Exercise Calorie Calculator Accuracy

flippinyellow

I am struggling with the accuracy of the calorie calculators online and on this site. I just worked out for 30 minutes at 15-17mph on a stationary bike. The machine counted it to be 150 calories burned, and I know that machines are very generic especially if you don't enter your information. I have entered my weight, the exercise time and speed in several different counters online including the one on here and am getting between 580-610 calories for the 30 minutes I exercised. Does anyone know how accurate the machines and online counters are? I really want to stay on the right track and don't want to be misled into thinking I am burning a lot more than I actually am. Thanks!!!!!

seachelle

flippinyellow- I found that the most accurate way is to use a heart rate monitor. everyones level of fitness is different so you may burn more calories than someone else doing the exact same workout. also as you lose weight your body becomes more efficient at burns less calories doing the same task.

Michelle (seachelle)

chgudnitz

Flip - The answer you're looking for is yes, they are "fairly" accurate. There are tons of scientific studies that show what the "average" person will burn doing a certain activity given a certain amount of weight. (e.g. it take x number of calories to move y pounds in z minutes) If you are extremely out of shape or in AWESOME (Lance Armstrong?) shape then it will not reflect properly, but for the folks in the middle its pretty darn close.

As to the heart rate monitor, they may be the best way to tell for sure. But way to often that is the answer people give when its not the question asked. I for one know they are expensive (to some people) and it's not in the budget right now and we need to know if the tools available to us right now are good.

Hope this helped a little...