Inaccurate Treadmill?

XFatCowSaysMooX
XFatCowSaysMooX Posts: 4
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello! I've got a question about tread mills! How accurate are they? I recently purchased myself a Pro Form Cross Walk 395 from Sears Canada and couldn't help that notice that there is no way to key in age, height, weight, and sex. So I was wondering will this affect results because just this morning I was walking on it at a speed of 4mp with an incline of 10 and it said I've burned 100 calories in 5 minutes???? Should I just get a heart rate monitor? Or what would be the closest most accurate calorie burn for someone who's 5'6, female, and 124.6 pounds for a 4mp walk at an incline of 10 for 40 minutes? THANK YOU!

Replies

  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Hard to believe that any treadmill these days would not have a weight input, but that appears to be the case with this machine. I even went through the manual, thinking that while there was no input on the manual setting, there might be a weight input when you used a program. Yet I could find no information in the manual indicating that you could input weight at any time.

    So, the answer is: the calorie readouts on this machine are useless. This would actually be true even if you could enter your weight, due to the "cross walk" feature of the moving arms. Adding the arm movement changes the nature of the exercise so that no standard reference equation would apply.

    In this case, a heart rate monitor--even with all their limitations--is the best choice--maybe even the only choice. If you do get one, make sure it is set up properly.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/new-hrm-how-to-make-the-calorie-estimate-more-accurate-183102
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
    Hard to believe that any treadmill these days would not have a weight input, but that appears to be the case with this machine. I even went through the manual, thinking that while there was no input on the manual setting, there might be a weight input when you used a program. Yet I could find no information in the manual indicating that you could input weight at any time.

    So, the answer is: the calorie readouts on this machine are useless. This would actually be true even if you could enter your weight, due to the "cross walk" feature of the moving arms. Adding the arm movement changes the nature of the exercise so that no standard reference equation would apply.

    In this case, a heart rate monitor--even with all their limitations--is the best choice--maybe even the only choice. If you do get one, make sure it is set up properly.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/new-hrm-how-to-make-the-calorie-estimate-more-accurate-183102

    This. ^^

    However, have you considered another alternative?

    Set up your calories so they are the same everyday and already include exercise. Then, you don't have to worry about logging exercise or know how many calories you burn. The effect is the same.
  • XFatCowSaysMooX
    XFatCowSaysMooX Posts: 4
    Thank you so much for your answers. Both of you! There were extremely helpful! I am looking into purchasing a heart rate monitor now. ^.^
  • meaustin1
    meaustin1 Posts: 17 Member
    http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Hard to believe that any treadmill these days would not have a weight input, but that appears to be the case with this machine. I even went through the manual, thinking that while there was no input on the manual setting, there might be a weight input when you used a program. Yet I could find no information in the manual indicating that you could input weight at any time.

    So, the answer is: the calorie readouts on this machine are useless. This would actually be true even if you could enter your weight, due to the "cross walk" feature of the moving arms. Adding the arm movement changes the nature of the exercise so that no standard reference equation would apply.

    In this case, a heart rate monitor--even with all their limitations--is the best choice--maybe even the only choice. If you do get one, make sure it is set up properly.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/new-hrm-how-to-make-the-calorie-estimate-more-accurate-183102

    This. ^^

    However, have you considered another alternative?

    Set up your calories so they are the same everyday and already include exercise. Then, you don't have to worry about logging exercise or know how many calories you burn. The effect is the same.

    This, too ^^

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