Difference in burned calories on watch vs. elliptical

Iamflew
Iamflew Posts: 24 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
so - I actually was on the elliptical for 2 hours and 40 minutes taking it easy and slow and reading my notes for a quiz tomorrow! Why haven't I studied like this all of nursing school???? The elliptical said I was at 1149 cals burned, but my watch (S7 Sportline) clocked in 1988 cals burned .... hmmmm.... which is right??? I low balled it and made it 1140 cals burned on my exercise log.

Replies

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,993 Member
    Is your watch an HRM? And if all else fails, go with the watch because hardly any machines in the gym are calibrated to be correct except for maybe once a year.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • Iamflew
    Iamflew Posts: 24 Member
    Yes, HRM and it calculates calories burned. It is a home elliptical....I don't even know how to calibrate it - or if I can!! Thanks for the input!! It just seemed that 2000 cal was an awful lot!!
  • darrellbbyrnes
    darrellbbyrnes Posts: 8
    2k cals for 160 min of work is not outlandish, that is 12.5 cals per minute, which is about what you would burn if you were jogging at a 10 min mile pace.
  • bostonwolf
    bostonwolf Posts: 3,038 Member
    so - I actually was on the elliptical for 2 hours and 40 minutes taking it easy and slow and reading my notes for a quiz tomorrow! Why haven't I studied like this all of nursing school???? The elliptical said I was at 1149 cals burned, but my watch (S7 Sportline) clocked in 1988 cals burned .... hmmmm.... which is right??? I low balled it and made it 1140 cals burned on my exercise log.

    I'd take the average or lowball it. That's the safest course :)
  • bostonwolf
    bostonwolf Posts: 3,038 Member
    2k cals for 160 min of work is not outlandish, that is 12.5 cals per minute, which is about what you would burn if you were jogging at a 10 min mile pace.

    I regularly burn 100 cals an hour on elliptical, but I'm a pretty big dude (6'3 about 290) so it's not terribly hard for me.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Is your watch an HRM? And if all else fails, go with the watch because hardly any machines in the gym are calibrated to be correct except for maybe once a year.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    Huh?

    Modern fitness equipment is run by computer chips and circuit boards. Once it leaves the factory it can't be "recalibrated". Unless you are referring to PM work, which is not going to make that much difference in the calorie count. Or maybe I'm missing something?
  • JeneticTraining
    JeneticTraining Posts: 663 Member
    The average 120 lb person burns 500 calories/hour on the elliptical.

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