Accuracy of Calorie Counters

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kk811
kk811 Posts: 8 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I know most people say that a heart rate monitor is the best way of figuring out calories burned by exercise, but I wanted to know how accurate do most people feel the calorie counter is on cardio machines?

For example, I jogged/walked at a max incline 3.4 miles today and it took me about 45 minutes (5.6mph for jogging, 3.5-4mph while walking the incline). The treadmill said I had burned about 400 calories, but MFP says it should have been almost 650 (which I think is crazy and way too high).

Is the treadmill calorie amount somewhat in the ballpark of what I was doing? The only reason I feel it won't is because they didn't calculate my weight into it. Although it could have been super fancy with a scale inside, but I digress.

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  • Cortelli
    Cortelli Posts: 1,369 Member
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    The machine estimate sounds closer to what I'd expect than MFP's estimate.

    I'm not an expert on walking or running with an incline (really, I'm not an expert in anything), but 650 cals for 3.4 miles sounds like too much, especially if your profile pic is real and you're not carrying a ton of extra weight.
  • yhealthy2000
    yhealthy2000 Posts: 111 Member
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    It could be somewhere in the middle. I think if you put your weight and age in the treadmill calorie counter, you'll get better calorie burnt number.
  • terizius
    terizius Posts: 425 Member
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    I don't use MFP for tracking exercise, but I've heard that it way over-estimates the amount of calories burned. I'd go with the treadmill..
  • Camo_xxx
    Camo_xxx Posts: 1,082 Member
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    The best way to figure it out is track it for a week and do the math.

    You know that 1 pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories, you know how many calories you consumed, you know your starting and ending weight, take the calories the machine told you you burnt and solve for x

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