How accurate are the calories burned on a gym tredmill?

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woodhouse_j2
woodhouse_j2 Posts: 20 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm just interested to know how accurate the gym treadmills are when it comes to calories burned. I put my weight and age into the machine before i start but there is no option for height. I am very tall 6ft6" i do an hour on the treadmill with a mixture of jogging and walking and when the hour is up i have done around 5 miles and the calories figure comes out around 800-850. I never usually eat any extra calories i get from exercise i like to think of this as a bonus. My concern with the accuracy mainly comes from my height as somebody weighing the same as me but much shorter doing the exact same distance and time would have to burn more calories wouldn't they?

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  • lucyholdcroft363
    lucyholdcroft363 Posts: 124 Member
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    The treadmill I use is pretty spot on with calories burned. I'd recommend eating back a portion as you could be putting yourself into too large a deficit which isn't always beneficial. For complete accuracy I'd get a heart rate monitor.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    If you input weight, and you do not hold on to the handrails, then the treadmill calorie numbers should be as accurate as anything, and more accurate than an HRM. Differences in stride length have little effect.
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 609 Member
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    Azdak wrote: »
    If you input weight, and you do not hold on to the handrails, then the treadmill calorie numbers should be as accurate as anything, and more accurate than an HRM. Differences in stride length have little effect.

    For the best results you need your heart rate, most of cardio equipment calorie counts are over estimated. A HRM would be more accurate.

  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    lucyholdcroft363 wrote: »
    The treadmill I use is pretty spot on with calories burned. I'd recommend eating back a portion as you could be putting yourself into too large a deficit which isn't always beneficial. For complete accuracy I'd get a heart rate monitor.

    Depending on the algorithm used HRMs can be horribly inaccurate (many assume a linear correlation between heart rate and caloric expenditure that simply does not exist)

    To the OP, an easy way to sanity check the number is to use .63 x weight in lbs x distance in miles for the distance running, substitute .30 for walking (neither of these takes into account incline if you're using a steeper incline)

    If you're running the entire 5 miles you would burn 850 calories if you weighed about 270 lbs......so unless you're on a very steep incline take the treadmill's estimate with a large grain of salt.

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