Question for elliptical users...

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penith113
penith113 Posts: 113 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Do you track your calories burned based on what your elliptical machine says, or what MFP says, or do you use a HRM?
I think I want to get a HRM because I have no idea how many calories I'm actually burning.
I was on for just over 20 min this morning. My elliptical said I burned 450 calories ( hahaha, I WISH) so I logged it in MFP and it told me 226 calories.
I used that number but if I had to guess I'd say I probably burned no more than 150.

Does anyone track without a HRM and if so, how accurate do you think you are?

Replies

  • ChristyJade
    ChristyJade Posts: 186 Member
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    I go by what MFP says rather than the Elliptical, just for ease and because I assume it underestimates which I prefer. But I would say the Elliptical is more accurate as its monitoring the resitance and speed youre working out to, rather that MFP which is just a standard figure by length of workout. You could work out for 20 mins but with no effort or go mad for 20 on high resitance and burn completely different amount of calories!
  • drgummibear
    drgummibear Posts: 20 Member
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    Hi Penny! Yep using your own heart rate monitor will be the only way to get accuracy in the calories burned department. You will find many uses for one as you exercise. Walking, cycling, elliptical ect ect. My heart rate monitor was purchased at Walmart. Sometimes it is in the watch dept and sometimes in the health and medicine dept. Amazon or Ebay could be good options as well. Mine cost around $80 but it can also be used as a stop watch with two alarms and a count down timer as well as a normal watch. You may not want one so fancy. But the accurate heart rate monitors come with a sensor on a strap that goes around your chest. This will give you the most accurate beats per minute. The neat thing is that after a workout, it will tell you what your calories burned are, provide that you enter in your weight to calibrate it first.

    I find that the numbers are pretty decent on the MFP. Various things can cause the calories to give inaccurate readings on fitness equipment. It has to have your weight and age unputed to the computer on the fitness equipment first before begining the workout. Also if you are not constantly holding onto the sensors of the machine to measure heart rate, then it gets sporattic readings that can again cause inaccuracy. Just for your own information, some types of heart rate monitors are compatable with certain pieces of exercise equipment. For instance; my Rosie, which is a Lifefitness elliptical machine uses "Polar" heart rate technology. I have an old Polar heart rate monitor chest sensor. I wear that sensor when I work out and the machine can read my heart rate because it is compatable with the chest strap I am wearing and it gives a very accurate calorie burn when I work out on "Rosie". Otherwise the normal heart rate monitor that I own is a Timex Ironman heart rate monitor T5H921. You can find them on the internet to get more information. I hope you find this info helpful. Cheers Jim:drinker:
  • JenMc14
    JenMc14 Posts: 2,389 Member
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    I use an average of the machine and the internet site I use to log my workouts. The site I use just has a generic "ellpitical" entry, but I vary my speed, resistance and incline. The machine's read out is always at least 100 calories, if not more, over the site's. Since I know the incline/resistance/speed matters, but the website knows my sex, height & weight, I figure an average is a good bet, since I don't have a HRM.
  • carrieous
    carrieous Posts: 1,024 Member
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    i generally go by the machine but sometimes they can be way off- no way you burne 450 in 20 mins so in that case i'd go with mfp

    i dont use a HRM gadget and i think i'm doing just fine without one.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    The elliptical will know how many calories you've burned better than an uncalibrated HRM, IMO. Unless you actually know your VO2 max there's no reason to think adding heart rate to the equation would make it more accurate, when the elliptical knows pretty exactly how much energy you've put into the system.
  • dancingj2
    dancingj2 Posts: 4,572 Member
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    I use the numbers from MFP based on the rate that I walking.

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