Can I trust the machine's calories burned?

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goddessofmath
goddessofmath Posts: 39 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm sure this has been asked before, but even using search, I couldn't find a good answer.

I use the recumbent bike at the gym for an hour a day. I do a moderate workout (really pushing my limits in stages). My bike at the gym counts calories burned based on weight, and it lines up with the mfp calories burned numbers (about 800 per hour). I'm 5'1", 234 pounds. Is that calorie count possible?

I know a heart rate monitor is the most accurate, but I don't have the funds for one right now.

I've been eating back most of my calories (eating about 1380 daily), but am not having steady weight loss. (6 lbs in 2 weeks, but the last few days I'm up a pound one day and down the next.) I keep worrying that my gym calories are way off. Any advice/help would be appreciated!

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  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,206 Member
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    Calories burned are always estimates unless you are hooked up to a bunch of things in a lab that measure various things including what you inhale and exhale. Even HRMs are not that accurate, although they may be more accurate than the machine at they same time they may not, because apparently there is a trend in HRM to overestimate calories burned to "encourage" the people using them which apparently has resulted in slowing increasing estimates.

    Now having made you perhaps wonder how to know how many calories you burned, and if you can ever really know, realize that the estimates are not that bad. They usually, but not always over estimate which is why I don't generally eat back all my exercise calories, but if you do you probably still will be in a calories deficit. 800 may seem high, and I don't know if you are on a stationary bike if your weight really makes that much of a difference since you are not actually moving your weight or for that matter bearing your weight on your legs, since you are seating on something that is not propelled around the gym. If you workout hard, and it sounds like you do, 800 is not completely out there.

    As to the daily weight changes up and down, that is really normal. Your body weight will go up and down like that as much as several pounds. If I eat a lot of sodium the next day I know I will be up about 1 pound more or less, but it is all water weight and comes off with drinking lots of water usually by the next day.
  • goddessofmath
    goddessofmath Posts: 39 Member
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    Thanks Jim! That helped as I was really wondering how close it was. I tend to stay about 300-400 calories under goal after I work out due to just not being able to eat that much after a workout! At least if I'm under I know I'm not overeating on my calories due to calories burned being too high. I measure my food and calculate every calorie I put in my mouth (thank goodness I'm a math teacher), so I know I'm not eating more than I write down. I've heard you shouldn't weigh every day. Perhaps I need to take that advice! Thanks a ton! :)
  • Serenifly
    Serenifly Posts: 669 Member
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    Because the machines dont' ask me (treadmil ayways) my age, height and gender ... No I dont' trust it
  • woja9640
    woja9640 Posts: 450 Member
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    I go to the gym as well, and I notice that the treadmill is inacurate on the cal burned. Because while I am on the treadmill, even if IT is going 2.5 mph, I am walking at normal pace of 4 mph. Due to this fact the cal burned AND the distance walked were both off.

    I would not trust the cal burned on the bike at all. Just trust the time. I would say look at the cal burned when you are done with the bike and compare it to what the site says when you post to your exercise diary. Afterwards, I would stick with the site instead of the bike.
  • jerseygirl777
    jerseygirl777 Posts: 148
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    I go to the gym as well, and I notice that the treadmill is inacurate on the cal burned. Because while I am on the treadmill, even if IT is going 2.5 mph, I am walking at normal pace of 4 mph. Due to this fact the cal burned AND the distance walked were both off.

    I would not trust the cal burned on the bike at all. Just trust the time. I would say look at the cal burned when you are done with the bike and compare it to what the site says when you post to your exercise diary. Afterwards, I would stick with the site instead of the bike.

    I agree. Definitely compare to the site, but take the lower number. I'd rather be under then over!
  • BigBootyMimi
    BigBootyMimi Posts: 84 Member
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    I just got a Body Bugg this week and it has convinced me that the eliptical (my fav machine) totally over estimates the calories burned. I was just at the gym, did 50 minutes on the eliptical (working very hard, mind you) and the machine said I burned over 500 calories...my BB said I only burned around 300.
  • sylvia1970
    sylvia1970 Posts: 134
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    i wouldn't eat back my calories; what would be the point in eating back what you've burnt off?? POINTLESS EXERCISE! And don;t weigh yourself every other day as i know lots of people do on here

    but you already know that yourself

    When i exercise, i realise when my body has had enough; not my mind - my body. you'll know when you've reached you peak so be happy with that regardless of whatever kind of monitor you have that says you've burnt this that and the other. Your body will burn energy at different rates at different times of the day and depending on what you've ate
  • goddessofmath
    goddessofmath Posts: 39 Member
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    The bike's count has been surprisingly close to the count mfp says I'm burning. I'm working to get off 95 pounds and have my calories set at the 2 pounds a week mark. In the past I have hit starvation mode fairly quickly by not paying attention to net calorie intake and had huge plateaus. Lately I've had a daily net calorie count of about 500 calories even after eating full meals and snacks (all healthy and filling). I'm about to back off to half an hour on my workouts and add in weight-training to try to avoid this issue...
  • outersoul
    outersoul Posts: 711
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    My experience is that the eliptical at my gym is anywhere from 25-50 cals off what my HRM says.

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