Burn meter question...

When I enter an activity into the burn meter, is it calculating based on my actual stats, or is this an estimated number for the average person?  In other words, for example; will 'running, 5.2 mph' for me calculate the same calorie expenditure as it would for someone else with a different height/weigth/etc ??? Hope this question makes sense. :-)

It is based on your actual stats. CC takes your weight and age and uses them for an estimate. Back when I weighed 250 lbs, 45 mins on my eliptical burned around 900 calories. Now that I weigh 158, 45 mins burns around 650 calories.

Another thing, when you enter an activity, say my elliptical, your burn meter will increase by the amount of calories you've burned doing the activity minus your basal metabolic rate. I learned this after a few weeks of head scratching. Basically, I would have burned x amount of calories just sitting there. The burn meter takes these calories and subtracts them from the calories it says you burn doing the exercise.

Clear as mud?

It's based on your stats (gender, age, height, weight), but it's still an estimate (the calculator doesn't know your body fat %, or intensity, etc.).

Thank you freakybunny!  So, to make sure I'm clear: the burn meter is only increasing by the amount actually burned during the exercise and "removes" the calories I would have burned, had I sat still during the time spent exercising.  This is why the burn meter doesn't increase exactly by the calories shown for the activity.  Do I have this correct?

You got it.

I get that CC does the math for us (adding calories burned from exercise minus what we would have burned anyway from BMR), but where does CC get these numbers from? Is it based on sound scientific research, or are they just guessing? Since it tells me that I burn 1,350 calories from 4 hours of golf riding in a cart, I would guess they are doing the latter. There is no way I can believe that I'm burning that many calories even if I have to hit the ball 100+ times because I suck.