Q: As I understand every man has to eat 2,400 calories a day. Even if I treadmill for 1/2 an hour I hardly burn 50-100 calories. The other normal routine work that an office going man does is not any harder than the treadmill workout. In that case are we really burning 2400 calories. If so, how? Please clarify?

A:You have to take into consideration the fact that the body needs a certain amount of calories for its existence, for a certain amount of fat stores and the rest is counted as excess. Therefore, going by that formula, to burn all that is required should not be your aim. For even minimum health benefits, EVERY calorie burnt adds up to the final count towards that goal. Depending on your goal, your weight and metabolic rate, you can chart out a correct course for yourself. If you team up with a good nurtitionist and fitness expert, you will understand what YOUR body needs are. New technology has made it possible to get feedback in the form of information regarding the distance you have traversed, the time you have taken and the calories you have lost. Now theres the tricky part! Differences such as body weight, body composition and metabolic rate HAVE to be factored in when taking readouts. These are the reasons why two people burning a different number of calories during identical cardiac sessions. As long as the manufactures of exercise equipment (with the help of technology) rely on metabolic equations based on standards provided by the ACSM guidelines for ex testing and pres, you can be assured of some precision. These contain software that measures how much energy is being applied to the machine. But to measure precisely how many calories you're burning, you'd need to know how much heat your body is putting out and how much oxygen its using. Most machines require users to enter their bodyweight, which is crucial for generating an accurate readout on weight bearing apparatus like treadmills and stair climbers. The uncertainty begins when the computer starts to make assumptions about you. It doesn't know how fit you are, how skilled you are at it, and it doesn't know your body composition. These are also some benchmarks to go by: Treadmills - weight, speed, distance, incline Cycles - pedal force and revolution Stair climbers - step heights and lifts per minute According to Jody Wilkinson, MD, medical director of the Cooper Institute for Aerobic Research in Dallas how the body uses fuel and burns calories during exercise is very complicated, so keeping in mind that these numbers are only estimates, albeit pretty good ones. So the final word is that as long as the machine requires you to enter your bodyweight, you can be about 10% off by the results of calories burnt that it gives you.