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Should You Worry About Calories Burned During Exercise?

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Should You Worry About Calories Burned During Exercise?

A popular question among workout enthusiasts, people who enjoy a simple workout, and people who are just looking to shed a few pounds is “should you worry about calories burned during exercise”? 

While counting your calories can be a good method of keeping track of your calorie intake and stepping forward in your weight loss journey, it is actually not recommended to keep track of the calories you burn during workouts. 

You may be tempted to and you may even find it fulfilling to keep track of the calories you burn when working out; however, keeping track of your workout calories can actually be detrimental to your workout and weight loss regime. Let’s discuss a few reasons as to why that is. 

Why it’s a Good Idea to Not Focus on Calories You’re Burning

There are a few important reasons why you should avoid putting too much focus on the calories you’re burning during your exercise routine. 

1. Total Daily Calories. Unless you’re training to run in a marathon or are a professional athlete, the chances of you working out for hours upon hours are slim to none. With that being said, you’re most likely only exercising half an hour to an hour a day and probably not seven days a week. The calories you burn during your workouts are pretty insignificant if you’re only doing small workout sessions. 

2. Accuracy. It’s VERY difficult to get an accurate picture of the calories you burn during a workout. The calories you burn can vary depending on the type and speed of the workout you do.

3. Metabolism. Metabolism and the effects that a workout has on it are more important than the calories burned during a workout session. If you do a high-intensity workout that boosts your metabolism, you’re more than likely going to be burning more calories after your workout is finished than what you burned during the workout itself. But don’t believe places hyping up the afterburn.

These are only a few of the reasons you should not put too much attention to the calories you’re burning during your workout. However, let’s look over a few more reasons below.

Health Benefits

You may think that burning calories during your workout would improve your overall health. While it may give you some improvements, the after-effects of working out will benefit your health even further. 

According to PubMed, while physical activity is beneficial to insulin sensitivity, it can be even more beneficial after the physical activity is done. In fact, a single workout can increase insulin sensitivity for up to 16 hours after the workout is finished, leaving you with an additional 16 hours of benefit.

Calories Can Motivate or Discourage You

Counting the calories you burn during physical activity can either motivate or discourage you depending on your mindset. If you exercise for an hour and only see a small number of calories burned, you may feel discouraged and like giving up.

However, you need to keep in mind that the time you have spent exercising will affect you even after the workout is done by boosting your metabolism which will help you in burning calories as well.

Calories Can Also Work Against You

If you feel proud of yourself after seeing how many calories you burned during your workout session, you’re more likely to want to indulge in your favorite food as a celebratory treat. This can have a negative effect on you and your weight as indulging in your favorite treat will just add the calories you burned back into your body.

Calorie Counting Can Still Help 

As long as you keep in mind that the calories you count as being burned during your workouts are not accurate nor is it as important as the workout itself, counting these calories can still provide some help. For example, counting calories that you burn can at least provide you with an estimate in regards to your physical activity. 

In keeping track of your calories, you can then compare your current burned calories to your past burned calories and see how much you have improved in your workout performance. 

Final Thoughts

While focusing on burned calories can have some positive benefits, the negative may outweigh the positive. Focusing too much on calories that have been burned may discourage you or may cause you to overindulge in your favorite treats, both of which can be detrimental to your weight loss journey. 

Plus, counting calories that have been burned during your workout is not accurate, nor does it account for all the calories you’ve burned for the day as stagnant activities can burn calories, too. 

Instead of worrying about the calories you burn during your workout, worry more about the other benefits you get from working out such as a stronger metabolism, an increase in your insulin sensitivity, mental health, being stronger, and the other 49 million benefits!

References

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10683091/

https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/how-to-boost-your-metabolism

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