Recording Calories Burned No HRM

chelseaalicia

Staring blankly ahead while treadmill-ing today, I thought...

A curious question aimed at those without HRMS:

When you're recording your exercise calories from your workout on a cardio machine, do you log what the machine displays as calories burned or do you lower it a little to compensate for inaccuracy? If so by how much?

Pebble321

Check it against what MFP calculates, or find another online calculator and that will give you a guide to the range that you might be burning. I've been on MFP for 13 months and only had an HRM for the last month, it's a nice toy to have, but not essential. I just used MFP calculation and checked them again what RUnkeeper (on my iPhone) guessed or other calorie calculators. Worked fine for me!

chelseaalicia

I just got to thinking, if you're quite short and entering your weight, most machines are programmed on the average that the user is approx. 5'10-ish...I think you're right Ruby, the best you can do in any situation is take your best guess from whatever resources you can!

shadowkitty22

I put in what the Nike+ program on my iPod tracks since I can enter in my weight to more accurately reflect the calories that I burn since the treadmill that I use at the gym doesn't ask me for my weight and therefore doesn't give me a calorie burn at the end of my workout.

chelseaalicia

All the machines (except the rowing machine!) at my gym ask for weight as an option, but I've never seen one ask for height... I feel like that makes so much more sense as 5'0 and 160lbs is almost certainly more effort than 5'10 and 160 lbs.

cyndy1214

MFP will do it for you actually. You just need to know how fast you are walking on the treadmill. MFP goes by your weight. The more you weigh the more you burn. My treadmill always says I burned less than MFP says I burned. The treadmill does not go by your weight unless you have one of those expensive fancy ones that does the weight and everything.

dlcam61

MFP is a baseline, and the calories burned on the machine is too. They are far from accurate. When I got my HRM I found that they were anywhere from 70-200 calories off what I burned. Neither can take into consideration what your exertion level is (or isn't) nor do they allow for height, weight or gender for the most part. They can estimate it, but in the end you really need a HRM to get a more accurate number of calories burned :flowerforyou:

heybales

All the machines (except the rowing machine!) at my gym ask for weight as an option, but I've never seen one ask for height... I feel like that makes so much more sense as 5'0 and 160lbs is almost certainly more effort than 5'10 and 160 lbs.

it's because height doesn't matter nearly as much as other variables. And it is not asking for the most important ones it could at least use, gender and age.

And as to what takes more effort has nothing to do with height, but level of fitness. Say the above have the exact same age, max HR, same VO2max (so same level of aerobic capacity), and as stated same weight, and same pace. Just height different.

Whose heart beats faster through the whole workout? That's the one burning more calories. And likely the same. One takes longer strides, one takes faster strides. One has more muscle engagement because of the heavier impact and push off of longer strides, one has more muscular engagement because of faster turn-over rate.

Your leg muscles are going to be the same to move 160 lbs. There may be some workouts where the balancing of longer arms and legs, or counter balancing upper body movement, would make a difference, slightly, but not on a treadmill.

I just did a quick peak at BMR differences, the foundation of your calories burn, between a female 35 yrs old 179lbs, 4' tall is 123 calories less than one 5'10".
That would be 123 calories less per day. For the 1 hr workout you are doing - that is 5 calories less.