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Eliptical vs. Treadmill Calories Burned

dawnkent0626
dawnkent0626 Posts: 14 Member
edited March 5 in Fitness and Exercise
Ok, this question is more for those with a training or physiology background of some sort. If I use an elliptical machine for 30 minutes vs. running on a treadmill at about a 6.5 minute mile, the calories burned according to the elliptical machine are almost double what the treadmill says that I've burned, even when both take weight into account. I FEEL like I work WAY harder by running on a treadmill. I can pedal 200 strides/minute on the elliptical and barely break a sweat. Put me on the treadmill and I'm sweating after about 7 minutes. Can the calorie counts on these machines be accurate? I have found this to be true at more than a couple of gyms, so it's not just the particular machines.

Replies

  • blackcoffeeandcherrypie
    blackcoffeeandcherrypie Posts: 486 Member
    You can't trust the calorie counts on machines because every person uses them differently, and comes to the machine at a different weight or level of fitness.

    The only way to know for sure is to get a heart rate monitor and then monitor yourself on both machines and see which comes out at the highest.
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