Massive over estimation on gym equipment for cals burned!

pinkiezoom

Hi All

I am pretty new to the site, and i know as a newbie I have read all the threads with great interest, and I saw one about not trusting the calories I was burning at the gym as the machines ( and mfp ) can be a little on the generous side.

Well i bought a polar T4 heart rate monitor, and used it for the first time yesterday, and i was horrified that the treadmill said 600 cals burned, and my heart rate monitor was 240! So for the last few weeks I have been massively misjudging the calories I have been burning, Luckily i have still been losing the weight, but on some days i have eaten back my burned calories, which now turns out would actually be a massive over eat!

So really this is just a warning to the other newbies out there, who might be struggling and busting their butts at the gym, just be really careful of the calories you think you are burning.

I know this will be old news to most people, but just thought it might help as one newbie to another to keep us on the right path.

absurdic

Hi, some gym equipment can indeed over estimate but I must say that it is by far more common that people don't enter their weight

hearthwood

Hi All

I am pretty new to the site, and i know as a newbie I have read all the threads with great interest, and I saw one about not trusting the calories I was burning at the gym as the machines ( and mfp ) can be a little on the generous side.

Well i bought a polar T4 heart rate monitor, and used it for the first time yesterday, and i was horrified that the treadmill said 600 cals burned, and my heart rate monitor was 240! So for the last few weeks I have been massively misjudging the calories I have been burning, Luckily i have still been losing the weight, but on some days i have eaten back my burned calories, which now turns out would actually be a massive over eat!

So really this is just a warning to the other newbies out there, who might be struggling and busting their butts at the gym, just be really careful of the calories you think you are burning.

I know this will be old news to most people, but just thought it might help as one newbie to another to keep us on the right path.

And this is why it's never a good idea to eat back more than 1/2 of calories burned. Electronic devices and MFP are all over the place, and you could easily be overeating your workouts if you eat all calories back.

999tigger

So how much exercise did you do for your 600/240 calories?

Omanya

Hi, some gym equipment can indeed over estimate but I must say that it is by far more common that people don't enter their weight

This. Newer machines, particularly ones in cardio-based gyms, generally will be within 10% accuracy if you enter all the info and do the exercises correctly/as intended.

Some questions:

What brand was the machine you used?

What info did you put in the cardio machine vs the HRM?

Did you keep your hands on the machine's HRM most of the time/did it register your heart rate most of the time?


Usually you won't see a difference that big in newer, commercial gym equipment unless you're not feeding it all the info it needs. However, home gym equipment is typically *much* sloppier.

ronnerickson

I never eat more than my daily calorie goal no matter how much I exercise. Well, I should not say never because I do go over sometimes. But I keep my cardio and food intake separate. That way any calories you burn during cardio will only further your weight loss. Just my recommendations.

pinkiezoom

absurdic wrote: »

Hi, some gym equipment can indeed over estimate but I must say that it is by far more common that people don't enter their weight

I did enter my weight but that is all the gym treadmill asks for.

pinkiezoom

999tigger wrote: »

So how much exercise did you do for your 600/240 calories?

Hi I was on the treadmill at a gradient of 10-15 for the full hour and at a speed of 4.5-5 i cant run as i have an ankle injury. I am 5ft 4 and 15st so that is actually quite a work out for me at the moment lol.

karenj_m

This is why I like using the TDEE method....workout 3-5 days (good strong workouts) per week then that's "moderately active"....minus 20-25%....and there's my calories to hit for the day....no exercise tracking ....just "eat this" ---- done!

pinkiezoom

Omanya wrote: »

Hi, some gym equipment can indeed over estimate but I must say that it is by far more common that people don't enter their weight

This. Newer machines, particularly ones in cardio-based gyms, generally will be within 10% accuracy if you enter all the info and do the exercises correctly/as intended.

Some questions:

What brand was the machine you used?

What info did you put in the cardio machine vs the HRM?

Did you keep your hands on the machine's HRM most of the time/did it register your heart rate most of the time?


Usually you won't see a difference that big in newer, commercial gym equipment unless you're not feeding it all the info it needs. However, home gym equipment is typically *much* sloppier.

Hi,
The brand is cymex i think thats the spelling, but no model number i am afraid lol.
treadmill just asks for weight nothing else, HRM age, weight height etc ( so assuming it is closer to the real number )

Before the HRM i always held onto the handles so it could read my HR, but my HRM syncs up to the machine for HR now.

