How do I know what I actually burn?

lmd71
lmd71 Posts: 11
in Fitness and Exercise
I am a poor college student, so no way am I buying a heart rate monitor. haha

Anyway, I know cardio machines are far from accurate, but how inaccurate are they?

For instance, I did 40mins on the elliptical. The heart rate thing was a little iffy, but it says mine was between 90-125. And it said I burned over 250 calories. Is that 100 off? or 50? or what?

Replies

  • Skinny_minny_mo
    Skinny_minny_mo Posts: 1,272 Member
    sorry that i cant help with your actual q, but dang your profile pic kitty is too cute! :flowerforyou:
  • eli_802
    eli_802 Posts: 60
    i always subtract 10% of the calories that it says i burn. so if it says 200, i round down to 180. i'd rather be underestimating calories burned than overestimating! good luck! (i'm a poor college student too, i feel ya haha)
  • buzzcockgirl
    buzzcockgirl Posts: 260 Member
    It's hard to know for sure, people always say MFP estimates high. So I always make sure to compensate for that. (I say moderate effort if I'm not sure I did moderate or heavy)... take it with a grain of salt. BUt I usually compare what they say to what it says on this website-- they are usually pretty much the same?

    Do an internet search.... but here's one I use

    http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc
  • Awkward30
    Awkward30 Posts: 1,927 Member
    i always subtract 10% of the calories that it says i burn. so if it says 200, i round down to 180. i'd rather be underestimating calories burned than overestimating! good luck! (i'm a poor college student too, i feel ya haha)

    It can actually be even worse than that. There is absolutely no way to know. What I would do if I didn't have a HRM, I would use a TDEE calculator to calculate my TDEE and calculate a 20% deficit from that. Then try that for a month and if I didn't lose weight, I would adjust down by a couple hundred. Example:
    My TDEE is 2000 calories, so I calculate that a 20% cut would be 1600, so I would set my calories to 1600 and not eat back any exercise calories unless it was something out of the norm. If after a month I wasn't losing weight, I would lower calories to 1500 and try that for a month.
  • RainbootsToBikinis
    RainbootsToBikinis Posts: 465 Member
    It depends on the brand of the machine. The elliptical at my gym over estimates by about 75 calories in half an hour, the treadmill underestimates. Christmas is coming up :) ask for a HRM or bodybugg.

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