Which Workout Machine to Believe?

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OpalFruitJam
OpalFruitJam Posts: 114 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have two gym memberships, one for home, one for uni. The cross trainer at home- I can go for an hour on it and in that hour I burn about 500 cals and I do sweat, but I'm not exhausted or too tired. The cross trainer at uni, I can only go on for half an hour and I am soaked through with sweat and extrememly exhausted. I burn around 150-200 calories on this.

I don't know why they are so different and I don't know why I find it harder on the uni machine than I do the one at home.

Today I went on the running machine at uni on an incline of 15% for an hour. It said it burnt 500 calories. I was walking at 3.5mph the whole time. At no point did I run. I wasn't tired after this, I was sweating and my heart rate did reach about 145bpm.
But how on earth can I be so tired on the cross trainer- and only able to do half an hour, when today I WALKED AT 3.5MPH on an incline.
As I went to key in the exercise on MFP it came up manually that I would most likely burn around 300 calories.

So when the machine said I had burnt 500- was this accurate?
I want to do this properly and don't want to over or under eat so this is important to me. Thanks for any thoughts.

Replies

  • breckmc
    breckmc Posts: 30
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    Do the machines prompt you to enter your weight? The calories burned calculation is based upon your weight. If you do not enter it the machine will use a base weight to caculate calories burned. Just a guess.
  • beesareyellow
    beesareyellow Posts: 335 Member
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    Machines a notoriously inaccurate for calorie burn. The ONLY way to get an accurate reading is with a Heart Rate monitor ( with a chest strap) programmed specifically for you. I had the same problem, since I got my HR monitor, I realized the machines were vastly overestimating my burn and therefore I was eating back more calories than I was supposed to. Hope this helps.
  • OpalFruitJam
    OpalFruitJam Posts: 114 Member
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    Do the machines prompt you to enter your weight? The calories burned calculation is based upon your weight. If you do not enter it the machine will use a base weight to caculate calories burned. Just a guess.

    Yep the one at home which I find easy asks me to enter my age and weight. The one at uni that I find hard asks me to enter just my weight
  • stevemcknight
    stevemcknight Posts: 647 Member
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    The easiest way to figure calories w/o a HRM is grade your effort on a scale of 1-10. 1 being laying on the couch, 10 being running from a bear. Use that number for calories per minute.

    Machines lie. They are set that way on purpose to.... sell machines. The number is inflated dramatically to make you think you're burning calories like mad.

    The 1-10 scale is actually slightly low for calorie burn, but it allows for rests/breaks and lowered intensity intervals. Plus, I'd rather estimate low than high. I see people posting 900 calories burned on a 45 minute workout all the time here. I don't know who their trying to impress, but lies like that don't help you to actually weigh less in the morning.

    Steve
    KnightFit.com
  • stevemcknight
    stevemcknight Posts: 647 Member
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    Machines a notoriously inaccurate for calorie burn. The ONLY way to get an accurate reading is with a Heart Rate monitor ( with a chest strap) programmed specifically for you. I had the same problem, since I got my HR monitor, I realized the machines were vastly overestimating my burn and therefore I was eating back more calories than I was supposed to. Hope this helps.

    agreed.
  • xcharysma
    xcharysma Posts: 35 Member
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    I find the heart rate monitor with chest strap definitely more accurate. after losing lbs, I have go back to my monitor and change the weight to reflect the weight change.
  • sweetNsassy2584
    sweetNsassy2584 Posts: 515 Member
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    I was surprised at the difference in the machines VS my HRM. I'm glad I purchased it because I have a more accurate count. It just sucked when I had to work even harder when I thought I was burning say 350 calories in 30 minutes when it was really 250. I love my HRM. I highly recommend getting one.
  • GiGi76
    GiGi76 Posts: 876 Member
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    The easiest way to figure calories w/o a HRM is grade your effort on a scale of 1-10. 1 being laying on the couch, 10 being running from a bear. Use that number for calories per minute.

    Machines lie. They are set that way on purpose to.... sell machines. The number is inflated dramatically to make you think you're burning calories like mad.

    The 1-10 scale is actually slightly low for calorie burn, but it allows for rests/breaks and lowered intensity intervals. Plus, I'd rather estimate low than high. I see people posting 900 calories burned on a 45 minute workout all the time here. I don't know who their trying to impress, but lies like that don't help you to actually weigh less in the morning.

    Steve
    KnightFit.com

    I agree!!!!

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