Calorie Counters on the Elliptical Machine

Skylah
Skylah Posts: 2
in Fitness and Exercise
Does anyone know if they are accurate or not?

Thanks!

Replies

  • Skylah
    Skylah Posts: 2
    Does anyone know if they are accurate or not?

    Thanks!
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    the only thing I KNOW to be accurate is my HRM. I was way over calculating on some things and way under on others.

    Is it the one at the gym? Ask them for a report of when they were last serviced or calibrated.

    Does it ask you for weight and age? this will make it more accurate, and height makes it even better.

    Also check it against the exercise logs here, and google other and compare.

    I hope this helped some.
  • jennNva
    jennNva Posts: 142
    Mine is way off!! I purchased a HRM and found out it says 3 times more calories burned than my HRM.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    yes, it is a general reading

    I was way out of shape
    47 yrs old
    no cardio in 5 yrs

    the girl next to me was 20, going the same speed as me and not even breaking a sweat. I had to be burning more calories than her....but she racked the same 600 as me. NO WAY she burned 600 calories. Good thing she was in good condition!!
  • heartshapdworld
    heartshapdworld Posts: 323 Member
    When I got my HRM, the first thing I did was check the caloric read-out against the Ellipitical. The Ellipitcal's read-out was 100 calories MORE than that of my HRM. very scary.

    But that was my expierence only
  • Phoenix_Rising
    Phoenix_Rising Posts: 11,417 Member
    My HRM shows I burn about 2/3 of what the machine shows.
  • songbyrdsweet
    songbyrdsweet Posts: 5,691 Member
    Here's what I wrote about this a couple days ago:

    Machines generally have a 10-15% error. They usually use METs, but assume that everyone at a given weight burns the same calories at a given MET, which isn't the calse. Most don't subtract your BMR calories, or the calories you'd burn without exercise, either. If your BMR is 1200, you'll burn about 50 calories per hour without any activity. So if you burn 500 calories in an hour, only 450 was actually burnt through exercise. The other 50 shouldn't be counted as they are already figured into your baseline calories.

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