Discrepancy: Polar Calories vs. Machine Calories Burned!

Alee4nia
Alee4nia Posts: 168 Member
edited October 4 in Fitness and Exercise
So today I used my new Polar FT7 watch to track my calories as I exercised. Startling discrepancy! My watch gave 322 calories for 30 minutes while the elliptical machine gave me 417 calories for 30 minutes. That is a 95 calorie difference. So I learned a few things from this:

A) Don't eat all your exercise calories if you are just counting on the machine for your caloric burn...don't eat 100 calories roughly...
B) This may explain my plateau that I had last week after only 5 weeks in my weight loss journey

Btw, has anyone experienced a difference between their HRM and machine caloric burn?

Replies

  • drog2323
    drog2323 Posts: 1,343 Member
    yep. Big time. the machines and MFP over-estimate cals burned.

    HRM's are apparently a little off too, but probably the closest you can get.

    enjoy your Polar!
  • yeabby
    yeabby Posts: 643 Member
    The machine is usually double my polar....but, I'm really short.
  • Jade_Butterfly
    Jade_Butterfly Posts: 2,963 Member
    yep. Big time. the machines and MFP over-estimate cals burned.

    HRM's are apparently a little off too, but probably the closest you can get.

    enjoy your Polar!

    ^^^ This. . .. I used my Sportline HRM on my treadmill the other night and discovered the opposite. . I was burning way more than it said. . lol
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
    i havent used any machines since i got my HRM, but i know theres usually a difference between it and mpf or cardiotracker on my phone.. sometimes its not much, but its good to have a more accurate number (even if its not 100%)
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,956 Member
    Don't ever count a machine's caloric burns! They are used constantly and hardly EVER recalibrated once they hit the floor.
  • alaw1119
    alaw1119 Posts: 68 Member
    definitely! the eliptical is the worst! It usually says about 200 more than my HRM! it's almost disappointing but makes me work harder!
  • realrayne10
    realrayne10 Posts: 388 Member
    I found that I had the opposite problem once I started using my HRM. Machines/MFP UNDER calculated my burn so I was severely under eating...
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    I find the machine is usually about 1/3 of what my HRM says. Very odd.
  • lovelee79
    lovelee79 Posts: 362
    bump
  • riccoismydog
    riccoismydog Posts: 319 Member
    My elliptical usually is less than my hrm. It is important to subtract your bmr from the calories burned though. If your bmr is about 50 cals per hour, then you would have burned those anyways. They are already factored into what you were going to eat for the day. Exercise long enough with a high bmr and you can be off by hundreds of calories.....

    I use a calorie calculator online that factors in my resting heart rate as well as an average of what the hrm said while I was exercising. Now that I trust.....

    I still subtract 50 cals an hour....
  • sabby
    sabby Posts: 12 Member
    Like the machines, my Polar knows how old I am and how much I weigh but it ALSO knows how tall I am and how active I am. The machines are ALWAYS higher than my watch. I always have to modify the calories when I enter into MFP.
  • sabby
    sabby Posts: 12 Member
    Please add it to Quick Tools in Exercise!
This discussion has been closed.

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