Calorie Burn Accuracy?

dmdv22

I recently bought a watch which supposedly can do a calorie burn function and it appears to be fairly accurate when I am walking the dog around the neighborhood(or at least I hope it is) However when I am at the gym working out on a treadmill or elliptical type machine it varies greatly from the machine itself. For instance yesterday I worked out on an elliptical type machine and the machine measures your heart rate. The machine showed somewhere around 250 calories burned while the watch showed like 50. I would think theses high dollar fitness machines would be more accurate than this watch, Heck I burned more calories according to my watch walking my dog at a leisurely pace this morning then I did at the gym yesterday.

I assume most would trust the machine over the watch, I know I sure do.Does anyone know of an affordable(100 bucks or less) calorie counter which can handle swimming, bike riding, maybe jump roping if I decide to try that again in the future.