How To Calculate Your Energy Expenditure
- By Paul Moore
- Published May 18, 2011
Calculating your energy expenditure is not only an essential means of hitting your target race weight but is a key means of ensuring that you are taking in enough calories, as explained in the Pacific Health booklet (which you can download using the link below):
Nutrition for fuelling and recovery is largely a function of energy expenditure. Energy expenditure is a function of four parameters:
1. Total time of exercise
2. Intensity (i.e., pace)
3. Weight (heavier people burn more calories than lighter people doing the identical exercise for the identical time)
4. Exercise activity
Although you do not have to be precise, it is always good to know your overall energy expenditure. It is easy to compute. Use the table below and plug it into the following equation:
Total energy expenditure = energy expenditure value of activity x duration of activity in minutes x your body weight in pounds
For example, suppose you weigh 150 lbs and you run at a pace of 7 minutes per mile for 30 minutes. The energy expenditure value of running at 7 minutes per mile is 0.10 cal/lb/min. Therefore, the total energy cost of the workout is 0.10 x 150 x 30 = 450 calories.
To Download The Complete Endurance Nutrition Handbook From PacificHealth Laboratories Click Here (1.2mb)
FILED UNDER: All / Nutrition TAGS: calculate / Calorie / energy expenditure / expenditure / Pacific Health
Paul Moore
Paul Moore is the Online Editor for Triathlete Europe. When not glued to a computer he can be found writing books - most recently The World's Toughest Endurance Challenges which you can buy on Amazon. Paul has also written Ultimate Triathlon: A complete training guide for long-distance triathletes which is also available on Amazon.
