How accurate are elliptical machines?

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azkabanned
azkabanned Posts: 79 Member
edited January 2018 in Fitness and Exercise
On calories burned? When I do 30 mins, it tells me I’ve burned 250 calories but is it even accurate? It’s a pretty cheap machine that I got from Canadian Tire (about 400$). The internet/google says I should do level 7 but 3 is already reeeaaallyyy stiff and slow (I’m usually on level 2)? Different machines must have different resistant levels?

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  • azkabanned
    azkabanned Posts: 79 Member
    edited January 2018
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    TeacupsAndToning wrote: »
    Did it ask you for any of your stats? If it asks for weight, height, etc. I generally log what it gives me. If not, I just search for the workout in mfp and then I tend to cut the amount in half as MFP overestimates cardio burns.

    Nopppeeee it didn’t ask for any of my stats. My elliptical is pretty close to MFP estimates, but omg if I’m cutting it in half it means I’ve only been burning 175cals ...criessssss.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Most ellipticals, esp cheaper ones, significanty overestimate calorie burn.
  • bendyourkneekatie
    bendyourkneekatie Posts: 696 Member
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    Honestly, it's all a certain level of guesstimating. My gym one asks for age and weight and I still just cut it in half (I work hard for an hour and a half and usually get to 1300 calories burned but ehhhh). It'd be nice if there was something that was 100% accurate but unfortunately it's a matter of tracking the results long term and reevaluating the data.
  • sendtoharvey
    sendtoharvey Posts: 135 Member
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    @bendyourkneekatie you can kill that many calories in that time?! wow. hmm.. Maybe I should consider whatever your doing ot offset my bball that I usually do
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Not just different resistance but also different movement patterns and even elevation.
    Some manufacturers will create a custom calorie table by testing a selection of people but that's highly unlikely for a budget one. And as yours isn't even asking for your stats that's clearly not the case for your one so you are down to luck.

    So the answer is a less than helpful some are accurate (enough), some will be hopelessly inaccurate. And inaccurate doesn't mean exaggerated but there's a bit of marketing benefit by convincing the gullible that their machine gives a bigger burn! ;)

    250 cals for 30 minutes certainly doesn't sound excessive at all but depends on your fitness level, your effort level, your weight..... Do you have access to other more sophisticated machines (Concept2 rower, power meter equipped indoor bike...) with better accuracy or can you run for 30 minutes? That might allow you to gain a better idea of your personal capabilities.

    BTW, randomly halving an estimate doesn't make it more accurate, it just makes the estimate smaller. The MyFitnessPal "elliptical trainer" entry does seem fairly generous though (near the top end of possible for me), but not double.
  • azkabanned
    azkabanned Posts: 79 Member
    edited January 2018
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    sijomial wrote: »
    250 cals for 30 minutes certainly doesn't sound excessive at all but depends on your fitness level, your effort level, your weight..... Do you have access to other more sophisticated machines (Concept2 rower, power meter equipped indoor bike...) with better accuracy or can you run for 30 minutes? That might allow you to gain a better idea of your personal capabilities.

    No access to more sophisticated machines... and if you mean run like go outside for a run, sadly I’m not sure if I can (the sidewalks are covered in snow and ice so I can’t even head outside to give it a try). The closest I’ve gotten to a run is fast walking 6km a day when Pokémon Go first came out...
  • Wheelhouse15
    Wheelhouse15 Posts: 5,575 Member
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    Azdak wrote: »
    Most ellipticals, esp cheaper ones, significanty overestimate calorie burn.

    This. There are established formulas for walking and running that are accurate, although treadmills tend to overestimate a bit, but there is really no established formula for elliptical trainers and each one tends to be different as well. Take everything with a grain of salt.
  • jennifer3998
    jennifer3998 Posts: 144 Member
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    I used a formula that takes into account your heart rate, age, weight, and time of exercise just today after spending 47 minutes on the elliptical. The elliptical said I burned 470 calories, MFP said over 500, but the heart rate equation came to 355.
  • Marilyn0924
    Marilyn0924 Posts: 797 Member
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    For more accuracy, you could invest in a heart rate monitor. It will give you a closer estimate to what you're actually burning during a workout.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
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    Unless you're really heavy something slightly south of 10 calories per minute of moderate cardio isn't a bad estimate. 250 cals for 30 minutes is actually a pretty reasonable guess. When I have to do the elliptical, I usually call it a round 500 calories an hour. It's been close enough to not throw off my results thus far.

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