how accurate are the calories burned on an elliptical?

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gillmitch
gillmitch Posts: 64
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all I have a York xc530 and it shows that if I do 20 mins I burn 165 calories how accurate do you guys think that is?

thanks all .... gill.

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  • potatocar
    potatocar Posts: 250 Member
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    I wore my HRM on the elliptical a couple of times and it was pretty accurate. But I'm sure it depends on the person. The elliptical can't know how tough it is for you.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,703 Member
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    That sounds about right. I use a Polar FT4, which says I burn around 530 for a 65 minute workout targeting a heart rate of 140-150. I sprint for 20 seconds if my heart rate drops below 140. That works out to about 163 for 20 minutes. If I target a little lower (minimum 130 beats per minute, the HRM says I burn about 510 for the 65 minute workout).

    Before getting the HRM, I was overestimating calories burned. The machine at my gym would say my typical workout was around 780, and the MFP database would say 926.
  • sylo1609
    sylo1609 Posts: 36
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    Very accurate in my case.
    I see a lot of people complain about MFP overestimating exercise calories, but I find them surprisingly accurate (elliptical, cycling, jogging) because the machines at the gym / other websites give me pretty similar numbers.
    If you wanna make sure you don't overestimate, only eat back like .. idk .. 50 to 75% of them :)
  • pastrychefoz
    pastrychefoz Posts: 22
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    I have a polar f7 and I find elliptical over by about 33 % estimation, MFP surprisingly is out by less than 1 % for me. What I like about the monitor is that keeps u targeted in the range u want to be in.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    Hi all I have a York xc530 and it shows that if I do 20 mins I burn 165 calories how accurate do you guys think that is?

    thanks all .... gill.

    If the elliptical lets you program in your height/weight it should really be pretty accurate.

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