How dishonest is the eliptical?

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  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    ivylaurenolsen wrote: »
    I know that people usually say that the machines are usually too high when they say how many calories you have burned...how much are they off? For every 30 minutes of intervals on the eliptical it says I am burning 280 calories. When I log it on MFP it seems high too. I weigh 138 and I'm 20...about how much am I actually burning?

    If you can run ~4.5 miles in 30 minutes, it's probably close.

    If you can't, scale downwards by how far you *can* run in 30 minutes.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    ivylaurenolsen wrote: »
    I know that people usually say that the machines are usually too high when they say how many calories you have burned...how much are they off? For every 30 minutes of intervals on the eliptical it says I am burning 280 calories. When I log it on MFP it seems high too. I weigh 138 and I'm 20...about how much am I actually burning?

    it has been my experience that the elliptical cross trainer at the gym is a pathalogical liar. In fact, this morning it said I burned 480 calories for 42 minutes, when my heart rate montior very nicely confronted it and said, "No, she only burned 322." Thus far, my heart rate monitor has been upfront with me. :)
  • Leslierussell4134
    Leslierussell4134 Posts: 376 Member
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    SLLRunner wrote: »
    ivylaurenolsen wrote: »
    I know that people usually say that the machines are usually too high when they say how many calories you have burned...how much are they off? For every 30 minutes of intervals on the eliptical it says I am burning 280 calories. When I log it on MFP it seems high too. I weigh 138 and I'm 20...about how much am I actually burning?

    it has been my experience that the elliptical cross trainer at the gym is a pathalogical liar. In fact, this morning it said I burned 480 calories for 42 minutes, when my heart rate montior very nicely confronted it and said, "No, she only burned 322." Thus far, my heart rate monitor has been upfront with me. :)

    This^^
    The machine like to do this to me too, the other day it said I burned 690 calories in a hour, but my HRM said 559.
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
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    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    ivylaurenolsen wrote: »
    I know that people usually say that the machines are usually too high when they say how many calories you have burned...how much are they off? For every 30 minutes of intervals on the eliptical it says I am burning 280 calories. When I log it on MFP it seems high too. I weigh 138 and I'm 20...about how much am I actually burning?

    If you can run ~4.5 miles in 30 minutes, it's probably close.

    If you can't, scale downwards by how far you *can* run in 30 minutes.

    I'm not sure I understand this... I estimate I burn approx. 100 calories per mile no matter how fast or slow I go. If I'm burning ~280 calories it means I probably ran close to 3 miles (currently would take me about 24-25 minutes). 4.5 miles in 30 minutes is really fast...
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    edited July 2015
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    zdyb23456 wrote: »
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    ivylaurenolsen wrote: »
    I know that people usually say that the machines are usually too high when they say how many calories you have burned...how much are they off? For every 30 minutes of intervals on the eliptical it says I am burning 280 calories. When I log it on MFP it seems high too. I weigh 138 and I'm 20...about how much am I actually burning?

    If you can run ~4.5 miles in 30 minutes, it's probably close.

    If you can't, scale downwards by how far you *can* run in 30 minutes.

    I'm not sure I understand this... I estimate I burn approx. 100 calories per mile no matter how fast or slow I go.

    At your size you're netting 80 calories/mile. Elliptical is about 1/3 less burn-"efficient" than running. So for the same perceived effort level, running would burn ~360 calories, which is right around 4.5 miles.

    Yeah, it is really fast...so the elliptical is most likely giving you a meaningful over-estimate. If you can run 5k in 30 minutes the actual elliptical burn would likely be somewhere around 180-190.

    All of this is estimated...machines (at least consumer grade machines) really complicate the variables...
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
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    oh ok - that makes sense. thanks! I'll continue to the avoid the elliptical and stick with running :)
  • lemonlionheart
    lemonlionheart Posts: 580 Member
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    ManiacalLaugh wrote: »
    Bumping this thread instead of starting my own since the subject is so close...

    Does anyone have a good online calculator for the eliptical that is more dependable than what the gym elipticals read? I've seem some great suggestion for running calculators, swimming calculators, etc, but I haven't seen one for elips.

    At my gym, it's the eliptical or nothing for cardio, which is better than nothing, IMO. And I don't eat back my calories. I'd just like to see what I might actually be burning for my height/weight/age.

    Does your machine have a heart rate monitor? I use the shapesense calculator to estimate net burns based on average heartrate.
  • ManiacalLaugh
    ManiacalLaugh Posts: 1,048 Member
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    lemonlionheart wrote: »
    ManiacalLaugh wrote: »
    Bumping this thread instead of starting my own since the subject is so close...

    Does anyone have a good online calculator for the eliptical that is more dependable than what the gym elipticals read? I've seem some great suggestion for running calculators, swimming calculators, etc, but I haven't seen one for elips.

    At my gym, it's the eliptical or nothing for cardio, which is better than nothing, IMO. And I don't eat back my calories. I'd just like to see what I might actually be burning for my height/weight/age.

    Does your machine have a heart rate monitor? I use the shapesense calculator to estimate net burns based on average heartrate.

    Yes, and I can average my heart rate out pretty easily with it. I'm just not sure if my asthma medication would mess with the numbers, or if they would be too inconsequential to matter. My heart really gets going after pre-treating with an inhaler.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    Heart rate is a really tricky thing to estimate calories from. 45 minutes behind a drum kit and an HRM thinks I just ran 10k, when in reality the burn is not much more than from a brisk walk.
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
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    Man, it only gives me 100 calories per half hour of hard work. Since it sounds ridiculously low, I assume it must be correct.

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