Elliptical Calories

fitmama282
fitmama282 Posts: 36 Member
edited November 14 in Fitness and Exercise
My machine says i burned 187 calories on my elliptical. But my fitness pal says i burned 391 calories. Which is more accurate? That's a big difference. I weigh 230.
I have an app on my phone that says i burned 275 calories hiking for 32 mins. according to my weight & the hills i walked. Does that sound accurate?

Replies

  • hermann341
    hermann341 Posts: 443 Member
    Looks like your phone may be more accurate, but a heart rate monitor is the best way to measure calories consistently.
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    MFP does not know what speed and resistance you were working at so from this regard the machine is probably a better estimate.

    For your walking, if your phone has an accelerometer and is tracking your steps and altitude (in the same way a fitbit does) then this is likely to be a fairly good estimate.
  • fitmama282
    fitmama282 Posts: 36 Member
    the app on the phone is tracking my steps & altitude, speed and according to my weight.
  • princessinnocentknickers
    princessinnocentknickers Posts: 10 Member
    a lot of the times the machines in gyms are set up to count the calories for a person of a certain gender and a certain height/weight. so if you're taller/heavier than what the machine is set up for (information MFP would have) the machine wouldn't be giving you an accurate estimation of the calories you burned.

  • karenf29
    karenf29 Posts: 1
    I did a lot of research on this and it said that for 30 minutes on the elliptical, you can expect to burn 2.6 calories x your weight. This will obvs vary depending on your resistance and such, but I think MFP is using that approx calculation as well. I've been using the mfp results because it knows all my weight details (unlike my machine that only goes up to 150lbs [i wish!!]).
    Best of luck on your journey! You're doing this for YOU so anytime you think you can't, just remember that you make the decisions and that YOU decide you CAN.
  • anefarious
    anefarious Posts: 1 Member
    I've been going with the MFP measurement, although it is less than what my elliptical tells me I'm doing. My reasoning is this - if I'm lower in my estimates of calories burned, I'm making sure to stay under my calorie intake limit for the day - so am not running the risk of sabotaging my results. Perhaps once I get closer to my end goal I can afford to be more lenient towards it, sorta like how many diet plans have a 2-6 week period that is more intense than after that time.
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