Measure Calories Burned During Exercise

When you exercise for weight loss or weight maintenance, you want to measure calories burned during exercise. Balancing the number of calories that you've burned with the number of calories that you take in daily will help you to eat the ideal amount for your weight goal. Take advantage of reputable online calculators to calculate your calorie goals instead of trying to perform complex calculations on your own.

Steps

Track Your Calories Burned on a Treadmill or Other Machine

  1. Enter your weight where indicated on the machine controls. Use the scale at your gym to get the most accurate weight.
  2. Start performing your exercise. The machine will track the number of calories that you've burned based on your body weight and the intensity of your exercise.
  3. Write down the number of calories that you burned in a journal or on a smartphone.

Track Your Calories on a Smartphone App

  1. Download a calorie-counting or exercise tracking app from the iTunes Store or GooglePlay.
  2. Enter your current weight into the app.
  3. Choose the exercise you want to perform from the app's menu. Choose an intensity level if necessary, such as low-impact, medium or high intensity.
  4. Enter the length of time that you spent exercising. Alternatively, enter the distance that you traveled while exercising.
  5. Record the number of calories that you burned within the app or in a separate notebook.

Find the Right Number of Calories to Burn

  1. Determine how many calories you can take in each day to meet your weight goals.
    • Enter your height, weight, gender, activity level and weight loss goals into an online calculator. This Mayo Clinic calculator is helpful.
    • Write down the number of calories that you should eat per day in a journal or on your smartphone. Make sure you aren't losing more than 1 to 2 pounds per week.
  2. Perform just enough exercise to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week in combination with what you're eating.
    • If you calculated calorie goals for a 1-pound weight loss per week, then you can burn up to 3,500 calories with exercise to lose an additional pound.
    • If you calculated calorie goals for a 2-pound per week weight loss, then make sure to replace any calories that you burn while exercising with food. For example, if you burn 300 calories while exercising, eat 300 calories of healthy food to compensate.
  3. Write everything down while you are working on your weight. Write down all meals and all exercise performed so that you are accurately tracking your calories.



Tips

  • Don't download a calorie-counting app before you read customer reviews. The reviews will provide a lot of information about how well the app has worked for other people.
  • You will never arrive at a perfect count for the number of calories that you burn during exercise. However, you can get a very good estimate.
  • As you lose weight, you will have to exercise with more intensity to burn the same number of calories. For instance, you will have to walk faster, uphill or over a longer distance, and you'll have to do additional reps for strength training.

Warnings

  • For maximum safety, review your calorie intake and expenditure with a dietitian or with your primary care physician.

Things You'll Need

  • Online calorie calculator
  • Treadmill or other exercise equipment
  • Smartphone app for tracking calories
  • Journal

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Sources and Citations

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