How Many Calories Does Zumba Burn?

I recently saw a thread on MyFitnessPal.com discussing how many calories does Zumba burn. Not that I need a reason to do Zumba, but what a good question!

The Zumba FAQ does vaguely address the question:

How many calories can I burn during a Zumba class?

The number of calories each person burns per class varies. However, depending on your body parameters (type, composition, intensity, range of motion), you can burn hundreds of calories per class.

A good source for calories burned is the list of Calories Burned During Exercise list from NutriStrategy.

Calories burned during exercise is affected by body weight, intensity of workout, conditioning level, and metabolism. Calories burned per hour are listed below for the example body weights of 130, 155, and 190 pounds.

According to NutriStragegy, “Dancing, aerobic, ballet or modern, twist” burns 354 calories per hour for a 130-pound person, 422 calories per hour for a 155-pound person, and 518 calories per hour for a 190-pound person.

The only way to know exactly how many calories you are burning during any given Zumba class is by wearing a heart rate monitor that is able to take into account your heart rate as well as your age, height, weight, and gender to calculate your personal amount of calories burned.

Zumba with a Purpose

Attention Zumba lovers in Minnesota!

Zumba with a Purpose to benefit Toys for Tots with a $10 donation on December 12, 2009 from 1-3pm at Gold’s Gym in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. This Toys for Tots benefit will feature a group of local Zumba instructors and, keeping in the spirit of Toys for Tots, Marines.

Click here for more information and enjoy!

Why Buy Vegetarian Cage-free Brown Eggs?

I buy Vegetarian Cage-free Brown Eggs at the grocery store. What does that mean?

Vegetarian Eggs
Chickens need protein. Chickens in a pasture eat bugs, like wood ticks. Commercial chicken feed may contain animal protein sources like meat or bone meal, dried whey, and fish meal. Vegetarian eggs are eggs fed feed with only vegetarian ingredients, like soybean.

Cage-free Eggs
In a perfect world, all God’s creatures could co-exist and share the land. Unfortunately, even “cage-free” chickens may not have a pleasant existence, but they are free to roam in an open area like a barn and have unlimited access to food and water.

I will spare you the details of the caged-life of a commercial layer hen. Please, if you can, buy cage-free eggs.

Brown Eggs
There is no difference between brown eggs and white eggs other than the fact that brown eggs come from “brown” or “red” hens and white eggs come from white hens.

While white to brown is common in commercial eggs, eggs can come in a wide variety of colors. There is even a non-commercial chicken breed called the Araucana, an ornery, white chicken that lays blueish-green eggs.

According to the American Egg Board at IncredibleEgg.org:

Egg shell and yolk color may vary. Color has no relationship to egg quality, flavor, nutritive value, cooking characteristics or shell thickness.

Shell
Shell color comes from pigments in the outer layer of the shell and, in eggs from various commercial breeds, may range from white to deep brown. The breed of hen determines the color of the shell. Among commercial breeds, hens with white feathers and ear lobes lay white-shelled eggs; hens with red feathers and ear lobes lay brown eggs.

White eggs are most in demand among American buyers. In some parts of the country, however, particularly in New England, brown shells are preferred. Commercial brown-egg layers are hens derived from the Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire and Plymouth Rock breeds. Since brown-egg layers are slightly larger birds and require more food, brown eggs are usually more expensive than white.

Best Zumba Shoes

While I search for the best shoes for Zumba, I do not recommend turf shoes or wrestling shoes for participating in Zumba or other aerobic dance classes.

One of the main gripes I hear from Zumba enthusiasts is that their regular gym shoes stick to the floor during class. Sticky shoes during Zumba can cause blisters or foot, ankle, or knee pain or injury.

While turf shoes are designed to allow you to comfortably train on a variety of surfaces, they probably still provide too much traction for Zumba or other ballroom or hip hop dance classes. On the bright side, turf shoes do feature a more narrow footprint – more like cross-training shoes and less like running shoes.

A better bet might be a wrestling shoe. While wrestling shoes are light and flexible, most wrestling shoes will only be available in mens’ or boys’ sizes and are only available in a high-top style. Wrestling shoes are not designed for impact and therefore do not provide a lot of arch support or sole cushion.

My recommendation is stick to athletic shoes designed specifically for dance or aerobics. If you’re not sure that a certain style is a dance shoe or aerobics shoe, look for a circle on the sole of the shoe at the ball of the foot. Not all dance shoes or aerobics shoes will have it, but it is a good way to tell if the shoe is going to allow you to turn on the ball of your foot or if you will stick to the floor instead.

If you can’t afford to buy athletic shoes just for Zumba, wear last year’s gym shoes. Be sure the traction on the sole has worn down on the ball of foot, but be sure the shoe can still provide cushion and support.

Also see my “Sticky Shoes During Zumba” and “Good Dance Shoes for Zumba” and “Where to Buy Dance Shoes” posts at Rencsi.com.

Awesome Daily Needs Nutritional Calculator and Health Tools

I recently met with Beth, a personal trainer and wellness coach at my new gym to set goals for 2009. My original motivation was to simply get my trial membership host the free month he was promised for referring a new member.

