Welcome to another in the continuing series of Geek My Fitness (GMF) diaries, a frequent part of the DailyKos WHEE diary series. This evening, I'm going to revisit a subject that I've touched on previously - that of post-exercise calorie burn, A.K.A. "afterburn." I'm also pondering an exercise opportunity that I just became aware of. However, if neither of these subjects interests you, feel free to treat this as an Open Thread. After all, if it has to do with Weight, Health, Eating, and Exercise issues, it's not off-topic in WHEE!
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
Post-exercise calorie burn (afterburn)
A bit over a week ago, some WHEEble regular (whose name I don't recall, unfortunately), noted in another WHEE diary that I had previously addressed the subject of exercise afterburn. He/she observed that I had focused on afterburn following cardio exercise (specifically, bicycle riding) and expressed a hope that I would do the same for weight training. I thought it was a good idea, and thought about making it the subject of last week's Wednesday WHEE diary - but after reviewing Bruni's Born Round, I decided to leave post-exercise afterburn for another week.
Well, this is another week, so let's look at how many calories I burn after weight lifting. But first, let's take a look back at the numbers I rolled up (sorry) on my bodybugg after my spinning class back in September:
The actual spinning class was from 5:45 PM to about 6:40 PM. I highlighted the period from 6:48 PM to 8:48 PM to show the calories burned after the class, when I was not doing anything more taxing than walking to my car.
As I said in my WHEE diary a month ago,
* Afterburn is real - I burned twice as many calories
after my gut-busting spinning class (85% of max
heart rate) as I did sitting at the computer earlier that afternoon.
* Unfortunately, afterburn doesn't last that long - by the end of
that 2-hour interval after my spinning class, my calorie burn was
back down to 1.1 calories per minute, the same as during my lazy
afternoon.
That was a cardio workout - but what about a strength workout, such as weight lifting?
Here's a recent (about an hour ago) download from my bodybugg:
I hovered the mouse over the graph at around 8:40 AM, showing that I was burning 1.1 calories per minute at that time. My actual weightlifting workout started after 10 AM and finished around 12:15, so I used the range tool on the bodybugg Web site to highlight that range. According to my bodybugg, I burned a total of 546 calories in that 2 hours and 18 minutes.
Here's the same graph, with the same time period highlighted:
The only difference is that I hovered my mouse over 1:00 PM instead of 8:40 AM (as you can see by the narrow yellow line on the graph). By 1:00 PM, less than an hour after I finished my last set of dumbbell hammer curls, my calorie burn was back down to 1.1 calories per minute.
Once again, we see an illustration of the two points I made in my previous WHEE diary:
* Afterburn is real - you can see that my calorie burn was elevated above baseline between 12:15 and 1:00 PM.
* Unfortunately, afterburn doesn't last as long as one might like. After a two-hour workout, I'm back to my pre-workout calorie burn in less than an hour. The significant part of calorie burn happens WHILE I'm exercising, not afterward.
Bicycle Racing? Somebody Stop Me!!!
Back in July, I discovered that one of the 24 Hour Fitness gyms here in Austin allowed members to use the spinning bikes in the spinning class room whenever classes weren't in session. Unfortunately, that particular location is about two or three miles up one of the busiest commuter routes in Austin, and driving out there oftener than once or twice a week to ride a stationary bicycle didn't seem like a good use of the world's dwindling petroleum stocks, even as a way to get my needed exercise during the winter when riding outdoors is difficult and dangerous.
However, today I discovered that the 24 Hour Fitness location on my bus route from work ALSO allows members to use their spinning bikes outside of class times. Since I found the Lance Armstrong Performance Program book at my local library, I've been toying with the idea of training for next year's racing season. Now that I know I can get to those spinning bikes and don't have to deal with the worst of winter weather, that idea looks just a little more attractive. Somebody please stop me before I race again...
Scheduled WHEE diaries:
October 28
Weds PM - yr humble servant
October 29
Thurs AM - A DC Wonk
Thurs PM - leevank
October 30
Fri AM - Ed G
Fri PM sychoticI
October 31
Sat AM - ???
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, Ch. 19)
November 1
Sun AM - kismet -- the calorie value of everyday tasks
Sun PM - ???
November 2
Mon AM - NC Dem- Muscle of the Month-Deltoids
Mon PM- ???
November 3
Tues AM - ???
Tues PM Clio2 (Kessler, Ch. 20)
November 4
Weds AM - ???
Weds PM - Edward Spurlock