gym machine calories

sevkar17
sevkar17 Posts: 5
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey everyone :)

I go to the gym and quite often the calories reported on the machine I use (whether it is elliptical, stationary bike, treadmill, etc.) seems to be a little more than what I feel I actually burned.

Does anyone have any insight as to how accurate those calorie reports are?

Please let me know. I would really appreciate it!

Thank you :)

Replies

  • waffleflavoredtea
    waffleflavoredtea Posts: 235 Member
    buy yourself a high quality heart rate monitor that tracks calories burned! Problem solved and no more guesswork. :)
  • kganc001
    kganc001 Posts: 317
    Mine are never anywhere close to what my HRM says. I was always too worried about the difference (since it's different for everyone!) and coughed up the money for an HRM. :)

    ETA: I have a really tight budget, so I got my HRM from Walmart at the very beginning of my journey and I've been consistently losing using the numbers it gives me, so I have a lot of trust in it. :) I think I paid $40 for it.

    Hope this helps!
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 8,015 Member
    Or borrow a HRM.

    I bought one and my typical workout came in at 530 cals. The gym machine gives my 780. The MFP database gives me 926
  • sevkar17
    sevkar17 Posts: 5
    Thanks for the advice everyone!!! I will definitely do that!
  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
    The gym machines tend to be optimistic in the output on calories burned. Perhaps they hope that if you feel like you're burning more, you'll keep coming back and paying money. Getting a heart rate monitor is your best bet.

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