about the importance of heart rate monitors for your weight loss journey here on The Reality of Healthy. Here’s why:
WHY HEART RATE MONITORS HELP
- The gym machines are liars. Either you burn over 1000 calories for ten minutes on the ellipticals or 200 for an all-out half hour sprint on the treadmill. These machines are unreliable.
- Counting calories is essential for weight loss and for changing your body composition. You have to make sure you’re eating enough food and not starving yourself, but you also can’t be overeating or you won’t see results.
- Monitoring your heart rate is important for fitness training. The lower your target heart rate number, the more in shape you are! Being aware of how intense your workouts are can help you be sure you’re getting the most out of your workout. Calculate your target heart rate here.
My favorite:
Sportline 1010 Women’S Solo Heart Rate Monitor
I love this heart rate monitor for several reasons:
- It’s easy to use.
- The reading is accurate and the strap stays on while you run! No need to stop running to check your heart rate monitor.
- It beeps whenever you are out of your target heart rate zone, which is great when you need to pace yourself and make sure you aren’t slacking off or killing yourself.
- It’s fairly inexpensive for all of its features! Normally HR monitors are upwards of And you can get even cheaper ones that are used.
- It’s durable. I’ve used this for months during my half marathon training, and this survives everything from rain to my tendency to drop and abuse things.