I mentioned to Beth that there are days I have to cut my routine short because I’ve run out of energy. She recommended two sites I could use to make sure I get the nutrition I need to keep me going strong each day.

www.NutritionData.com
NutritionData.com has a great Daily Needs Calculator. You enter your height, weight, age, and lifestyle. AND you can list exactly what activities you plan to do and how long you plan to do them.

The Daily Needs calculator returns your BMI, calories burned, recommended daily nutrient (carbs, protein, vitamins, minerals) quantities.

I really like being able to customize minutes per day of exercise. My workout and level of activity each day is very different for me and I think this will help me get through my varying workouts more easily.

www.PreventDisease.com
While preventing disease is not something I keep in mind while I work out at this time, PreventDisease.com features a long list of Health Tools including several Body Composition calculators, a link to the USDA Calorie & Nutrient Information Database, and even Sleep Tools.

How Many Calories are in a Cup of Coffee?

Have you ever noticed there is no nutritional information on coffee packaging? How many calories are in a cup of coffee? Here’s a list of the nutritional information of the brands of coffee I keep at home:

Dunkin Donuts (20 oz.)
10 Calories
0 Fat Calories
15mg Sodium
0g Fat
2g Carbohydrates
1g Protein
0g Dietary Fiber

Caribou Coffee (Large)
5 Calories
0 Fat Calories
10mg Sodium
0g Fat
0g Carbohydrates
1g Protein
0g Dietary Fiber

Foldgers
I could not find nutritional info for Foldgers coffee, but according to the Foldgers website:

Our coffees are 100% pure coffee. Since coffee has no nutritional value, there’s no significant amount of calories, protein, carbohydrates, fat, sodium, or potassium. In fact, one serving of brewed coffee contains less than 5 calories.

I take coffee black so the information above does not include milk or sugar. Roast (light, medium, dark) and preparation method does not seem to affect nutrition. What does affect coffee nutritional information is what you add to your coffee – like milk, cream, sugar, sweeteners, syrups, whip cream, etc.

If you are looking for a way to cut calories and fat, quit adding unnecessary calories and fat to your coffee!

Easy as pie… Right? Not for me. My FAVORITE coffee drink is Caribou Coffee’s Mint Condition.

Caribou Coffee Mint Condition (Medium w/2% Milk & Whip Cream)
460 Calories
160 Fat Calories
145mg Sodium
17g Fat
68g Carbohydrates
13g Protein
0g Dietary Fiber

Wow. That is an eye opener compared to regular black coffee, which I also enjoy. It will be hard, but I will save money, calories, and fat if I drink black coffee more often and drink a Mint Condition less often as a treat or reward. *sigh*

How to Become a Group Fitness Instructor I – Get CPR/AED Certified

Step I: Get CPR/AED Certified

The first thing to do if you want to become a group fitness instructor is get CPR/AED certified. CPR stands for CardioPulmonary Resuscitation. AED stands for Automatic External Defibrillator.

I found a CPR/AED certification class by visiting the American Red Cross webpage for my area, the Twin Cities. The class cost $65. It was held in a private home by a Red Cross-approved private training company for 5 hours on a Saturday.

The first 4 hours were CPR training. We watched video segments and the instructor embellished on the content. We practiced CPR on the Resusci Anne mannequins and took a short, multiple-choice written exam to be Red Cross CPR certified.

The last hour was AED training. Again, we watched video segments and we practiced using simulation AED equipment on the Resusci Anne teaching mannequins. There was another short, multiple-choice written exam to be Red Cross AED certified.

Zumba: Great Workout, Silly Name

I recently canceled my Snap Fitness 24-7 gym membership to join an independent gym called Fitness Crossroads. For $10/month more, the independent gym provides showers, lockers, towel service, and best of all – group fitness classes!

Being a dancer, I have always loved group fitness classes. I’ve often thought I was born too late and missed my true calling of being a aerobics instructor in the 1980’s. In fact, when asked my dream job, I often respond “aerobics instructor slash dog walker.” (Watch Eric Prydz’s Call On Me Video here. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s racy and nsfw.)

I had been away from the group fitness scene for a few years while I lived in Europe and while I held mini-gym memberships here in the States. After I joined my new gym in March, I soon saw an announcement that they were adding two “Zumba” classes to the group fitness schedule. Zumba? It sounded silly, but I decided to Google it.

The Zumba workout is based on latin rhythms and dance moves. It is like going out to a nightclub dancing, but with the freedom of not caring how you look and getting sweaty in the comfort of your own gym!

I loved Zumba from the very first minute. I was a member of the pom pon squad in high school and the dance team in college. Each song in Zumba is a mini dance routine, much like danceline. The instructor breaks down the moves first and then brings the moves up to speed. The moves are intuitive and easy-to-follow. The main goal is to keep moving.

One thing I especially love about Zumba is that each class participant can increase or decrease intensity according to their comfort level, which makes it suitable for all ages and fitness levels. In fact, many of the participants in my daytime class are 65 and over! I love to see the older men and women smiling, laughing, and dancing up a storm! Zumba Gold was designed specifically for older adults. I hope I am still dancing at age 70!

