how accurate are the calories burned on an elliptical?

gillmitch

Hi all I have a York xc530 and it shows that if I do 20 mins I burn 165 calories how accurate do you guys think that is?

thanks all .... gill.

potatocar

I wore my HRM on the elliptical a couple of times and it was pretty accurate. But I'm sure it depends on the person. The elliptical can't know how tough it is for you.

acpgee

That sounds about right. I use a Polar FT4, which says I burn around 530 for a 65 minute workout targeting a heart rate of 140-150. I sprint for 20 seconds if my heart rate drops below 140. That works out to about 163 for 20 minutes. If I target a little lower (minimum 130 beats per minute, the HRM says I burn about 510 for the 65 minute workout).

Before getting the HRM, I was overestimating calories burned. The machine at my gym would say my typical workout was around 780, and the MFP database would say 926.

sylo1609

Very accurate in my case.
I see a lot of people complain about MFP overestimating exercise calories, but I find them surprisingly accurate (elliptical, cycling, jogging) because the machines at the gym / other websites give me pretty similar numbers.
If you wanna make sure you don't overestimate, only eat back like .. idk .. 50 to 75% of them

pastrychefoz

I have a polar f7 and I find elliptical over by about 33 % estimation, MFP surprisingly is out by less than 1 % for me. What I like about the monitor is that keeps u targeted in the range u want to be in.

jonnythan

Hi all I have a York xc530 and it shows that if I do 20 mins I burn 165 calories how accurate do you guys think that is?

thanks all .... gill.

If the elliptical lets you program in your height/weight it should really be pretty accurate.