How to Measure Calories Burned During Exercise

Track Your Calories Burned on a Treadmill or Other Machine

Enter your weight where indicated on the machine controls. Use the scale at your gym to get the most accurate weight.

Start performing your exercise. The machine will track the number of calories that you've burned based on your body weight and the intensity of your exercise.

Write down the number of calories that you burned in a journal or on a smartphone.

Track Your Calories on a Smartphone App

Download a calorie-counting or exercise tracking app from the iTunes Store or GooglePlay.

Enter your current weight into the app.

Choose the exercise you want to perform from the app's menu. Choose an intensity level if necessary, such as low-impact, medium or high intensity.

Enter the length of time that you spent exercising. Alternatively, enter the distance that you traveled while exercising.

Record the number of calories that you burned within the app or in a separate notebook.

Find the Right Number of Calories to Burn

Determine how many calories you can take in each day to meet your weight goals. Enter your height, weight, gender, activity level and weight loss goals into an online calculator. Write down the number of calories that you should eat per day in a journal or on your smartphone. Make sure you aren't losing more than 1 to 2 pounds per week.

Perform just enough exercise to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week in combination with what you're eating. If you calculated calorie goals for a 1-pound weight loss per week, then you can burn up to 3,500 calories with exercise to lose an additional pound. If you calculated calorie goals for a 2-pound per week weight loss, then make sure to replace any calories that you burn while exercising with food. For example, if you burn 300 calories while exercising, eat 300 calories of healthy food to compensate.

Write everything down while you are working on your weight. Write down all meals and all exercise performed so that you are accurately tracking your calories. Weigh and measure everything you eat. Otherwise, you may underestimate the number of calories you eat. That can make a big difference in your progress. For example, the difference between one and two tablespoons of peanut butter is almost 100 calories.