elliptical machine says i burned 90 calores in 30 mins

shamansa
shamansa Posts: 96 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
and I weight 240 pounds.


Is this possible? has to be wrong

Replies

  • lindustum
    lindustum Posts: 212 Member
    too much? too little? sounds alright to me...
  • SarahRose35
    SarahRose35 Posts: 127 Member
    Sounds too little, it tells me 180 for 20 minutes...and I weigh 120
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 8,003 Member
    I don't trust what the machine says anymore. I am 203 lbs and 5'9" and for my typical workout (65 minutes on the elliptical targetting a heart rate of 140 to 153) I get

    HRM ( Polar FT4): 510-540
    Machine: 750-780
    MFP Dataase: 926.
  • shamansa
    shamansa Posts: 96 Member
    too much? too little? sounds alright to me...


    too little...

    every other website says 400-500 though I don't truly believe that as well because I was going at a moderate/low speed for about 20 mins but high intensity for 10.
  • UCSMiami
    UCSMiami Posts: 97 Member
    Depends on your weight, speed and resistance and calibraton of the machine. Possible and perhaps not.
  • FauxAngel13
    FauxAngel13 Posts: 156 Member
    Sounds way to little to me... I weigh 120lb and lightly use the elliptical and for 10 minutes its between 65-90 cals depending on what level I set it to!
  • Jeneba
    Jeneba Posts: 699 Member
    I weigh 109 and I burn about 214 calories for 30 minutes - the machine, MFP, and my monitor put me all in the same range, so there might be something wrong with your machine.
  • MercenaryNoetic26
    MercenaryNoetic26 Posts: 2,747 Member
    I get pretty low burns on the elliptical. I'm 120 and will burn 150-170 in 30min (per the elliptical machine). On my HRM, I get slightly more, but not that much more, so it's pretty good measure.
  • Otrogen
    Otrogen Posts: 65
    Really depends on how hard you were going. Speed and resistance matter. It could be right but almost always I've found the calories burned estimates on gym equipment to be horribly wrong. I wouldn't trust it. Get yourself a cheap heart rate monitor (~$30) and instead make sure you're staying at 60-80% of your max heart rate. That will give you more accurate calories burned numbers when you plug it in online, and you'll know that you're in the fat burning zone.
  • amandabrooke17
    amandabrooke17 Posts: 24 Member
    Unless you were going VERRRRRRRY slow; definitely inaccurate!
  • marnie4ever
    marnie4ever Posts: 28 Member
    I'll be sooo happy when I can do the eliptical for even 20 min....I just started out at the gym and am going very slow but I am only up to 1 min and 15 sec on that one machine...ugh that's just embarrassing!!!! But I keep at it everyday....started out at 30 sec...I can't imagine 30 or 40 min!!!! Your calories burned HAVE to be more that what it says! Good luck and keep on!!! :)
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    Sounds very low. 10 cals/minute would be a fairly light effort workout at your weight. 20 cals/minute would be about a maximum, like a sprint, and you probably wouldn't be able to sustain it for 30 mins. It's safe to say it's somewhere between those two, scaled to your level of effort.
  • lahan505
    lahan505 Posts: 10 Member
    I don't believe any calorie count from any exercise equipment other than a heart rate monitor. By monitoring the heart's workload during exercise is the best way to figure out how hard you are working and the calories burned.
  • babyluthi
    babyluthi Posts: 285 Member
    I'll be sooo happy when I can do the eliptical for even 20 min....I just started out at the gym and am going very slow but I am only up to 1 min and 15 sec on that one machine...ugh that's just embarrassing!!!! But I keep at it everyday....started out at 30 sec...I can't imagine 30 or 40 min!!!! Your calories burned HAVE to be more that what it says! Good luck and keep on!!! :)

    Honestly that was me at the beginning, within 2 weeks I was up to 20 minutes:) Stick with it:)
  • Mighty_Rabite
    Mighty_Rabite Posts: 581 Member
    That's way too low.

    I don't trust the machine fully though, so what I like to do is take the machine's number, cut off 20% and log that.

