How to Accurately Determine Calories Burned On Elliptical

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karirenae
karirenae Posts: 106 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So Ive seen alot of posts where MFP is not accurately listing the calories when using an elliptical.
My personal elliptical says Im burning approx 500 cal for 30 minutes of interval, light effort... I highly doubt im burning that much considering im not even sweating THAT much...
So anyway, my question is, if I want to "eat back" my exercise calories that so many people say I should, how do I determine what I actually burned in 30 minutes? Im 5'4 female, and 174lbs if that helps at all? I dont want to over eat those calories, but I dont want to make my metabolism screwy either.

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  • SadKitty27
    SadKitty27 Posts: 416 Member
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    There are so many factors : Age, weight, pace, elliptical settings etc... That it's pretty hard unless you're using one of those that are digital, and allow you to input that information while factoring in variables from your workout (pace, time, height / resistance settings, etc..)

    I can tell you from my personal experience that when I go to the gym (they have those elliptical that record all that info, ) I usually burn around 350 in an hour, but then again I'm a 205 lb, 26 year old woman. I use a setting of 7 height and 7 resistance. When I use the elliptical I work up quite a sweat (I practically jog.)
  • Nessc
    Nessc Posts: 137 Member
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    What I've done in past when I didn't have an HRM is take the number of calories it says I burn and divide it in half. For me this ends up being pretty close to what the HRM says I burn...it's really hard to tell unless you can input your info into the elliptical's computer.
  • caroldeanda
    caroldeanda Posts: 23 Member
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    I would really look into getting a heart rate monitor, It really pushes me to work harder and it lets me know what I am burning and if I need to work harder, I have a polar model and got it on amazon ;-)
  • kabertrand63
    kabertrand63 Posts: 111 Member
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    I would really look into getting a heart rate monitor, It really pushes me to work harder and it lets me know what I am burning and if I need to work harder, I have a polar model and got it on amazon ;-)

    Totally agree! HRM will be accurate and then you can use a web site like http://www.calories-calculator.net/Calories_Burned_By_Heart_Rate.html to determine the calories burned. MFP is too low for me as my HR gets up there. So, I enter what the calculator tells me based on my HRM, age, duration, weight and sex.

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