The gym is nice but does not have as up to date equipment as my other gym did.

pinkiezoom

ronnerickson wrote: »

I never eat more than my daily calorie goal no matter how much I exercise. Well, I should not say never because I do go over sometimes. But I keep my cardio and food intake separate. That way any calories you burn during cardio will only further your weight loss. Just my recommendations.

I agree with you, i was having to do quite a bit of exercise so I could manage on the low calories MFP suggested i started on, but you can see by my diary i didnt eat all of them back, now i am a bit more confident and in my stride a bit better, I have just increased my daily allowance of calories and wont be working back anything I burn.

nonisimmons

I'm pretty new here too and I've heard that the gym's machine does over estimate your calories burned. I've been trying to just stay within my calorie limits. This site is soooo helpful!

pinkiezoom

nonisimmons wrote: »

I'm pretty new here too and I've heard that the gym's machine does over estimate your calories burned. I've been trying to just stay within my calorie limits. This site is soooo helpful!

Hi there,
Yes i agree the site is brilliant, especially for newbies who are just trying to suss it all out
Good luck on your journey.

redfisher1974

My equipment in my home gym shows me burning less then half what this website shows when I enter the info... So I go with my equipment when I enter. They ask for weight, gender, age and they do heart rate.

pinkiezoom

redfisher1974 wrote: »

My equipment in my home gym shows me burning less then half what this website shows when I enter the info... So I go with my equipment when I enter. They ask for weight, gender, age and they do heart rate.

I have never used MFP to log my exercise as i read too many posts saying it over estimated, I am trying to not get too OCD about it all, and have decided to just try and not eat any cals back that i burn and that way i will always be good to go lol

Amyafm

I was shocked yesterday when I put my elliptical trainer exercise into MFP and it pretty much doubled what my machine told me I burned.

fanceegirl75

The best route is a HRM. MFP & gym machines are going to give you a number that most times is higher. This is a big reason I don't eat back exercise cals. But I've since been using TDEE. Check out iifym.com to calculate yours.

habit365

I'm going to go the other way here and point a finger at your HRM. If you were on the machine for an hour at 4.5-5, you walked almost 5 miles. That is more than 240 calories for almost anyone. Even at my lightest I was getting something like 75 calories a mile. What is the setup process for the T4? I have an FT60 and it was pretty involved. The HRM is using an algorithm to estimate calories based on your heart rate, and if any of the assumptions are off (max HR, VO2Max), the burn will be off as well.

ETA: The treadmill numbers sound rather off as well.

pinkiezoom

habit365 wrote: »

I'm going to go the other way here and point a finger at your HRM. If you were on the machine for an hour at 4.5-5, you walked almost 5 miles. That is more than 240 calories for almost anyone. Even at my lightest I was getting something like 75 calories a mile. What is the setup process for the T4? I have an FT60 and it was pretty involved. The HRM is using an algorithm to estimate calories based on your heart rate, and if any of the assumptions are off (max HR, VO2Max), the burn will be off as well.

ETA: The treadmill numbers sound rather off as well.

Hi and thanks for this, I must admit i thought the treadmill was high, but the HRH low. The T4 asks age, height, sex and weight so not a massive amount of details, but more than the treadmill which is weight only.
I am losing weight pretty steadily so not overly worried at this stage, as I have gone from doing NOTHING all day and evening to getting to the gym and watching my food, so it is a different lifestyle.
I think the treadmills are pretty old at the gym, as they are nowhere near as flash as the ones at my old gym.... so that could be part of it.
I did think it should be more cals as the incline I have it at is high, just to keep my heart rate up, as i cant run, only walk as fast as my little legs allow lol

pinkiezoom

fanceegirl75 wrote: »

The best route is a HRM. MFP & gym machines are going to give you a number that most times is higher. This is a big reason I don't eat back exercise cals. But I've since been using TDEE. Check out iifym.com to calculate yours.

Hi thanks for replying, i rarely eat my calories back anyway, but on occasion i had been, and luckily for me i was still losing weight, but just thought for other new folk out there, they might want to be a little more conservative if logging their activity to start with.

pinkiezoom

Amyafm wrote: »

I was shocked yesterday when I put my elliptical trainer exercise into MFP and it pretty much doubled what my machine told me I burned.