    I usually do the following:

    LifeFitness 91x
    Maintain between 7.2 and 9.0 miles per hour pace depending on how I feel
    Maintain heart rate of around 160bpm, sometimes in intervals I'll spike to mid-170s; general resistance level is 15-17
    Readout is usually between 460-500 calories in 30 minutes at these values, and usually in the neighborhood of 3.5-4.0 miles

    It's pretty high intensity but I also weigh 180lbs too so that contributes some.
  • xapril77x
    xapril77x Posts: 248 Member
    I don't believe any calorie count from any exercise equipment other than a heart rate monitor. By monitoring the heart's workload during exercise is the best way to figure out how hard you are working and the calories burned.

    How do u know how many calories u burn by using a heart rate monitor? I've been using my stair stepper & it totals my calories by how fast I go & how many steps I take in the amount of time so it varies like it should but even tho I go hard on it, I think it's giving me way too many calories burned but Idk? I did 30 mins with 2914 steps & it said I burned 407 calories & the same day I did 30 mins & 3701 steps & it says I burned 518 caloried but I think that's too high... I would luv 2 know how many calories I'm actually burning...
  • xapril77x
    xapril77x Posts: 248 Member
    I'll be sooo happy when I can do the eliptical for even 20 min....I just started out at the gym and am going very slow but I am only up to 1 min and 15 sec on that one machine...ugh that's just embarrassing!!!! But I keep at it everyday....started out at 30 sec...I can't imagine 30 or 40 min!!!! Your calories burned HAVE to be more that what it says! Good luck and keep on!!! :)

    Keep at it... it'll get easier in time... I was that way years ago on my treadmill... at 1st I could only go about 5 mins at a very slow pace & soon I was running 10 miles per day...
  • thatjulesgirl
    thatjulesgirl Posts: 200 Member
    and I weight 240 pounds.


    Is this possible? has to be wrong

    The machines in my gym are calibrated for an "average" person... I managed to find what these stats were once and it turns out it's for a male, 6'1", 185lbs.

    It was no surprise then at a short, fat female... the numbers were all wrong. It also stuffs with the calories burned count if you take either of your hands off the HRM plates *at all*.

    If you're in it for the long haul and you want accurate calorie-burned figures... I'd recommend you invest in your own HRM. I love my Polar FT7 (especially as I can swim with it) and as soon as I started using it I began losing much more consistently (which makes me think the numbers were far more accurate).
    Hope this helps :)
  • Nicolee_2014
    Nicolee_2014 Posts: 1,572 Member
    I burned 266 for 30 mins elliptical last time I did 30 mins as per my hrm. So it sounds too low.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    and I weight 240 pounds.


    Is this possible? has to be wrong

    The machines in my gym are calibrated for an "average" person... I managed to find what these stats were once and it turns out it's for a male, 6'1", 185lbs.

    It was no surprise then at a short, fat female... the numbers were all wrong. It also stuffs with the calories burned count if you take either of your hands off the HRM plates *at all*.

    If you're in it for the long haul and you want accurate calorie-burned figures... I'd recommend you invest in your own HRM. I love my Polar FT7 (especially as I can swim with it) and as soon as I started using it I began losing much more consistently (which makes me think the numbers were far more accurate).
    Hope this helps :)

    Maybe your gym has some special equipment, but most machines don't use the HRM plates at all for calories, the calories burned are an algorithim based on the METS (how hard the machine is working). For example, if I'm running at 13 METS, the calorie count is 13x your resting calorie burn, which is determined by the inputs you give the machine- weight, and gender primarily. If they used the HRM plates, you would never be able to get numbers for, say, running since you can't (shouldn't) hold the handles and run.
  • determinedbutlazy
    determinedbutlazy Posts: 1,941 Member
    Maybe get a heart rate monitor.
  • cdjs77
    cdjs77 Posts: 176 Member
    That sounds low, but it's difficult to say since we don't truly know the resistance you used or the effort you put in. Effort is hard to judge based on what someone tells you. My friend's intense effort is my moderate effort and my moderate effort is my sister's light effort. Like everyone else suggested, I would get a heart rate monitor. However, they too are not entirely accurate. If you are really out of shape, your heart rate monitor may overestimate your calories burned. If you are really in shape it may underestimate them. In addition, anything that elevates your heart rate but doesn't involve any extra work will make your heart rate monitor overestimate calories.
    I take most "calories burned" counts with a grain of salt.
  • ritchiedrama
    ritchiedrama Posts: 1,304 Member
    Just stop caring about "calories burned".

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