The calories that you burn while running correlate fairly well with your heart rate. This allows you to calculate your calorie expenditure from your average heart rate during the run. The calculation of your calorie expenditure will be most accurate when you keep your heart rate between 90 beats per minute (bpm) and 150 bpm. It will also require you to estimate the maximum rate at which you can use oxygen, also known as your VO2 max.
Step 1
Weigh yourself with a scale that measures weight in pounds.
Step 2
Measure your maximum 12-minute running distance in yards. Use this value to estimate your VO2 max with the following formula: (X - 505) / 49.2 where X is your 12-minute running distance. Assume your maximum 12-minute running distance is 2,000 yards. Your VO2 max is (2,000 - 505) / 49.2 = 30.4. Ensure you recover from this test run before beginning your usual training run.
Step 3
Run while wearing your heart monitor. Wait until your heart rate exceeds 90 bpm before you begin recording your heart rate. Keep your heart rate in the range of 90 to 150 bpm by speeding up or slowing down as necessary.
Step 4
Complete your run. Stop recording your heart rate before it falls below 90 bpm.
Step 5
Compute the calories that you burned during your run if you're male. This calculation will use the following formula: E = (0.271 x A + 0.634 x H + 0.404 x V + 0.179 x W -- 95.7735) x T / 4.184. E is your calorie expenditure, A is your age in years, H is your average heart rate, V is your VO2 max, W is your weight in pounds and T is the duration of your run in minutes.
Step 6
Derive the calories that you burned during your run if you're female. This calculation will use the following formula: E = (0.274 x A + 0.450 x H + 0.380 x V + 0.0468 x W - 59.3954) x T / 4.184. Assume that you're 52 years old with a VO2 max of 30.4 and weigh 152 pounds. Your heart rate averaged 142 bpm over a 33-minute run. Your calorie expenditure during the run was E = (0.274 x 52 + 0.450 x 142 + 0.380 x 30.4 + 0.0468 x 152 - 59.3954) x 33 / 4.184 = 295 calories.
Things You'll Need
- Scale
- Stopwatch
- Heart monitor
- Calculator
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