I was one of those blokes who used to look at my Fitbit or apple watch and say “Bex! Look, 2000 calories burnt today on the cross trainer” and hit up dominoes straight after. As far as I was concerned it was free because of what I had burnt at the gym.
Imagine my surprise when I started putting on weight! WTF!! Burnt 2000 calories and eating 1500 I should be losing weight. It was then that I started looking into what my watch was actually telling me, turns out, not accurate… AT ALL!!!
I wasn’t burning anywhere near 2000 calories, in fact in an hour hammering myself I’d have burnt around 500 calories on that demonic thing. So that’s why I was putting on the love chub, damn it!
Apple Watches, Fitbit whatever it is are amazing at counting your steps and I recommend all my clients to maintain a good step count so those things are fantastic for that. They can judge NEAT really well which is hugely important in helping you achieve your goals. They can help by offering you motivation and allow you to compete with your mates which is always a good thing but asking them to tell you to have many calories you’ve burned during a killer leg session, forget it!
I should never have looked at it as what I had earned, instead of looking at what I had burned. By working out you bring yourself closer to your goals, not working out to allow yourself that treat late at night. That mindset got me nowhere, other than under a mountain of Dominoes boxes.
If you’d like to have a look at what it is that you’re burning during a workout, just walking or day to day a great website I found was www.calorielab.com it’s fantastic (this isn’t sponsored by the way). It just really helps to offer an insight into what you’re doing on a day to day basis.