From: EPLUS17@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu (Richard Engelbrecht-Wiggans)
Subject: Re: Calories
Organization: C.C.S.O.
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 14:25:25 GMT

In article <1992Jul27.151754.9667@waikato.ac.nz>
jhallina@waikato.ac.nz writes:
 
>Somewhere back in the conference, someone said that windsurfing was a static
>activity sport as opposed to other activities such as running.
>
I am not sure what is meant by "static" here.  I certainly move a lot while
while sailing.  Indeed, it seems like a lot of leg squats, chin ups, etc.
just like the stuff I hated so much in school gym classes.  (I never realised
how willing I would be to do the same exercises on a sailboard!)
 
>I was wondering whether windsurfing would burn just as many calories/hour as a
>non-static sport.
>
>Anyone know how many calories an hour a typical windsurfer would burn off?
>
>I'd have a guess at around 250 calories/hour.
>
In trying to kepp track, over the years, of how much I exercise each day, I
tried to determine such numbers for running, bicycling, rowing, swimming, XC
skiing, speed skating, etc.  Different sources give different numbers.  But all
seem to fall within about plus/minus twenty percent of what you get using the
following:
 
1.  I hypothesize that if you maintain a given pulse rate (say 150/minute) for
some time (at least 10 minutes) you will be burning a certain number of
calories a a rate that is approximately independent of what activity you are
doing to get your pulse up.
 
2.  A large number of sources seem to agree that walking/running requires about
80 to 100 calories per mile for someone my weight (175+-); walking slowly takes
almost as many calories per mile as running a world record pace!
 
For a given level of fitness, I would moniter my pulse over 3 to 5 miles runs
at several different paces (10 min/mile down to 5:15/mile) to create a table of
clarories per hour at different pulse rates.  Then by measuring my pulse in
some different sport, I would estimate the calories/hour being used.  As said
before, this seems to give results consistent with anything I seen printed for
the sports listed before.
 
Now what about windsurfing...on a good day, my pulse seems to average about
150.  The above method would translate this into more like 750 calories/hour.
 
But, I have the following disclaimers:
 
     1.  In sailing, I couldn't take my pulse easily on a resular basis.  So I
tried using a heart moniter--supposedly waterproof.  I don't know how close the
results from the moniter correspond to thoise obtained by spot sampling in my
other activities.  (This could be checked by using the moniter in other sports
if only I were healthy enough to do any of them on a regular basis again.)
 
     2.  I am much less fit now than a few years ago, and so my pulse rate to
calories/hour table may be badly off; I think that the better shape you are in,
the more calories you can burn per hour for a given pulse rate (eg. the faster
you can run at a given level of exertion.)
 
     3.  All the sports that I looked at carefully (before sailing) were
steady cardiovascular activities.  Sailing may be different...someone
mentioned adrenalyn (sp?), and I suspect that the high pulse rate from
seeing a shark cricle my feet doesn't require quite the same calories as if
that same rate were obtained by running don a scenic trail in the woods.
 
For those of you who might be interested, I use the following numbers for
keeping track of my own exercise:
 
            Activity                          Miles/100 calories
 
            Running (medium pace)             1.0 (this is my basic unit)
            Walking                           0.8
            Pushing a lawn mower              4/3
            Swimming (1.8 mph)                1/6
            Bicycling (18-21 mph on a good
               or 12-15 on my commuting rig)  1/3
            Rowing (mediunm effort)           1/2
            Speed skating (hard)              1/2
 
 
Richard Engelbrecht-Wiggans          Those who can, teach;
                                     those who can't, don't;
eplus17@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu             and too many who think they
or EPLUS17@UIUCVMD                   can teach neither can nor do.
Newsgroups: rec.windsurfing