Can I pick your brains for a min?

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going2bfit
going2bfit Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all, I'm fairly new to this site and I'm really liking it so far. Everyone here seems pretty informed about dieting and exercise. I was recently reading about how the machines at the gym are usually off on the amount of calories burned, and that to get an accurate number you should use a heart rate monitor. I recently purchased one that also tells you how many calories are burned. I'm just wondering if any of you have any experience with how accurate this way is. The reason I ask is, I'll do the elliptical for an hour and it will say I burned 800 calories, but my heart rate monitor will read at 1100 and be up to 1300 by the time my heart rate is back down. (I usually leave it on for about 30 minutes after I get off the elliptical) I know that the heart rate is accurate as I've tested it against the bp machine, and also done a pulse count myself. My heart rate is generally between 150 and 165. It's just such a huge difference in calories burned and I'm just curious if anyone has any input.

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  • MacMadame
    MacMadame Posts: 1,893 Member
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    Have you gone through the setup and told it how old you are, how much you weigh, your activity level, etc? If you've done that and it's a accurate to get your heart rate, then the calories burned should be accurate within 90% ... so you could be burning 90% of what it shows or you could be burning 110%.

    I have always been conservative about that and round down. I also wouldn't count anything after I got off the machine. Finally, you need to know how many calories you would be burning if you didn't exercise and subtract them off. (Which is part of why I wouldn't count anything after I got off the machine.)
  • going2bfit
    going2bfit Posts: 7 Member
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    Thank you for your reply. It doesn't give me an option to input anything other than my age and sex. I know some of the more expensive ones do give you that option, but I honestly just kind of bought it on a whim and didn't do my research on it. I didn't realize you could do that until after I had bought mine. lol It makes sense about taking it off as soon as I'm off the machine. I was just leaving it on because my heart rate was still elevated. I will start doing that from now on. I've been just using the calories that the site calculates and I think that I will continue to do that instead of risking eatting 300 more calories than I should be and defeating my purpose.
    Thanks again for your comment, I really appreciate it!

    BTW, Congratulations on your awesome weight loss!!!

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