PM5 Calorie Calculator accurate? Need weight loss routine!

[coe9257]

I just setup my Concept2 today and saw the calorie calculator. I googled how to use it and have been reading that it is not accurate! If the calculator is not accurate what distance (or whatever else) do I need to be doing to burn 1,000 calories a day? That is my goal. Thank you in advance!

[Citroen]

https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/ ... calculator

[Tsnor]

I just setup my Concept2 today and saw the calorie calculator. I googled how to use it and have been reading that it is not accurate! If the calculator is not accurate what distance (or whatever else) do I need to be doing to burn 1,000 calories a day? That is my goal. Thank you in advance!

Excellent plan. You will lose a ton of fat rowing. It takes about 6 weeks to start to kick in. Some fat will get converted to lean muscle, some will disappear. Use the mirror test as much as the scale -- scale won't catch the conversion from fat to lean muscle.

( tl;dr answer to " what distance (or whatever else) do I need to be doing to burn 1,000 calories a day?" --> use 1000 calories from the monitor. It'll be very close. But do far less than that the first few weeks to get your body in shape so you don't get sore. Your butt, back, arms and hands will thank you.)

As a measurement device, the concept2 calorie counter is very accurate. It's the conversion to effective calories that's got problems. Same for all devices. The calorie count displayed includes both your output (very accurately measurable by the PM5 on your erg) and your exercise efficiently (the pm5 has to guess at this). Rowing you burn 400-500 Food Calories for every 100 Calories of measured output. The Concept2 PM5 displays their guess as to how many food calories you burned to get the output you delivered. So do all exercise bikes, etc.

None of the work done converted to food calorie algorithms are totally accurate because

1. As you get used to the exercise your body gets more efficient. Net for you, as you are just starting, you will burn more than it says. Later you will burn less.

2. Exercise changes your appetite. (1) you may eat less because you don't feel as much like eating. Especially true (in mice) if you have been sedentary. (2) you may eat more because you know you worked out and you earned it. So you might burn an additional 1000 calories a week rowing and lose a pound (1 pound = 3500 calories) or gain a pound.

3. Exercise changes your metabolism. Intense exercise gets you the "afterburn" effect where you have a higher heart rate for a while after the exercise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_po ... onsumption All exercise changes your body composition enough to change the resting calories you burn. The more muscles mass you have, the more you burn even while resting. So you might burn 300 calories during your workout and later burn another 100 or so just sitting

The calculator ref'ed in the post above above will adjust the guess on food calories based using your weight. You can also just tell Ergdata to display the weight adjusts calories (and expected split times). Details here: https://www.concept2.com/service/softwa ... sted-score

Aside, 1000 calories is a long exercise session, likely over an hour. So also look at the posts on the forum talking about pads for the rower seat. It takes weeks/months for your seat to be comfortable for an hour plus. Pads (towels, bubblewrap, etc.) on the seat can help while you get used to the motion.

Also read this, it says what I'm trying to say better: https://www.concept2.com.au/news/counting-calories-0

[Ombrax]

I’ll repeat what was mentioned above - unless you’ve recently been super active I think it’s a bit of a stretch to jump right away to 1000 calorie sessions. If you take it easy it will take a long time and you may get pretty bored (or your butt or some other part of your body may protest) and if you go hard it will be tough to make it to the end. The simple solution is to work your way up to it gradually.

Good luck

[coe9257]

Thank you guys for the excellent information! So, this is embarrassing but I could only last four minutes on the rowing machine. I am currently doing 2 sets of four minutes and am going to build my way up from there and using the PM5 calculation I am only burning 88 calories!. I am going to do the 2x4 three days a week, a ten minute session on another day, the other two days I will be doing a full body split routine. After every exercise I will be doing an hour walk at 3mph and will work on raising the incline and speed as I get more into shape.

As time goes on I will increase the duration and intensity of rowing but man am I out of shape! My legs tend to burnout before my cardio or anything gets tapped. Any suggestions are totally welcome! I will have someone do a video of me rowing to help work on my form.

[Ombrax]

Two comments:

1) don’t try to do too much too quickly

2) one good thing about being a newbie is that at the start, if you keep at it, you will see relatively rapid gains. Keep a log and you’ll be able to track your progress

[jamesg]

what distance (or whatever else) do I need to be doing to burn 1,000 calories a day?

About two hours at 150W (4x860x0.15x2 = 1032; plus C2 adds 300kCal/h free of charge). In any case, try it, you can see the numbers immediately you start, about 1kCal every two strokes. Important is to tip the input-output balance the right way: in general, eating gets us fat, exercise gets us fit. The twain no doubt will meet where we make them.

2 sets of four minutes and am going to build my way up from there and using the PM5 calculation I am only burning 88 calories

As expected: 8 minutes x 20 strokes = 160 strokes. 160/2 = 80.

[Carl Watts]

Never looked at calories on the monitor since starting rowing 20 years ago.

All you need to do is build up to rows beyond 30 minutes at a time, the results show up on the scales not the PM monitor.

[Tsnor]

THIS -->

1) don’t try to do too much too quickly

and THIS -->

2) ... you will see relatively rapid gains. Keep a log and you’ll be able to track your progress

Sounded like you were diving in too hard. No need. That walking plus some rowing will work great. In a few months you can go harder. Use the time now to get your form right. Lots of youtube videos that will help.