CALORIES!

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xXmimiXx
xXmimiXx Posts: 564 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone

If a cardio machine asks you to input your age, and weight and has heart rate handles or whatever are the calories burned accurate? I always input into my exercise table how many calories I've burned according to my gym's equipment but was just wondering if that's what other people do and are they losing weight ie it's mostly accurate? I don't want to be inputting that I've burned 500 cals if it's really close to 300!

Thanks! :flowerforyou:

Replies

  • xXmimiXx
    xXmimiXx Posts: 564 Member
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    Hi everyone

    If a cardio machine asks you to input your age, and weight and has heart rate handles or whatever are the calories burned accurate? I always input into my exercise table how many calories I've burned according to my gym's equipment but was just wondering if that's what other people do and are they losing weight ie it's mostly accurate? I don't want to be inputting that I've burned 500 cals if it's really close to 300!

    Thanks! :flowerforyou:
  • annhjk
    annhjk Posts: 794 Member
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    sorry, but it's still off. I use my HRM, and found for me - MFP was much closer than the equipment at the gym.

    I think Tammy said she makes her weight less (10lb) than actually and her age too maybe? Then it's a little more accurate.
  • tmay
    tmay Posts: 2
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    I use whatever the machine says. Except for when I walk or run outside.
  • xXmimiXx
    xXmimiXx Posts: 564 Member
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    Is it generally better to take 10% or 20% off what the machine says then? I use a machine called Cardio Wave which is not on MFP portfolio.
  • Starchaser
    Starchaser Posts: 69
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    This is a total repost from me in another thread, but sue me!

    Most of the calorie calculators are pretty crap anyway.

    Example: my treadmill routine is usually 5 minute warmup at 7.5pmh, then 45 seconds at 12mph then a 1min 30s rest at 8mph, for ten minutes.

    The counter on the machine told me that burned 218 calories.

    Last week, I did fifteen minutes on the treadmill at 7mph, since I'd injured my hamstring so didn't want to push too hard.

    The counter read: 218.
    There's no way that a 15 minute light jog burns the same calories as a 10 minute sprintathon!

    So what I'm saying really is forget about counting exercise calories since the machines that measure them are very inaccurate.

    The scientific defitinion of a calorie is the amount of energy required to raise 1kg of water by 1degree celcius. So to try to translate that measurement into a physical exercise...well it's inaccurate to say the least.

    I never count my exercise calories, just listen to your body!
    Do you feel you're working when you exercise?

    Ditch the machines for calorie counting. But, they are REALLY useful to see whether you're covering the same distance in a better time or not, for performance monitoring.
  • Starchaser
    Starchaser Posts: 69
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    As an addition, it's really easy to get bogged down in numbers.

    So long as your calories on the food plan are reasonable, and your exercising hard, actually recording the calories burned in exercise becomes insignificant. I can honestly say in my entire career as a competing martial artist I have never recorded calories burned at the gym. Still got my six pack!

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