I have heard that MFP does massively over estimate, so I had only been using the gym machine numbers until I got my HRM, now I use those numbers instead.

999tigger

I think your hrm sounds wrong on the basis of an hours exercise. Obviously mFP is just an estimate and wont have full data plus people overestimate their effort. Walking is fairly well documented as in a calorie count so id check other estimators as well and I think theyd be consistent.

pinkiezoom

999tigger wrote: »

I think your hrm sounds wrong on the basis of an hours exercise. Obviously mFP is just an estimate and wont have full data plus people overestimate their effort. Walking is fairly well documented as in a calorie count so id check other estimators as well and I think theyd be consistent.

Thanks for this, i have looked into it, and it does seem a little low, but i use weights now as i am walking to make sure i keep my heart rate up, obviously i cant do it for the full hour yet only worked up to 15 mins to keep heart rate at 150+, but then without weights it is about 125-130. I am happy to go with the lower numbers, as can only be more beneficial to my weight loss journey, i was only really posting as a kind of newbie so other newbies could see that the threads they read are true and it can be a big difference, even if my tech is slightly out.
It does worry me that i see people saying they have burned 300 cals doing half an hour of walking at a slow pace, as i bust my butt for the hour lol! but i am losing slowly and steadily so it is still working for me....... for now

katya_be

pinkiezoom wrote: »

999tigger wrote: »

I think your hrm sounds wrong on the basis of an hours exercise. Obviously mFP is just an estimate and wont have full data plus people overestimate their effort. Walking is fairly well documented as in a calorie count so id check other estimators as well and I think theyd be consistent.

Thanks for this, i have looked into it, and it does seem a little low, but i use weights now as i am walking to make sure i keep my heart rate up, obviously i cant do it for the full hour yet only worked up to 15 mins to keep heart rate at 150+, but then without weights it is about 125-130. I am happy to go with the lower numbers, as can only be more beneficial to my weight loss journey, i was only really posting as a kind of newbie so other newbies could see that the threads they read are true and it can be a big difference, even if my tech is slightly out.
It does worry me that i see people saying they have burned 300 cals doing half an hour of walking at a slow pace, as i bust my butt for the hour lol! but i am losing slowly and steadily so it is still working for me....... for now

Keep up the "slow" progress. I lose about 2 pounds a month, its slow but it works! Your HRM might actually be correct if your heart rate is around 125-130. Try to do shorter workouts but keep your heart rate up past that. 15 minutes is a good start at a rate of 150, try doing some interval training instead of steady state cardio My treadmill shows a burn of 450 calories while my HRM shows 320. It is a big difference, but keeps me aware of how hard I have to work in order to burn off those extra calories.

pinkiezoom

katya_be wrote: »

pinkiezoom wrote: »

999tigger wrote: »

I think your hrm sounds wrong on the basis of an hours exercise. Obviously mFP is just an estimate and wont have full data plus people overestimate their effort. Walking is fairly well documented as in a calorie count so id check other estimators as well and I think theyd be consistent.

Thanks for this, i have looked into it, and it does seem a little low, but i use weights now as i am walking to make sure i keep my heart rate up, obviously i cant do it for the full hour yet only worked up to 15 mins to keep heart rate at 150+, but then without weights it is about 125-130. I am happy to go with the lower numbers, as can only be more beneficial to my weight loss journey, i was only really posting as a kind of newbie so other newbies could see that the threads they read are true and it can be a big difference, even if my tech is slightly out.
It does worry me that i see people saying they have burned 300 cals doing half an hour of walking at a slow pace, as i bust my butt for the hour lol! but i am losing slowly and steadily so it is still working for me....... for now

Keep up the "slow" progress. I lose about 2 pounds a month, its slow but it works! Your HRM might actually be correct if your heart rate is around 125-130. Try to do shorter workouts but keep your heart rate up past that. 15 minutes is a good start at a rate of 150, try doing some interval training instead of steady state cardio My treadmill shows a burn of 450 calories while my HRM shows 320. It is a big difference, but keeps me aware of how hard I have to work in order to burn off those extra calories.

Brilliant advice and thanks will factor this in when i change my gym routines after my holiday, it is getting harder and harder to get my heart rate up as i am getting thinner or fitter ( not sure which ) hence why i take the weights onto the treadmill with me.