I highly recommend looking for Zumba classes at your local gym or community center, regardless of the silly name. It is so much fun, it’s like working out without working out! I love Zumba so much, and Zumba is so much fun to me, I am becoming a certified group fitness instructor through ACE (American Council on Exercise) in order to become a certified Zumba instructor.

Ditch the workout, join the party!

I Like Diet Coke, But I Like Losing Weight More

I wouldn’t describe myself as religious, but I gave up pop for Lent. It was more or less for something to do, or something not to do. With 9 days of Lent to go, according to the Offical Lent Countdown site, I ask myself, will I be giving up soda for good? The truth is, I haven’t decided yet.

I am one of the many unemployed people in the United States. I currently collect unemployment while looking for work and studying for the GRE. I spend most of my free time at the gym (Zumba(!), yoga, etc.) and/or running.

I lost about 20 pounds pretty easily after I was laid off due to less money for dining out and more time for exercise, but by mid-February, I had hit a wall where regardless of how much I ate, drank, or exercised, I wasn’t losing any weight. I was stuck at 126 pounds.

Then came Lent. I had never given up anything for Lent before and I decided it would be a nice challenge to give up something for a few weeks.

I don’t eat very much and I don’t eat a wide variety of foods so there were no food stuffs I could realistically give up for Lent. It came down to Mint Conditions from Caribou Coffee or Diet Coke. I love Mint Conditions, and I mean love. Mint Conditions, while expensive and unhealthy, are a treat and pick me up when I’m feeling blue. Giving up Mint Conditions for Lent was not an option. Giving up Diet Coke was my only option so I decided to give up all pop/soda.

Life went on as usual (minus soda) and about two weeks ago, I noticed that I started losing weight again. I am currently down to 121 and the only change I’ve made in my diet and routine has been cutting out pop for Lent.

On the downside, giving up soda has increase my alcohol intake. I am often the driver on nights out and Diet Coke with a slice of lemon was a nice alternative to alcohol. Diet Coke is not as boring and easier to drink than plain ice water, plus based on appearance, it could be a mixed drink and helps me feel like I fit into the bar scene when I’m not drinking. Since I gave up pop, I tend to order a Miller Lite even when I don’t really want or need one.

Will I give up Diet Coke for good, or will I take it back up on Easter Sunday? Only time will tell.

Sauna vs. Steam Room and How to Sauna

My gym has both a sauna and a steam room. Which is better?

Both saunas and steam rooms are used to eliminate toxins and cleanse the pores and skin through sweat, ease joint pain, improve circulation, and promote relaxation and well being.

The difference is that the sauna uses dry heat while the steam room uses humidity. Sauna temperatures are much higher than steam rooms – sauna temps are around 175°F to 210°F (80°C to 100°C), highly humid temperatures in a steam bath are usually around 105°F (40°C).

Which is better is simply a matter of preference. The hot, dry air in a sauna can be hard for some people to breathe. People with respiratory problems or illnesses my prefer the humid air of steam rooms to the hotter, dryer air of the sauna.

How to Sauna
I personally love to relax in the sauna. Someday, my dream home will have a sauna. For now, I’ll have to use the one at the gym.

Start off with a warm shower to gradually raise your body temperature. Enter the sauna – laying vertical in the nude is ideal, but probably only if it’s a private sauna in your home (especially in America). Nude with a sauna mat or towel to sit on will allow you to sweat freely, but in most societies, you’ll want to wrap a towel around yourself and wear it as you sit upright in the sauna.

Let your body temperature rise for 8-10 minutes. The higher the seat, the hotter the air. When you begin to sweat, put 2 or 3 scoops of water on the sauna rocks. Maintain the humidity in the sauna so that your skin is moist with sweat. If the air in the sauna is not humid enough, your sweat will dry when it reaches the surface of your skin.

Sit in the sauna until the heat becomes uncomfortable – it is not a competition. When it is no longer tolerable, leave the sauna and sit in a cool place, drink cool water, or take a cool water bath or shower to lower your body temperature. Cool down for up to 5 minutes then return to the sauna. Repeat the cycle 2 or 3 times.

Sauna Tips
Remove contact lenses before entering the sauna. The hot, dry air dries contacts, and if you wear contacts you know this is uncomfortable and it will shorten the time you want to spend in the sauna.

Remove all metal and jewelry before entering the sauna. The high temps in the sauna will also heat your jewelry, hair clips, locker key, etc. and might burn your skin. Ouch!

Sauna Sources

• Virtual Finland. “Sauna – A Finnish National Institution.” http://finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=26075. Accessed March 17, 2009.
• The Guardian, Expert Traveller. “How to… Take a Sauna.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/dec/17/escape1. Accessed March 17, 2009.
• Wikipedia. “Sauna.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauna. Accessed March 17, 2009.
• World Fitness. “Which is better Sauna Steam Room?” http://www.worldfitness.org/steam_bath_sauna.html. Accessed March 17, 2009.