Once you've embarked on a serious exercise program, chances are you're going to want to see results--or to put it another way, you want everyone else to see your results. To do so, you'll need to be able to get down to specifics by calculating your caloric intake, output and how they compare with each other. In order to get started, you'll need to understand a few basic terms: VO2 is oxygen uptake, or the amount of oxygen you consume while at rest or during exercise. Another way to express how hard you're working is my stating your activity in ml/kg/min or milliliters of oxygen expended per kilogram per minute.
Step 1
Determine your oxygen uptake reserve. To do this, you'll need a trained exercise specialist to administer to you a maximum oxygen uptake test on a bicycle or treadmill. The results will be expressed in ml/kg/min or how many millimeters of oxygen you consume per kg of body weight per minute when you're exercising as hard as you can. Subtract your resting oxygen uptake (3.5 ml/kg/ml) for your oxygen uptake reserve. Check with your physical therapy department, local university or fitness club to see who can administer such a test.
Step 2
Determine your upper and lower training end by multiplying your oxygen uptake reserve by the low end and by the high end. For instance, a good training range for caloric output is 70 percent and 80 percent:
Maximum VO2R: 55 - 3.5 = 51.5/ml/kg/min
Your low end: (51.5 --- 0.70) + 3.5 = 39.55 ml/kg/min
Your high end: (51.5 --- 0.80) + 3.5 = 44.7 ml/kg/min
Step 3
To determine how many calories you're actually expending while exercising, simply multiply the number of milliliters of oxygen consumed x how many kilograms you weight x how many minutes you exercise and convert it to liters by dividing the final output by 1000:
For instance: someone exercising at 39.55 ml and weighs 59 kg for 60 minutes would expend 1.117 L/min.
For every liter of oxygen is consumed, approximately 5 calories are burned. So, if they exercise for 10 minutes, multiply 1.117 liters per minute, multiply by 10 and they've burned 11.17 calories per minute.
Step 4
There are also some pre-calculations available for common activities you can use:
Walking VO2 = (0.1 x speed) + (1.8 x speed x grade) + 3.5
Running VO2 = (0.2 x speed) + (0.9 x speed x grade) + 3.5
Cycling or Leg Ergometry VO2 = [1.8 (work rate) ÷ body mass in kg] + 7
Stepping VO2 = [0.2 (step rate)] + [1.33 x 1.8 (height in meters x step rate)] + 3.5
Tips and Warnings
- Use these as estimates only. Begin slowly and increase the rate or distance no more than 10% per week.
- Avoid accelerating your pace too quickly.
Things You'll Need
- Digital watch
- Handheld calculator
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