Glamour Magazine - Skating Calorie Counter

[Isk8NYC]

One of my cousins sent me this link:

http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/activity/calculators/ice_skating

[icedancer]

Cool!

I always wonder what they mean by light, moderate or vigorous?  I put moderate...

I burned over 800 calories today skating for about 100 minutes - or was I really skating for that long or just moving my jaw muscles?   

Thanks for posting.

[iomoon]

Thanks for the link. 

I can never figure out what's moderate vs. vigorous. It's not like I'm doing an axel single second. XD I'll just stick with moderate.

[ChristyRN]

I used my current weight and my former skating level (before lung problems) and I burn 541 calories in 60 minutes.  Not bad, once I get back there.

[Cush]

I strap on an actual heart rate monitor when I do any work out. I don't like guessing. Skating one hour for me usually burns anywhere from 350 to 420 calories. I am not doing any jumps or fancy moves yet, so I imagine mine will be a bit lower than others.

[sampaguita]

I don't feel like I'm burning calories when I skate. And it seems my waistline agrees with me, lol!

[VAsk8r]

We did a skate-a-thon at my rink where we just skated laps for an hour and a half, and I was more tired doing that than I am working on jumps and spins for an hour and a half. But maybe it was also because I was a little bored. I also could barely walk for the next three days.

[FigureSpins]

I wonder what a pedometer would show for a skateathon?

[fsk8r]

I wonder what a pedometer would show for a skateathon?

Pedometers generally struggle with skating because the movement doesn't create the pounding at the waist that walking does. I've heard that to record skating with an activity monitor (ones which can cope with more movement than just walking) it's best to strap it to your ankle as then it'll get sufficient movement (incidentally they recommend wearing them around the ankle for cycling as well).

[sarahonice]

I've used a heart rate monitor while skating, and those numbers in the calculator seem about right. Maybe even a little on the low side for me. I wore the monitor a lot in the beginning, but not as much now that I know the range.

For doing low freestyle (scratch/sit spins, single jumps up to loop, program run throughs) a 60-minute session for me burns about 500-550 calories. If I'm having a slow day with only MITF (pre-bronze and bronze test moves) and a lot of skating around aimlessly, it's more like 350 calories an hour.

For me "light" means moves, stroking, and general skating around, "moderate" is a typical freestyle session, and "vigorous" isn't a level I can maintain for a whole hour (program run throughs feel pretty vigorous though).

[jjane45]

Ice dance is definitely "vigorous" for me. Freestyle is rather "moderate" on average because of the built-in breaks between spins / jumps, lol.

[lutefisk]

The Glamour mag calculator gives a some what optimistic burn rate compared to the exercise calculators which I use: http://cronometer.com/  or: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php

For the one on cronometer I use "ice skating, average speed" , for the one on caloriesperhour I use "ice skating general".  Both of these are in relatively good agreement with each other.  I think most people tend to over estimate the calories per hour used by many activities.

[Landing~Lutzes]

Ice dance is definitely "vigorous" for me. Freestyle is rather "moderate" on average because of the built-in breaks between spins / jumps, lol.

I'm working on just my lower level dances, but I agree...I've found since switching to dance, it requires more stamina than what freestyle did, LOL! When you think about it, doing a dance is almost like doing a sprint...it's quick, short, and a continuous speed.

[discombobulate]

I wouldn't rely on this strictly. I am curious to know what formula they use.
It may not be very accurate because no one really does a skating session without stopping or working on elements that bring your heart rate down.

[AgnesNitt]

I wouldn't rely on this strictly. I am curious to know what formula they use.
It may not be very accurate because no one really does a skating session without stopping or working on elements that bring your heart rate down.

I think it's valid. I've used heart rate/calorie counters and got close to the same values when I'm lap skating. The trick is that as an adult, I'm not doing moderate or heavy, I'm doing 'light'.