calories burned

I was searching the internet for some info on weight training. According to the Mayo Clinic, the calorie expenditure for a 160 pound individual in a 30 minute session only burns 109 calories. That means that for me, currently weighing 112 pounds, it's even less.

According to the late Jim Fixx, a 150 pound individual burns 800-1000 calories per hour running. Which is about 4 times the calorie burn of weight lifting.

A 40 minute cycling class can burn 475 calories, this of course varies on your weight and intensity.

Rowing for an hour will burn 511 calories if you weigh 160 lbs.

You can easily see how if you are trying to gain muscle, some types of exercise will be counter productive to what you want to achieve. Although I have to say that I'm not quite sure what kind of weight training this 160 lb person is doing to only burn 109 calories. I burn twice that when I lift, as per my heart rate monitor. And obviously more when I used to do 20 minutes of cardio after. I guess that is because I keep my rest periods short and lift a pretty heavy - to my standards.

You really have to pay attention to how many calories you are burning. If you are burning tons of calories through exercise, it is important that you refeed yourself or you will find that you become lethargic, prone to headaches and a weakened immune system. I definitely notice a bigger appetite on days I lift. It's my body's way of telling me, "Hey, we worked hard today. We need to replenish those energy stores."

If you are looking to burn a lot of calories, cardio is a good choice. But be careful. After a while, your body will adjust and all the efforts you're putting in will stop being as productive as they once were. When you experience that plateau, it's time to change things up. This is where weight training can take over as being that plateau buster.

If you are doing cardio exclusively, you might be losing muscle along with the fat. Weights can help you get that back. If you still have weight to lose, never fear. Even though it's obvious that weight training doesn't burn as many calories, it has the superior benefit of keeping your metabolism raised, thus fat burning on high for up to 48 hours after your workout. So if you train with weights every other day, you will constantly be in an elevated state of fat burning. This is something cardio alone does not do. You burn more while doing cardio, maybe even up to an hour or two after, but then you're done.

Not only that, but when you add muscle to your frame, you burn more calories just sitting around doing nothing. And I'm sure if you have extra flab to lose, that sounds appealing.

But what about someone like me? I have extra flab to lose, for sure, but I'm more concerned with gaining muscle than I am with losing fat. I really limit my cardio and rely mostly on weights and eating lots of protein. If I do too much cardio I get far too thin with no muscle tone and it looks ghastly. It really ages a person. My husband even says this, and he is tell-it-like-it-is honest.

My body is a bit of a mystery to me. I can literally pig out for weeks on end and not gain an ounce. Part of that is genetic and part of that is exercise. If it's my destiny to be thin, believe me, I would rather be thin with some nice hard muscle than thin and soft.

Whatever your situation, there is an exercise routine that fits your needs. So make the most of it. You'll be glad you did!