How is my caloric burn based on exercise calculated?
Only aerobic exercises allow you to burn a reasonable amount of calories and to quantify it using a formula. All other exercises help improve muscle strength, endurance, and general health. However, because calories burned from non aerobic exercises varies with your body type, body fat, age, frame, gender, and machine or free weights you are using, there are no standards to calculate calories burned for those exercises. Regarding aerobic exercises, there is a standard to calculate calories burned based on the duration and an average effort when performing the exercise. This method of calculation is provided by The Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide that associates a fixed value to a large number of activities and aerobic exercises. It uses the following formula: Kcal per week = METs x sessions per week x hours per session x body weight in kg. Where MET is the parameter value associated with the activity performed. MET stands for metabolic equivalent.
