Calories Burnt

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Abrandnewme36
Abrandnewme36 Posts: 47 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Is the "calories burnt" on my elliptical accurate?? For example I ran for 43 mins and it said that I had burned 600 calories. I have the resistance set on 6. Does this sound about right??

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  • itsuki
    itsuki Posts: 520 Member
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    Generally the calories burnt, as provided by MFP, is a lot higher than it should be. If you don't have a heart rate monitor, I've heard some people say to take 2/3 of what MFP suggests and use that (which in your case I think makes sense, or maybe even a little less than 2/3... I think the average person using an elliptical on moderate resistance burns around 10 calories per minute).
  • Abrandnewme36
    Abrandnewme36 Posts: 47 Member
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    I'm actually going on what the elliptical says, so you think that is wrong?
  • klc519
    klc519 Posts: 5 Member
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    my heart rate monitor actually says I burn MORE than is listed on MFP! Every single day.
  • auroranflash
    auroranflash Posts: 3,569 Member
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    I always average down... sometimes way down from what the machines say. Ellipticals are notorious for over-estimating calories burnt. How hard do you feel like you've worked? If you're all-out, sweating your butt off, aching by the time you're done, I'd usually say you burned 8-10 cals per minute. But this is a very rough estimate.

    Just remember, all calorie estimates are just that... estimates. We estimate food, we estimate exercise. Take your best guess based on your perceived effort and physical state when you're done and go from there.

    I always err on the side of caution, over-estimating food and under-estimating exercise. Although I could be spot on with the food part. I don't know. I know everyone seems to under-estimate food, so maybe I'm correct. :P I should probably get a food scale.
  • davegruper
    davegruper Posts: 68 Member
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    The elliptical/treadmill calories are calculated for the average person using that machine - same with MFP. I did notice that the treadmill and MFP were pretty consistent with each other. However, I purchased a heart rate monitor about a month ago and noticed that my actual calorie burn according to the heart rate monitor is about 60%-70% of the MFP/treadmill number, so I use the HRM number now. The HRM number makes more sense when I compare expected weight loss vs. actual weight loss. Before the HRM, I was consistently losing less than I should based on MFP calorie burn.
  • dansls1
    dansls1 Posts: 309 Member
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    The elliptical/treadmill calories are calculated for the average person using that machine - same with MFP. I did notice that the treadmill and MFP were pretty consistent with each other. However, I purchased a heart rate monitor about a month ago and noticed that my actual calorie burn according to the heart rate monitor is about 60%-70% of the MFP/treadmill number, so I use the HRM number now. The HRM number makes more sense when I compare expected weight loss vs. actual weight loss. Before the HRM, I was consistently losing less than I should based on MFP calorie burn.

    I don't understand why the calculations from a piece of exercise equipment would be an estimate. Calories is an energy unit. The machine knows the power used, so the energy calculation should be accurate, right?

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