# Typewriting calories measured how? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 11, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typewriting-calories-measured-how/847757 "2020-02-11T01:09:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typewriting-calories-measured-how/847757/1 "2020-02-11T01:09:30Z")
> **[When secretaries switched from manual typewriters to electrics, did they gain...](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3012/when-secretaries-switched-from-manual-typewriters-to-electrics-did-they-typically-gain-20-pounds/)** Interesting column, but I’m curious as to how the US or Italian doctors mentioned could possibly measure caloric burn to 2 decimal places per minute in the 1950’s or even today? That seems shockingly accurate to me. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typewriting-calories-measured-how/847757/2 "2020-02-11T02:24:56Z")
I think they do it by measuring the amount of oxygen consumed. If you’ve ever seen a picture of a person on a treadmill with a hose in their mouth, that’s the sort of apparatus they use. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2020, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typewriting-calories-measured-how/847757/3 "2020-02-11T14:34:35Z")
The postulate stated in the article strikes me as totally ridiculous based on my knowledge of diet and my experience with exercise. ---
**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typewriting-calories-measured-how/847757/4 "2020-02-12T01:19:11Z")
They did that back in the 1950’s in Italy? Wow, I’m impressed. But that’s really not measuring caloric burn, it’s measuring oxygen consumption as it _correlates_ to caloric burn, correct? (Similar to a fitness watch that correlates heart rate to caloric burn?) Given that they’re measuring a correlational factor and not the factor itself how can they possibly state their conclusions so firmly and with such accuracy? It still seems ridiculous to me. Lastly, I minored in stats in university and from what little knowledge remains in my head, I think that to get such firmly stated conclusions based on so little variance (two decimal places) it seems to me that they’d have a sample of 75 or more. That also strikes me as ridiculous. I think the skepticism implicit in Cecil’s column is well-deserved but also very understated. That study is BS.