Elliptical calorie burn accurate?

11clouds11
11clouds11 Posts: 2 Member
edited December 20 in Fitness and Exercise
Last night at the gym I was on the elliptical for about an hour and ten minutes. resistance 20. Said I burned 1,000 calories. I’m a woman, 5’4 and about 145 ibs. How accurate do you think this number is?

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited April 2019
    Unless you are an elite athlete then I would guess comically inflated.

    How far could you run in that time?
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    I would guess it is at least a factor of 2 too high. Sorry.

    Unfortunately, "resistance 20" doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot.
  • aliyusaf
    aliyusaf Posts: 20 Member
    Could be correct, but it depends upon how you are measuring it.

    I usually go for a 5k run and then hit the elliptical for 20 minutes, keeping my heart rate above 80% of max bpm. This gives me a burn of about 320 calories, give or take. On that basis, it could be true (assuming my chest strap and Garmin are correct).
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    11clouds11 wrote: »
    Last night at the gym I was on the elliptical for about an hour and ten minutes. resistance 20. Said I burned 1,000 calories. I’m a woman, 5’4 and about 145 ibs. How accurate do you think this number is?

    Not a chance...probably half of that. For reference, 1,000 calories is in the neighborhood of what I burn on a 30 mile bike ride going at a pretty good clip for a couple of hours.
  • Noreenmarie1234
    Noreenmarie1234 Posts: 7,492 Member
    Very inaccurate. My treadmill says I burn 1000 calories for 90 minutes, but according to my apple watch I only burn 450.
  • Motorsheen
    Motorsheen Posts: 20,508 Member
    Yeah, like what the others have said, I think that you can probably cut that number in half.

    However, I've been led to believe that the heart rate calculations are fairly accurate.
  • 11clouds11
    11clouds11 Posts: 2 Member
    Well damn. No wonder results have been slow. Thanks guys! I appreciate the help. Guess it’s time to switch up my workout routine lol.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Motorsheen wrote: »
    Yeah, like what the others have said, I think that you can probably cut that number in half.

    However, I've been led to believe that the heart rate calculations are fairly accurate.

    Well they may be more accurate than the OP's machine but that's not saying very much!

    Yes HR can be a reasonable guide for some people (who happen to have a fairly average exercise HR for their particular demographic) doing a suitable exercise. That suitable exercise would typically be either steady state cardio or close to steady state for most general HRMs just using one algorithm for all exercise.

    They can also give wildly inaccurate estimates for some people and some types of exercise.
  • GarysGirl81
    GarysGirl81 Posts: 34 Member
    11clouds11 wrote: »
    Last night at the gym I was on the elliptical for about an hour and ten minutes. resistance 20. Said I burned 1,000 calories. I’m a woman, 5’4 and about 145 ibs. How accurate do you think this number is?

    Are you putting your height and weight in? I typically do and then subtract 30%. I’m much heavier than you at the same height and my machine says I burn 700 in an hour, that’s with increased resistance, though not 20, and high intensity intervals. I have calculated I’m burning closer to 500 and if your body is more efficient...you may be burning less.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    11clouds11 wrote: »
    Well damn. No wonder results have been slow. Thanks guys! I appreciate the help. Guess it’s time to switch up my workout routine lol.

    A burn of 500 in an hour is still a very good burn, especially at your size.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    11clouds11 wrote: »
    Well damn. No wonder results have been slow. Thanks guys! I appreciate the help. Guess it’s time to switch up my workout routine lol.

    Why do you have to switch up the workout routine because you didn't burn as much as you thought?

    I think there may a misunderstanding of the role of exercise in weight loss and calories burned and eating goals, ect.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,644 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    11clouds11 wrote: »
    Well damn. No wonder results have been slow. Thanks guys! I appreciate the help. Guess it’s time to switch up my workout routine lol.

    Why do you have to switch up the workout routine because you didn't burn as much as you thought?

    I think there may a misunderstanding of the role of exercise in weight loss and calories burned and eating goals, ect.

    And perhaps wishful thinking about how many calories other exercise would burn in a similar time period.
  • LargeEricS
    LargeEricS Posts: 109 Member
    Hahaha I just post a thread asking a similar question, I don't know how i missed yours. However that seems abnormally high. I burn around 325 in 22min at about 8.5 min mile pace. That would work out to more than mine as a 23 yr. old 6'4 260lbs guy and im not sure mine is right
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    edited April 2019
    You don't have to switch your exercise routine. If you like the elliptical first make sure you have your weight entered into the machine - if it doesn't have that option then it's going to be even further off.

    I would log that as 400-500 calories, I'm 5'7" 140. I would do that for a month and see if my weight did what it was expected to do based on that.

    Exercise calories are a bit of guesswork and a bit of intuition. If it seems too good to be true it probably is. I mean if your base calories are 1600 or so, realistically you can't expect to burn an additional 1000 in an hour of cardio. None of us would have weight problems. :wink:

    Additionally the "activity level" settings take a bit of trial and error. So to dial that in, pick one and stick with it for a month or two. Your scale weight will tell the tale if you are logging food, exercise, and activity with a fair amount of accuracy. It's an experiment with those three variables that you are going to record and log, so you play with one at a time and your weight is the control.
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