Treadmill accuracy.... help...please

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Akiyah
Akiyah Posts: 57
in Fitness and Exercise
:huh: My treadmill at 3.0 mph does not match what the walking 3.0 in the database reads, does anyone know if the database is accurate? It could be my treadmill seeing as the incline stopped working...but it feels like the speed is accurate....45 min on my tm says 215 cal, the database says 286 calories...big difference...????

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  • jrich1
    jrich1 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    Neither one are accurate, they are guest guesses pretty much.
  • Tzavush
    Tzavush Posts: 389 Member
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    does your treadmill account for your height, weight, gender etc? or does it have heart rate bars on it?
    Usually the treadmills without are just giving an average without taking into account any of those other things.
  • jmcniel
    jmcniel Posts: 65
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    As jrich said, they are guesses. The best way to know is to buy a Heart Rate Monitor if you want it to be accurate.
  • SarahofTwins
    SarahofTwins Posts: 1,169 Member
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    It does sound like its off...I know mine has a weight that I put in and also it takes my heart rate to make sure the calories are correct. If you have that then it will help, if not then getting an HRM would definitely work :)
  • divajj107
    divajj107 Posts: 17
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    You could also try getting a pedometer. You could get one at Target or Wal-mart pretty cheap...
  • asilva3111
    asilva3111 Posts: 44
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    If you really want to know how many calories you are burning, get yourself a $48 Heart Rate Monitor from WalMart, or some other stores (that's just where I bought my wife's and mine), and it will compute for you how many calories you are burning due to your heart rate. We bought the SportLine SX with the chest strap. Works like a champ. Easy to configure. Gender, height, weight, and in which zone you want to be. I always make sure that I am in the Fat Burning Zone, which is my heart rate between 125-135, which is 65% to 75%. It doesn't matter if I walk on my treadmill for 30 mins (I)n that zone or do my elliptical for 30 mins (I)n the zone or anything, 30 minutes of constant workout (I)n the zone equals to 540 to 590 calories burned. The difference is on how fast or how slow I got to my zone. If I get to it slowly, I burn 590, easily. And that is for just a simple 30 min workout IN the zone plus aobut 2-5 minutes to get there.

    Good luck!
  • Akiyah
    Akiyah Posts: 57
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    My treadmill reads time,distance, mph, and calories. Thank you all so much for your responses, gonna have to get a heart monitor. And yes it does have the flashing heart.
  • Crooks0204
    Crooks0204 Posts: 189
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    When you buy a heart rate monitor make sure it has the chest strap.....otherwise you still will not have accurate calorie burn info.
  • Crooks0204
    Crooks0204 Posts: 189
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    sorry got button happy lol
  • Minnie_Moo
    Minnie_Moo Posts: 239 Member
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    My treadmill reads time,distance, mph, and calories. Thank you all so much for your responses, gonna have to get a heart monitor. And yes it does have the flashing heart.


    Been using our new Nordictrack treadmill with iFit live pre-programmed workouts (using female, height, weight, etc.) since the end of January and am so frustrated and unhappy as the scale is not moving or if it does it seems to be the same 2 pounds up and down sad I forgot to take my measurments when I started so can't compare in that area but I am making it a habit to take my measurements every 15th of the month and seems that I may have lost some inches......just NOT pounds :grumble:

    I just purchased a Polar FT40 about 2 weeks ago as my older HRM didn't calculate calories. The FT-40 also has the Polar Fitness test which measures your aerobic fitness at rest and tells you your progress.

    Now, according to the threadmill (for one day last week), it said I burned 219 calories but was wearing my new polar HRM (with chest strap) and it said I burned 169 calories :huh:

    I guess my calories have been off all along since I started using the treadmill ?? I am now going to use the calories that come up on my HRM and try to figure out how to get the scale moving down :ohwell:

    Also, don't know if this will help you any but...........Here is a link that was posted in another thread with a lot of information on HRM's. Also, I would suggest getting one with a chest strap as they are better to calculate an accurate HR.


    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472
  • Akiyah
    Akiyah Posts: 57
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    Thanx crooks...: )
  • Akiyah
    Akiyah Posts: 57
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    Mini Moo--
    So the treadmill read more than what was actually being burned, how frustrating that must have been. I feel like I bust my behind to no avail. I at least feel good about my numbers (at times) but if it is less than my numbers are now, I may not want to know. :noway:
  • Minnie_Moo
    Minnie_Moo Posts: 239 Member
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    Mini Moo--
    So the treadmill read more than what was actually being burned, how frustrating that must have been. I feel like I bust my behind to no avail. I at least feel good about my numbers (at times) but if it is less than my numbers are now, I may not want to know. :noway:


    Yes, unfortunately the threadmill showed higher than my new HRM does :angry: I guess that is why I am having such a hard time and the scale is not moving at all for me :sad:

    I am so frustrated :frown: I was using the calories burned from the threadmill for the past 3 months and if they are not accurate then I have been eating back incorrect calories :mad:
  • Akiyah
    Akiyah Posts: 57
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    Minnie-Moo(got that wrong the last time...sorry)
    Oh wow that means the same for me. My treadmill reads 180 for 30 min at 3.0 mph and this database reads 286. That's a huge difference. I must say I am a bit frustrated and discouraged to feel like I am really working at this and to realize that it has not been enough work after all. I try to stay visual about it all and the image in my head at the moment is seeing myself enjoying summer activities with my children instead of watching them from afar.
  • Minnie_Moo
    Minnie_Moo Posts: 239 Member
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    Akiyah,

    Here is an example on of one of my workouts......

    My threadmill and iFit Jillian Michaels workout program gave me the info as follows: 45 Minutes, 2.35 Miles (3.79 Km), 4.40 mph (max) (7.08 km/h), 4.00% Incline (max) and 286.5 Calories Burned

    I was wearing my new HRM and it shows that I burned 229 calories !

    I think that after seeing that difference it made me more upset as I have been using the workouts on the threadmill every day and maybe that is why the scale isn't moving for me........I was eating back what the threadmill posted before I bought the new HRM and it was at least 60 calories more than I really burned ??

    And for someone like me that was not exercising at all before, these 45 minutes daily are alot for me and to find out that I'm not working out and burning the calories that the threadmill said I was......well it isn't helping me feel good :sad:
  • kobzal
    kobzal Posts: 74 Member
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    I have also noticed a big discrepancy between the database and my HRM. When I first started logging on MFP I wasn't wearing my heart rate monitor. Then I wanted to see how accurate the exercise database was. I went for a 17 mile bike ride (at a rate of about 14.5 mph) and a 2 mile run (at 9min/mi). My HRM said I burned 334 cal on the bike and 172 cal on the run. When I went to enter the info into my log using the database it said I burned 820 cal on the bike and 286 on the run!! I couldn't believe it! Now I use my heart rate monitor all the time and do not trust the exercise database for anything. I was eating back all those calories before I used my HRM. Eeek, now I know better.

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