Home vs Gym Equipment

TanRobins

I am curious about the calories burned on the gym elliptical vs my home elliptical. I used the same level and the same time, at the gym I was able to enter my weight but at home I am not. For 30 mins at the gym I burned 326 calories and 30 mins at home I burned 500. Which one is right? That is quite a difference, any ideas?

annette02

I would say that the gym elliptical is more accurate. Usually the more information that you can enter about yourself (ex...weight, height, age, male/female) the more accurate it will be.
Hope that helps!

randrmom10

The best way is to get an acutal calorie counter, it is a watch and a strap that goes below your chest, the brand I have is Polar. You have to enter information about yourself to get an accurate reading. The gym and home equipment cannot tell if you are male or female or how tall you are so they just give you an estimate and it is a very broad estimate. If you are interested in keeping an accurate calorie count invest in an actual calorie counter specificall for your body. I was not sold until my husband got me one for Christmas and it really does make a big difference. I thought I was burning alot more calories on my eliptical (I have a gym style eliptical) and after using my Polar calorie counter it was about 200 calories less than my eliptical shows,

annette02

randrmom10 ~
you are right that a heart rate monitor will give you the best estimate, but even they can be off a bit. I understand that there are certain things that you can and can't enter into a machine, depending on the machine itself.

But, again from my experience, the gym elliptical should give a more accurate reading than an at home type of elliptical. (depending on the brand) The gym equipment is usually closer to the calorie counters that I have used on the internet, and the gym equipment was also closer to my heart rate monitor calories burned reading. My heart rate monitor usually has a reading of about 30 calories off from what the machine says at the gym. Where as I can have up to a 100 calorie differance from what the machine says here at home.

I am not trying to be argumentive, but I felt that you may have misunderstood my reponse. I was just trying to state that the more information you can enter about yourself - on a machine or heart rate monitor - the closer the calories burned count will be.

TanRobins

Thank you all for your responses! I guess that does make a lot of sense...