Questions about Ellipticals

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ecoon3
ecoon3 Posts: 2
in Fitness and Exercise
I've been using an elliptical because it makes training for long periods of time- an hour, 45 minutes- easier; I know I couldn't last running for an hour. But I want to know how many calories I really am burning, and are ellipticals better or worse than bikes/running/etc.? No website gives me the same calorie number, including this one, and I heard that the elliptical trainers themselves overestimate by 20%. And I've used different workouts- hills and crosstraining- and no calorie counter accounts for those differences, even though I felt like I was working a lot harder with one than the other. Furthermore, this website's calorie counter doesn't even ask for resistance, which I think would make a whole lot of difference. Maybe I'm just completely wrong; I know I'm new to the fitness world. But please, can anyone shed a little light?

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  • LittleD311
    LittleD311 Posts: 618 Member
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    Does your gym have arc trainers? They burn 16% more calories than ellipiticals .....
  • jen31889
    jen31889 Posts: 121
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    Does the elliptical have you enter your weight and age? If t does, I would probably go with that count.
  • princess4mimi
    princess4mimi Posts: 192
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    Unless you have a HRM (Heart Rate Monitor), which I don't have one yet.....I would go with the numbers the Eliptical gives you assuming it does ask you to provide your weight and age, because it already knows what resistance it is providing for your during your workout. I say go with that unless you do have a HRM, if you do then from what I've heard and read that would be your best choice, especially the ones with the chest strap.
  • cmel6334
    cmel6334 Posts: 41 Member
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    Your best bet is to go out and buy a heart rate monitor that you can put all of your personal info in. That way, you get an accurate reading. I used to go off the machines in the gym, and it was off on calories burned by 100-300 less then what I really did. I have a Polar FT4. I got it for about $90 at Target. It has the chest strap and wrist watch. You want to make sure that you get one that you can enter your height/weight/age. I love it. It's well worth the money.
  • jessilee119
    jessilee119 Posts: 444 Member
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    I have an elliptical and I noticed that the calories burned on mfp is more than what my elliptical says. I go with what my elliptical says because it's factoring in my resistance. I use this as a guide and not a set amount of calories burned because I know my machine isn't 100% accurate since it's not factoring in my weight, age, and my hr (it has a monitor but only on the stationary handles and I use the ones that move). I think an elliptical is good cardio as long as you switch it up (don't do the same resistance for the entire workout), but it's also not a bad idea to encorporate other cardio such as running and cycling.
  • julielasley
    julielasley Posts: 6
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    For me personally,( I am 30 and weigh 136) I have found that as long as I am burning 10 cal per min that seems to be the average on most machines. I prefer the treadmill at an incline, I alternate between 12, 15, and 18 incline for about 50-60 min 6 days a week. I usually burn about 620 cal per hour doing that. If I were to stay on elliptical I would burn about 500-600 per every 50-60 min workout. The thing I like most about treadmill is I am not panting and my heart rate stays pretty level so I am burning more fat. I do like to switch it up every now and again so I don't get bored. Just try different things until you find something you enjoy and don't mind staying on it for an hour. Good Luck!!
  • ecoon3
    ecoon3 Posts: 2
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    Thank you all so much for the info and advice! I've definitely learned a lot.
  • iamthepreston
    iamthepreston Posts: 195 Member
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    First if the elliptical requires you to enter age height, age, and weight, plus if it has heart rate monitors on the handle it is pretty accurate.

    Ellipticals do not burn as many calories as running, but do have some advantages. With the elliptical you can cycle between between using upper body strength and lower body strength. They are also better on your joints hence low impact.
  • SeanMcg
    SeanMcg Posts: 1
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    Hi emily (:

    Resistance does matter (difference between sprinting for an hour and jogging for an hour) when counting calories. How much I cannot say. The machine will take this into account- websites will not. (largely due to the fact that different brands will have different levels of resistances. Probably similar in actual resistance but on a scale of 1-10 on one brand and 1-25 on another etc.)

    According to abc news heart rate monitors are worse than the machines themselves at counting calories- it doesnt take anything other than your bmi and age into account. A body builder is obese if BMI is the benchmark. (this may vary by heart rate monitors- the ones I have used may just have been sucky.) Heart rate monitors may overestimate calories burned by up to 50% and fitness machines range from 10-30% overestimation. (again from an ABC news story) Fitness machines themselves don't ask for body fat percentage or gender and honestly nobody really knows who the calorie counter on the machine is tailored towards. (5'6" female who is in good shape or a 5'8" male in terrible shape?)

    Different sites will say different things because they all use different formulas. They'll have a different sample size (if any? I can't say for sure) of people working out on different brands of machines on different resistances and just label it "elliptical." that formula will account for age etc based on their personal data.

    ... I guess this is just speculation about speculation. It's nearly impossible to get an accurate reading on these machines and it's even more difficult to know what's accurate in the first place.

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