It doesn’t matter how much time you’re spending exercising if it’s not producing results. To find out if your workout is burning sufficient calories, it’s worth the investment to buy a heart rate monitor. With my Polar watch I learned that a 20 minute Classical Stretch Pilates-ballet video only burns between 50-80 calories. So an hour may only put me at a 150 calorie deduction. Ugh! I started checking my other workouts and this is what I found:
30 minutes on incline treadmill at 3.3 mph = 105 calories
35 minute hard hike = 162 calories
60 minute kickboxing class = 354 calories
I was dismayed that so few calories were being expended, but I’m a tiny female who exercises 5-6 days a week so my resting heart rate is low and it takes intense cardio to get my heart rate up. With this data, I know what exercises to do when I want to shed pounds (kickboxing, kettlebell, stair master, dance) and which ones to do on my easy days or “days off” (yoga, walking, Classical Stretch).