Anyone see Gym Rescue Sunday night? The fitness industry just took a huge kick in the face. Their Fitness Professional claimed that his workout burned 800 calories in 30 minutes...well let’s do the math... to burn 800 kcals in 30 minutes would require an energy rate of about 26 kcals/min. The body requires 1 liter of oxygen to burn 5 kcals, or in this case 5.3 liter/min or for a 180 male that would be about 66mlO2/kg/min. The highest maximal oxygen consumption I have recorded in my lab is 75 ml/kg/min and that was in a kid that held the school record for the mile at 4:07, and was ranked nationally in the 400 m. On average, a person can work at maximal aerobic capacity for about 4-6 minutes. Given that the rate of oxygen consumption needed to produce the rate of energy production quoted by the fitness pro far exceeds aerobic capacity of most people, never mind their ability to sustain that level of effort constantly for 30 minutes, makes the estimate laughable. To put it another way, in terms of weight training this would be close to the equivalent of doing a 100 lb. squat continuously for 30 minutes at a rate of 12 squats per minute…. SGX Co-Founder Dr. Jeff Godin reminds us we MUST understand the difference between effective training/changes vs. hype to build better humans and lives.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 16:35:48 +0000
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