Concept 2 calorie calculator

[angrytongan]

I'm using the Concept2 calorie calculator to convert values reported from the PM to true calories.

For intervals, do you use the total time of the workout, or just the time you were rowing? So for a 20x30/30, would I use the total workout time of 20 minutes or actual rowing time of 10 minutes?

[Citroen]

I think you're going to struggle to get an answer. There's nobody who uses (or even trusts) the calorie counter on the PM3, PM4 or PM5. The science behind that is somewhat flawed (the number comes from: 300 (k)cals "fudge factor" just for sitting still, 25% conversion of food to energy and 80Kg weight).

What you'll find is that folks use their PM3, PM4 or PM5 to measure watts (or the arbitrary fake 4+ pace (time for 500m) derived from watts) as that's much closer to what they're interested in and doesn't have any "fudge factor" in the physics and maths use to display the values.

[angrytongan]

Thanks Citroen. A little disappointing I do have a Polar monitor so I will use that instead for measuring calories. I will also follow your recommendation and log watts as well.

Thank you very much for your reply.

[Citroen]

Your Polar probably includes age, gender and body mass as part of it's calculations so it probably more accurate.

Everybody on here logs pace and distance over time (as calculated by the monitor). Very few use pure watts.

[angrytongan]

Thanks again Citroen. Being new to rowing, and very poor for time, I was curious to see what type of rowing would give me best "bang for buck" in terms of calorie burn ie. is it better for me to do a 20/10x20, 30/30x10 or straight 10 minutes? For me, at the moment anyway, it's less about pace and more about type of workout.

I will get some values using the HRM and see how I go.

Again, thank you very much for your help.

[hjs]

Thanks again Citroen. Being new to rowing, and very poor for time, I was curious to see what type of rowing would give me best "bang for buck" in terms of calorie burn ie. is it better for me to do a 20/10x20, 30/30x10 or straight 10 minutes? For me, at the moment anyway, it's less about pace and more about type of workout.

I will get some values using the HRM and see how I go.

Again, thank you very much for your help.

If you have little time, don,t waist it on rest, but use it to actually row. We use the most energy if we row hard and continues. But rowing hard every day is a dead end street.
10 minutes is very short, every bit helps, but it would be better to get a bit more time in.

[jadomatis]

Pure calorie burn is all about effort over time. If all you care about is burning calories for burning sake, then go as hard as you can for as long as you can. If you can sustain 200watts output for a whole hour, or you can sustain 300watts output but only for 30mins.. its better to do the 200watts for the whole hour.

When it comes to what kind of training to do.. its more about what your actual fitness goals are... if you are trying to build cardio endurance... go long and easy... keeping your heart rate low. If you are building strength and strying to be able to sustain breakneck speed for an extra 30secs or so... then do hard interval training. Ideally, mix both types over the course of the week.

If you're doing this mainly for weight loss, then pick a pace you can sustain for a long time, put on some music and just stick with it for as long as you have availble to do it just to burn off the extra calories.

[jamesg]

Irony is, to produce plenty of heat on the erg, we have to be very fit because it takes a lot of time and effort.

[emptybeer]

I know this is an old post, but this https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... p=sharing might be useful.