tracking burned calories

nukehiker
nukehiker Posts: 457
edited September 23 in Fitness and Exercise
I am curious how accurate are elliptical etc when it comes to the amount of calories that I have burned ? As an example when I use the precor elliptical trainer at my local YMCA for 50 minutes it says I burned around 625 calories. I also have the resistance set at 4. now when I enter that time into my exercise diary it says somewhere around 750 ? would I be better off using a HRM for a more accurate tracking of the actual amount of calories that I burn for each cardio session ?

Replies

  • IdleJack
    IdleJack Posts: 16
    For tracking my calories burnt I used to rely on what the equipment told me but they are using generic formulas and don't take into consideration weight, body composition, fitness level etc. What I now use is my heart rate monitor as I can feed in personal stats such as age, weight, height, body fat % etc; I believe this to give a more accurate reading.

    I know that no method is going to be '100%' accurate and I believe that it's a case of finding a method that you can use as a consistent benchmark but then also take into consideration the results from your weekly to make adjustments to calories in/burnt as appropriate.
  • reepobob
    reepobob Posts: 1,172 Member
    I just recently bought an HRM because I will be starting P90X soon (ordered yesterday), but until recently I have been using my home elliptical (NordicTrack ASR630). It has consistently been measuring me at about 930 calories burned for a 45 minute advanced workout (RPM 65-75, resistance 5-6). I used the new HRM (Polar FT7) and it measured the same workout at 775 calories burned. The kicker is when I put 45 minutes into the MFP for elliptical trainer, it calculates at 675!

    I agree with the previous post and will rely on the HRM as the benchmark. I always figured my elliptical was reading the calories burned slightly high and I also knew that I was burning a helluva lot more than MFP states.

    In any case, I usually bank about 20-25% of my earned exercise calories back to allow for any miscalculations on the safe side.

    Good luck!
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