Calorie burn discrepancy on cross trainer...

I have a cross trainer at home - it's one I bought a good few years ago out of Argos for about £100 or so (lol). I think the brand is V-fit or something like that.
My issue is that the monitor on it tells me that after doing 8.5km over 40minutes I burnt 251 calories; however when logging it on myfitnesspal it says I should have burnt about 394, and logging it on Runkeeper it said I should have burnt about a whopping 600 odd calories. I'm not sure which one is going to be more accurate? I know it's not exactly possible to get it exact down to the calorie but I wondered if anyone had any opinions on this at all?
I am very new at this so I'm not exactly sure what I should be logging!
Many thanks xoxo

Replies

  • sylo1609
    sylo1609 Posts: 36
    251 is definitely too low and 600 definitely way too high.
    Does it show you how many W(atts) you're "producing"?
    I weigh 195 lbs and burn about 800 kcal @ 250 W per hour.
    If I were you I would compare your weight and Watts to my the values above and take them into consideration, that should be quite an accurate guess. :)
  • jjaimelee
    jjaimelee Posts: 5
    251 is definitely too low and 600 definitely way too high.
    Does it show you how many W(atts) you're "producing"?
    I weigh 195 lbs and burn about 800 kcal @ 250 W per hour.
    If I were you I would compare your weight and Watts to my the values above and take them into consideration, that should be quite an accurate guess. :)

    I don't know what my watts are? My speed was about 13km/h though?
    I'm not sure how to work out watts! I'm sorry I'm so vague, I'm really new at this! xoxo
  • DaveFassett
    DaveFassett Posts: 12 Member
    Gym equipment is frequently way off.
    MFP is frequently way off.

    I use a heart rate monitor... I've seen workouts where my HRM says 700, my treadmill says 810, and MFP says 1100!

    Imagine if I believed MFP and did that 5 days a week... 2000 extra calories I'd be eating back and not losing...

    Also be sure when losing weight with a HRM to lower your weight information as entered in the device. I forgot to do that for a while, and when I finally did (dropped it by 12 lbs) my normal workout burned like 50-60 calories less than it did before.
  • jjaimelee
    jjaimelee Posts: 5
    Gym equipment is frequently way off.
    MFP is frequently way off.

    I use a heart rate monitor... I've seen workouts where my HRM says 700, my treadmill says 810, and MFP says 1100!

    Imagine if I believed MFP and did that 5 days a week... 2000 extra calories I'd be eating back and not losing...

    Also be sure when losing weight with a HRM to lower your weight information as entered in the device. I forgot to do that for a while, and when I finally did (dropped it by 12 lbs) my normal workout burned like 50-60 calories less than it did before.

    I think I will definitely look into getting a heart rate monitor! Thanks for the advice :) xoxo