Aerobic Activity calories burned

SarahBaylis

I have a question. When I put in my exercise to the Exercise Diary - let's say the elliptical - I'll type 45 minutes and a number in the 600's will appear in the "calories burned" section. I usually burn around 400 something because that is what the machine at the gym tells me. So I manually change it to reflect what I know I burned.

1) Are the machines at the gym accurate? (these are the numbers I use in my log)
2) Should I be burning 600 something calories for 45 minutes of cardio?
3) How accurate is MFP as far as burning calories?

Just want to make sure I'm recording the correct amount of calories burned. I will not lie to myself and believe I burned 600 calories just to feel better...

ajbeans

bump... I'm curious about this.

rkrobke

I always go with what the machine says, especially if you put your weight in. I just figured out that a great way to burn a ton of calories is to walk on the treadmill at a 7% incline. It burns almost as many calories/hr as running. Good luck!

1FitMomof4Girls

The best way to track your calories burned is to invest in a heart rate moniter. This would be the most accurate, as everyone burns differently depending on age,gender, fitness level etc etc etc.

atotal180

I recently learned that the number on the machines at the gym typically is off 10-15%. The reason this number is off because the machines often include your baseline metabolism into the calculator. For example, I typically require 90 calories an hour to sustain my body without even moving. When I add an hour on the elliptical I typically burn 1100 to 1200 calories depending on the machine. In reality, I need to subtract this 90 calories I would have burned anyway to get the true caloric deficit I created by working out. So, I typically subtract 10%.

Take this into account when people say they are having a "cheat meal" and they will just burn it off later. If my cheat meal was 1400 calories and I worked out and burned 1300 calories based on the machines at the gym, I would still be in the positive for calories. That's why exercising can never replace a poor diet. MFP seems to take into account the "excess burn" that some machines tend to give you. That's why I typically go with the number it tells me, which is usually lower than the machines at the gym. With that said, isn't it better to error on the side of too few calories burned than too many, which you were hinting at in your post.