Rowing Machine

cchiar13
cchiar13 Posts: 3
edited January 3 in Fitness and Exercise
I'm a competitive rower, so during the winter I spend a lot of time on the rowing machine (erg) and in the spring I spend a lot of time rowing in a boat. However, MFP has a pretty inaccurate estimate of the calorie burn. It tells me 10 minutes of rowing at a "very vigorous effort" burns 126 calories, but my erg tells me I burn 110 calories during my 10 minute warm-up. Sprinting can burn up to 16 calories a minute, which is MFP does not calculate. Is it better for me to just change the numbers to what my erg says? Also, during the spring it's impossible to know how much time I spend during a practice rowing steady vs. doing drills vs. sprinting, etc. and it makes it really hard for me to track my calorie burn. Does anyone have advice? Does anyone deal with similar situations?

Replies

  • volp10
    volp10 Posts: 2 Member
    Hi!
    I figure that if I go with what MFP says instead of what my erg tells me, I'm going to come out ahead. That's good because I eyeball food portions sometimes and probably go the other way with that. For on water workouts, I just go with something that seems to lowball it. If it was a practice with mostly drills or something like rowing by 6s a lot of the time with pairs sitting out, I'd just try to reduce the total time I enter. I know this isn't very accurate and might not work for you. I can't even track calories with the approach that I have to be perfect or I'll give up on it. I was surprised to see that no one put an on water rowing entry in the database!
  • Cyclink
    Cyclink Posts: 517 Member
    MFP gives you a rough (and often, very high) estimate based on averages of other people.

    I'd trust the machine that logs your exact workout with lab-trusted results.
  • cchiar13
    cchiar13 Posts: 3
    Thanks- Last year I lowballed for on the water workouts so I guess I'll just have to go with that again. For the erg, I usually follow the machine, but my guess is that they're estimating for someone heavier than I am so I typically plug in a bit under what the machine tells me. In terms of a really accurate number, I think I'm looking for something that can't be found.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    If you are using a Concept 2 ergometer, they tell you the calorie count on the display is based on a preset weight.

    However, they have a calculator so that you can calculate based on your weight:

    http://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/calculators/calorie-calculator
  • m1311
    m1311 Posts: 103 Member
    Please excuse me for breaking in here off topic, but I started up an MFP Friends team on the concept 2 team page, hoping that lots of other MFP rowers would like to join and do the January challenge together. All you have to do is sign on and choose the MFP team. It's open. Then sign yourself up for the challenge.

    I'm jealous of those of you who can row on water now. We'll be back on in May!
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    I'm a competitive rower, so during the winter I spend a lot of time on the rowing machine (erg) and in the spring I spend a lot of time rowing in a boat. However, MFP has a pretty inaccurate estimate of the calorie burn. It tells me 10 minutes of rowing at a "very vigorous effort" burns 126 calories, but my erg tells me I burn 110 calories during my 10 minute warm-up. Sprinting can burn up to 16 calories a minute, which is MFP does not calculate. Is it better for me to just change the numbers to what my erg says? Also, during the spring it's impossible to know how much time I spend during a practice rowing steady vs. doing drills vs. sprinting, etc. and it makes it really hard for me to track my calorie burn. Does anyone have advice? Does anyone deal with similar situations?

    I finally just make up my own exercises and enter my own calorie burns.
  • m1311
    m1311 Posts: 103 Member
    Please excuse me for breaking in here off topic, but I started up an MFP Friends team on the concept 2 team page, hoping that lots of other MFP rowers would like to join and do the January challenge together. All you have to do is sign on and choose the MFP team. It's open. Then sign yourself up for the challenge.

    I'm jealous of those of you who can row on water now. We'll be back on in May!


    I forgot to say that once you have added your profile and joined the MFP team, you have to go to the team challenge page:

    http://log.concept2.com/log_team.asp

    and say that you'll be participating in the January challenge. It's called the VTC challenge (Virtual Team Challenge).
  • BlackLabLover
    BlackLabLover Posts: 81 Member
    Please excuse me for breaking in here off topic, but I started up an MFP Friends team on the concept 2 team page, hoping that lots of other MFP rowers would like to join and do the January challenge together. All you have to do is sign on and choose the MFP team. It's open. Then sign yourself up for the challenge.

    I'm jealous of those of you who can row on water now. We'll be back on in May!


    I forgot to say that once you have added your profile and joined the MFP team, you have to go to the team challenge page:

    http://log.concept2.com/log_team.asp

    and say that you'll be participating in the January challenge. It's called the VTC challenge (Virtual Team Challenge).


    Yea!!! I am so glad someone did this! I was going to start a group, but I thought I would search for "row" prior to doing so... and I found your post.

    To the first post in this topic, I use a HRM and I notice that MFP's calories are off quite often for me.

    ...looking forward to the Challenge!
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