Calorie burn calculator on an older treadmill.

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I have an older treadmill that does not ask for height/weight/age inputs. Does anyone know what they use as their basis for the readout of calories burned at the end of a session? I read on here that subtracting 20% is a good estimate but I am just curious.

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  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    The number of calories you burn walking a mile is about 1/3 your weight in pounds.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,676 Member
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    I think the default is that of a 150 lb. person. I'm not sure. Mine doesn't ask for my weight either and is grossly inflated. I don't use their numbers. I use MFPs which are also high, but work fine for me.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Subtracting a percentage off an estimate that you suspect to be wrong doesn't make it a "good estimate", it just makes it a smaller estimate.

    I would assume your treadmill is simply using distance and an assumed standard weight which might, or might not, be close to your weight.

    Age and height aren't significant, weight and distance are the primary factors.
    Whether you are walking or running also makes a big difference as they are different movements with different energy efficiency.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    https://exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs

    Use Gross to compare to treadmill - may even figure out what weight it's assuming.

    But use Net to log on MFP.

    Even though treadmill is old - does it give any watts figure?
    Some old ones did, which means it could be doing some math from watts for very accurate calories, where weight doesn't matter.