calories burned on elliptical ...

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kenda424
kenda424 Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
On level 5 my Gold's gym elliptical says i burn 230 calories in 20 min, Can this be right? Is their a way to find out if this is correct?

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  • graysmom2005
    graysmom2005 Posts: 1,882 Member
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    That sounds a bit high. I don't trust the machines at all....they are always massively off. I would invest in a HRM with a chest strap. I have the Polar F4 and I always can trust the calorie count. It helps a lot when using this site. HTH!! :-)
  • vdub88
    vdub88 Posts: 79
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    it is right if you are about 240 pounds. but you don't look like you are anywhere near that
  • Hanna82
    Hanna82 Posts: 138 Member
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    Honestly all machines run high and they do most the work for you. I read an article on gym machines that said to deduct 10% to 15% from the number the machine says and that's more accurate. Plus machines are unpredictable, it may be broken. I had a machine once jump from saying I had 15 minutes left to 10 minutes and bump my calories way up. But also you may just have rocked that hard.
  • abbie017
    abbie017 Posts: 410
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    I agree, the only accurate way to tell how many calories you've actually burned is with a HRM. After getting mine, I found the calorie count on the elliptical machines to be pretty far off...
  • piezoeyjune
    piezoeyjune Posts: 186 Member
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    I have an elliptical (and a HRM) I burn about 100ish calories for every 8ish minutes. So 230 in 20 min is totally possible. You have to be really pumping it.

    Keep it up.
  • withchaco
    withchaco Posts: 1,026 Member
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    It depends on the resistance/intensity and your speed. I think machines have a tendency to run high, though. When I do 65 minutes on an elliptical, it tells me I burned 770-800 calories... I've been counting it as 600-650.

    I finally got a HRM though, so I'll be comparing the numbers today at the gym and see how it goes.
  • angp7711
    angp7711 Posts: 324 Member
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    I will ditto the calls for a HRM. My favorite machine is the elliptical but is collecting dust now because it is incredibly hard for me to get a good on that thing anymore. I try to keep speed up and resistance at about 7 and I still only burn about 200 cals for 30 mins. I am one of the few it seems maybe I have jus outgrown it? The machine is still telling me crazy numbers but I just am not there. I walk hills around the neighborhood and burn twice that per my body bugg
  • jonikeffer
    jonikeffer Posts: 218 Member
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    "Levels" vary from machine to machine, so it's hard to use that in the judgement. Generally speaking, machines tend to overestimate cals burned by about 20% for women. (They underestimate for men since they burn so many more cals than women.) I find my elliptical does the cals by the # of strides. It registers my HR from my monitor, but I can tell it does not take the HR into account when doing the cals. It gives me the same cals for the same distance regardless of whether I'm at 120bpm or 150bpm.

    I can tell you that the number of calories I burn doing the elliptical doesn't vary that much whether I'm at 140bpm or 155. For 45 mins and about 4.5 miles, I burn 400-450 calories. I'm 144 lbs and female (in case the name didn't give the gender to you, lol). The machine will tell me I did 550 calories for that time/speed. I hope that helps a little. Bottom line, a heart rate monitor is a VERY worthwhile investment if you plan on exercising to lose weight. You can get one cheaper if it doesn't calculate the calories for you, which mine does not. I have a Polar FT1. I just plug the numbers into a website to figure out the calories burned from my average heart rate during my workout time.
  • Banjolover
    Banjolover Posts: 7
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    Since I have gotten my HRM with Cheststrap (Timex's.... love it BTW!) I have found the Treadmills at the club (Bally's) consistently over-calculate the calories burned, while the Elipticals consistently under-calculate the calories vis-a-vis the HRM. I trust the HRM.
  • sammys1girly
    sammys1girly Posts: 1,045 Member
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    I can't afford an HRM so go by the calculation on the lower body arc trainer at the gym. WHether or not it's correct, I am losing weight, so that's all that matters to me : )
  • kenda424
    kenda424 Posts: 14 Member
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    Thanks everyone for the advice, I am going to look into getting a hmr because i have questioned my machine several times after a work out. I purchased one of GG more exspencive elliptical because i was wanting more accurate readings but i guess i should have done my home work before my purchase. Would have saved me a ton!!!!
  • bucaro1975
    bucaro1975 Posts: 5
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    I don't want to know how many calories I burned, I want to know how many Watts I put into the machine to know if I am getting better since this would be a true measure but would need some conversion for different stationary machine exercises. The HRM is accurate, but unfortunately it measures how much you are burning, not how much energy you put out. When you are in great shape, your HR goes down for the same amount of output.
  • chelledizzle1
    chelledizzle1 Posts: 5
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    I don't think that seems to high, unless you're running on a low resistance/intensity. I typically do about 35 minutes on the eliptical and it tells me I burned around 380. Today I did 20 minutes and it was about 225 I think. I run on a moderate intensity. Does the machine you run on have you enter in your age and weight? the ones at 24 hour fitness do, and I think that helps get a more accurate number

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