I am often asked if the Electronic Readout / Calorie counts on Gym Cardio Equipment is accurate ??
Unfortunately, the number of calories a cardio machine shows you burning is usually off by 10-15%!
It can be off by even more if you don’t input your age and weight. For a more accurate calorie burn reading, I highly recommend using a Polar Heart Rate Monitor, Garmin Heart Rate Monitor or dotFIT’s Exerspy. If those are not available to you, when you do cardio make sure you enter your details (age and weight) into the machine and take 10% off the final number of calories the machine says you’ve burned.
Another great idea to maximize your Target Heart Rate is to take your "resting HR" before you begin your exercise (it will vary depending on your age and fitness level) - mine is 66 bpm (which is low/fit). Then take it half way through your cardio session.
You can also use the Chart below to monitor your preferred / maximum Target Heart Rate. i.e - Women Age 40 - Aerobic THR should be 130 - 149 bpm with Max being 167 - 180 bpm.
I try to get my THR up to between 143 - 150 and that is a great session for me at age 46 !
Those little Halloween candies looking at you from the bowl, little, bright colored and just jumping up with the sweet chocolate that you know that you love so much are very very evil. You know you want one, you yearn for one or two but as you try you just can not say no….or can you?
Halloween candy is some of the worst stuff that you can eat. It is small so you do not worry too much about the calories (even if you eat 20), it is high in saturated fat, and there is so much around at this time of year that it is hard to avoid. In fact it would be hard to find an office building anywhere in america that does not have a few bowls of Halloween candy lieing around on November 1st.
Here are the calories for some Halloween candies:
Nestle’s Crunch – Fun Size 3 bars=210 calories
Peanut M&M’s – Fun Pack 2 bags=80 calories
M&M’s – Fun Pack 2 bags=180 calories
Snicker’s – Fun Size 2 bars=160 calories
Milky Way – Fun Size 2 bars=150 calories
Kit Kat – Fun Size 2 bars=100 calories
Hershey Chocolate Bar – Fun Size 1 bar=90 calories/ 5grams of fat
Reese’s Cup – 1 cup=80 calories
Butterfinger – Fun Size 1 bar= 100 calories
Twix – Fun Size 1 bar= 80 calories
York Peppermint Pattie – 1 pattie=70 calories
Twizzlers – 1 treat size pkg= 45 calories
Almond Joy – 1 snack size bar = 90 calories
Milk Duds – 1 treat size box = 40 calories
Butterfinger – 1 snack size bar = 100 calories
Milky Way – 1 snack size bar = 90 calories
SweetTarts – 1 treat size pkg. = 50 calories
1 Tootsie Pop – 1 pop = 60 calories
1 Tootsie Roll – 1 small roll = 13 calories
Note: Calorie content is based on 1 serving of Halloween snack or fun size packages, not full size servings found in the candy aisle.
If you are not worried about all of these extra calories over the next week that is fine, but if you would like to avoid Halloween candy and the calories that they offer here is a few tips.
1. Change the way that you think about the little Halloween candy. Most of us will associate these candies with childhood and that carefree feeling, instead think of them as something that will raise your blood sugar and make you jumpy.
2. Eat properly so you can stay away from Halloween candy. If you keep yourself on track for eating then avoiding the Halloween candy is easier because you will not be hungry.
3. Only buy the Halloween candy that you do not like. What may be tough for someone to resist may not be too hard for you to resist.
4. Decide what you are willing to eat ahead of time. Look at the list above, there are some good decisions that you can make that will stop you from making this a weight gain holiday by eating the right Halloween candy. I am a big fan of Tootsie Rolls and those are apparently OK to eat.
5. Just stay away. there is some willpower involved in not eating the things that we are not supposed to eat. Have some willpower and you can stay away from treats, it is only a one week holiday anyway, right?
