Which Cross Trainer to 'Trust'?

OpalFruitJam

I am a member of two gyms. One I use when I am at home, the other I use when I am at university (I travel back and forth to work)
The Cross trainer in the gym in my hometown has a 'cross-ramp' feature, as well as a resistance feature. I can use this machine with ease and it states I burn around 500 or so calories in one hour. I am quite tired afterwards and fairly sweaty.

The cross trainer at my university does not have a 'cross-ramp feature, and only has a resistance feature. However, I feel exhausted after about twentyy mins on this and even though I put in the same amount of effort, the machine says I have burnt around 300 calories in one hour. This machine tires me out much faster and I sweat more, so why is the calories burnt so WILDLY different on each machine?

And why- on the machine that tells me I have burnt LESS, does it make me feel like I have EXERTED more? I am confused as which one to 'trust'- as I want to do this right. Many thanks! ^_^

Mindful_Trent

I've found that in general, machine estimates can be pretty unreliable. I use a bodybugg type device, and on the elliptical it has me burning about 200 less a workout than the gym machine (for 35-40 minutes)! I'd suggest you get a HRM or bodybugg and use that instead.

Edited to add: they're still estimates, but it makes sense to me that these would be more accurate since they're calculated using measurements from your body throughout the workout, rather than using a formula based on weight/age.

TrainingWithTonya

Okay, most machines base their calorie burns on a standard formula for a 70kg male and what they have determined is the MET value for that machine. So, if the person who programed the machines thinks that the exercise is harder with the ramp feature, you get a higher calorie burn because of the higher MET value. As for the difficulty, if you can't adjust the ramp on the one at university, then it is possibly going to feel harder because of the uncomfortable position of the stride. When you can adjust the ramp you can adjust it for your natural stride which will make it seem easier to you because it is biomechanically correct for your body whereas the ramp height/angle on the one you can't adjust isn't biomechanically correct for your body and may seem more difficult because of the way the body perceives it. If it is really way out of line for your body mechanics, it may even cause or aggravate an injury.

Azdak

There is no standard for estimating calories on a cross trainer. That's because there is no standard movement. So every model is unique and every manufacturer can program it to estimate any way they want.

The only cross trainers I know that are accurate are the Life Fitness 95X cross trainer with ver 1.80 software and the Life Fitness 95 Elevation series cross trainers. From my experience (and knowledge), these are as accurate, or maybe more so than any HRM.

Everything else is pretty much a fantasy number.