how accurate are calorie counters on cardio machines?

[odawg315]

i run on my tredmill at a level 4 and at 4.5-5.5mph for 45min, it rates me at 600 calories, this is pretty consistant with the treadmills at my gym as well, however my elyptical machine i do for 30min at level 10 (highest resistance) and it rates me at 925calories. the elyptical at the gym only shows 350calories @ 30min. how accurate are these machines, how can they be accurate if they dont know your body type, is there a standard they go by?

[jd_beasley]

I'm just guessing because I don't know. But I know you have to enter your age and weight on a lot of the machines. I know that the age is to figure out your max heart rate. Maybe the weight has something to do with the calories? Even though like you said it still doesn't know your body type...not sure

[MiketheSwede]

In my opinion, they are not accurate at all.
The figures they give you are simply an educated guess, based on the input given by you, i.e anything you enter into the machine, usually, age, sex and weight. The more of these variables you enter the more accurate the guess is going to be.

Like standing on different scales will give you different weights, depending on how they are calibrated.

[mpipes]

I wouldn't be using the calorie counts on the machines in a "hard math" capacity such as plugging the numbers into your total calorie expediture for the day in order to figure out how many calories you should be eating. They're just not that accurate but they could be used as reference when you need to compare your intensity level to your previous session at that same exercise. If the machine says 300 calories one day and the next session you get it to read 400, you know you're pushing harder than before, and that's really all you need to know.

[rawjohn]

I think that they are good to give you a good estimate at what you burned but not an exact number.

[ozigal]

they aren't accurate. On most machines the amount of cals burned is based on the distance travelled. So whether you run 5 miles or walk 5 miles, the calories will be the same and it will be like that for every person. But in reality, a fitter more muscular person will use up more energy and burn a greater amount than the opposite person because their metabolic rate is faster. The closest you'll get to an accurate reading is with a hr monitor. Mine is always like 100 less calories than what the machine reads, regardless of what machine i'm on.

[skibbi9]

Its usually based on your weight and then by distance (elipticals factor in Load I guess, i.e. resistance). For elipticals many over estimate calories (one person found a 50% overestimate or 100% percent more than he burned i.e. burned 300 said 600)

[J Rock]

Use the numbers the machine gives you as a guide line.. not 100%.

[Zenkei18]

They're based on an average persons metabolism. Someone with a higher metabolism could have up to 1.5x higher the amount of calories burned.

[Shoshona]

don't know if this is true, but i was told the calibrations are set by default for a person weighing 150 lbs and i forget what height..

used as a guide, i take the number it gives me on my treadmill and divide it in half. i figure that's fairly accurate.