Interactive tools are designed to help people determine health risks, ideal weight, target heart rate, and more.

Research shows that a 30-minute workout burns between 350-900 calories depending on the fitness level of the exerciser and the intensity of the workout. As you progress and get stronger, you will burn off more calories each workout.

The average 150-pound person burns between 80 and 100 calories per mile. However, that number changes depending on height, weight, fitness level, terrain, clothing, temperature, and many other factors. If your goal is to lose weight, forget about the numbers. Instead, develop a healthy eating plan that you can live with, and incorporate as much physical activity into your daily routine as possible, and walk for at least ½ hour a day.

Fortunately for all of us, your body burns most of the calories you need to burn by just living! For example, a typical woman burns about 1,300 calories per day--even if she slept or read a book all day. If you are trying to lose weight, you will probably have to add some exercise to your daily routine to reach your goal of losing a pound or two per week. Once you reach your goal, you can probably trim some of the exercise--as long as you burn about the same calories as you eat.

Researchers agree that when we consume less than approximately 50% of the total energy requirements, the body is placed into a state of "semi-starvation". Many popular diet plans even place the body into a "starvation" state in order to facilitate weight loss. When the body is placed into a state of starvation, the biological and physiological response is to save energy in the form of calories (body fat).

Your body is acclimated to your weight and it burns calories based on weight, exercise, duration and intensity. When you add weight to you body more muscles are recruited to support the function of moving the weight so first more calories are burned to support the muscles. Secondly, your intensity will sky rocket by adding more weight, and it doesn't take a large amount of weight, either.

The number of calories used by exercise is often less than we believe. But exercise can make weight regulation work better.

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You need to burn off approximately 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose one pound. If you're overweight, eating your usual amount of calories while increasing activity is good for you, but eating fewer calories and being more active is even better. The following chart gives you an idea of the calories used per hour in common activities. Calories burned vary in proportion to body weight, however, so these figures are averages.

Here's an excellent reference on calories expended in various activities: Katch, F.I., Katch, V.L., and McArdle, W.D. The Complete Guide to Energy Expenditure. Fitness Technologies Press, June, 1996. You can order directly from Fitness Technologies, Inc. Send check or money order drawn on US bank to Fitness Technologies, 1132 Lincoln Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48104. Cost is (US) $11.95. First Class shipping to Canada is an additional $4.25.

the bodybugg? has 5 physiological sensors that measure skin temperature, motion, galvanic skin response and heat flux. together, these body parameters are analyzed using state-of-the-art algorithms that can accurately determine you body context, intensity and how many calories you are actually burning.

If you weigh 180 lbs. And you jog for one hour, your body will burn 540 calories. Adding 20 lbs. (total 200 lbs.) and jogging for one hour will burn 635 calories, approximately 20% more calories. You also benefit from “Afterburn”, accelerated consumption of calories for up to 36 hours post exercise.

Justin Leonard: It takes approximately 500 "less" calories a day per week to lose a pound. For example, if your body type only requires 2,000 calories per day, then 1,500 a day (3,500 per week) would put you in weight loss mode. It's also important to note that this formula does not work in all cases. Question: My problem is that I don't seem to find the correct way to get a washboard stomach. I've tried the abs exercises that fitness guru Denise Austin recommends, but to no avail.

a lower weight, you will probably not need more calories than you did at your over weight unless you have changed the composition of your body. If you have exercised, decreased body fat (gone from 28% down to 21%) and increased muscle, then you may need to increase your calories a bit higher because muscles burn more calories than fat.

Tap the "Exercise List" button on the Main Menu to look up calories burned for any of the 130 exercises and workouts. Scroll through the list of exercises, tap on one, and then tap details. Absolutely. The exercise journal is in a format that allows you to log several aspects of each type of activity. For workouts, you'll have individual fields for recording the number of sets and repetitions, along with the amount of weight lifted. You'll find that this is very flexible fitness software.

No, the diet is very simple. You eat animal protein with all meals in addition to vegetables and fruit.

Your risk for heart disease can be assessed with a blood-cholesterol test. In this test, your total-cholesterol reading should approximate the sum of your LDL ("bad" cholesterol), HDL ("good" cholesterol) and other lipoproteins. According to guidelines from the National Cholesterol Education Program: The fats that supply calories, float in your blood, and accumulate in your thighs and hips are called "triglycerides.