Accurate Calories Burned-Exercise Machines

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lulabell12345
lulabell12345 Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How accurate are exercise machines at measuring calories burned? I have read a lot of places that they over estimate by up to 40%.

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  • Pootler74
    Pootler74 Posts: 223 Member
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    My gym mostly has Life Fitness machines. I always thought the burn numbers they gave were too high and followed the advice to only best back half of what they said I'd burned. But, having used my MFP data to work out my actually daily calorie expenditure, I found that they are actually pretty accurate.
  • FlowVinyasa
    FlowVinyasa Posts: 6 Member
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    I calculate calories burned based on age, current weight and average heart rate. The machines in my gym, MFP, polar and fit aria are all pretty close. N.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    The LifeFitness elliptical I use gives me about double what I think is close to correct.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    There's not really an answer to your question...there are a lot of variables...how old is the machine, when was it last calibrated, how much is it used, etc. It's also going to depend on the machine itself. I get far more accurate numbers (based on a few years of experience) with a treadmill than I do an elliptical for example.

    Really, it's all an estimate
  • nealsland
    nealsland Posts: 18 Member
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    I can't vouch for them either but I use their numbers before I use what is generated on here. They seem to be about double on here. I figure if I use the lowest provided it's only going to make me work harder and also if I stick to just those numbers it's a benchmark to work from.
  • slp51
    slp51 Posts: 201 Member
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    My gym has Life Fitness machines. I find what life Fitness shows is pretty close to what MFP shows.
  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
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    Personally I believe they are inflated. I think MFP's numbers often are too.

    I do not log exercise because I have less than 5lbs to lose, so counting even 100 cals more than I actually burned could stall my progress. There no true way to know exactly what you're burning.
  • joepratt503
    joepratt503 Posts: 191 Member
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    Best way is to use the same machines always and that way you have consistency. Then all you need to do is manage your calories/macros if you are not getting the results you want...which will ultimately "fix" the fact that the calorie burn is wrong.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
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    I only sort of trust machines where you log in your weight and age first. And that's just sort of trust, because there is no way a machine can calculate how many calories you actually burn. That's why I never eat back my exercise calories.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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    Well, I only use a treadmill where you enter your weight, but with getting as much confirmation as I could through website calculators as well as heart rate calculators, it seems to be pretty accurate.

    I don't really eat back my exercise calories (the other day, for the first time, I ate back about 17 calories worth of them), but I do see consistent weight loss commensurate with what the burns I record would give me in an additional deficit.

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