calorie burn discrepancy between cc, proform treadmill, sportline heart rate monitor

Hi all,

i am wondering why there is a major discrepancy between the calculated burn between these are.  for example for a 31 minute 5mph run + a 30 minute 4.0 walk, cc comes back with 632 cals burned.  The HR monitor comes back with close to 1300 cals burned and the treadmill calculates about 1000.

Which one do I believe and why???

Any help appreciated.

i was going to say that the HRM is probably most accurate, but 1300 in 30 minutes just sounds crazy.  regardless, all are estimates. 

my HRM is very consistent with CC estimates (ie: within 100 calories for a 40 minute run).  ask yourself which one has the most information about you: CC knows your age, weight, and height; do the treadmill and your HRM have that information?  or are you factoring that in somehow?

I usually go by my hrm too, and find that the cc number is a little lower and the machine number a little higher.  Walking/running generally burns 100 calories a mile (the faster you go, the quicker you burn those 100 calories).  So you probably burned about 450 in the hour run/walk.  Generally this seems to be true--it's the rate I tend to burn running AND the rate my hubby burns running (he regularly runs half-marathons, which are just over 13 miles, and usually burns about 1300 calories). 

What kind of hrm are you using?  The hrm number you provided seems more reasonable than the cc and treadmill numbers, but still seems a little high.  Make sure the battery is fresh and the chest strap (assuming there is one) is working properly.  My strap recently broke--it wouldn't register my heartrate, or would register a heartrate of 212, which made for a very inaccurate measurement. 

And pgeorgian is right--they are all just estimates anyway.

Yeah... Some HRM, cough garmin, really really over estimate your calories. It's probably somewhere between CC and treadmil.

UD

Actually it's a 61 minute combo run AND walk.  CC knows the most (No HR), but the HRM knows age and gender and HR.  Treadmill doesn't know anything...

Thanks again...

Your HRM actually knows less than you think.  If you programed it with your age then it is making an assumption about your maximum heart rate, an assumption that could be very wrong.  This can cause your HRM to greatly over- or under- estimate your calorie burn.  I recommend reading this article about determining your max heart rate.  Once you hone in on your MHR, enter the "age" in your monitor that will result in the correct MHR.  This will allow your HRM to give you a better estimate of calories burned.

Original Post by trhawley:

Your HRM actually knows less than you think.  If you programed it with your age then it is making an assumption about your maximum heart rate, an assumption that could be very wrong.  This can cause your HRM to greatly over- or under- estimate your calorie burn.  I recommend reading this article about determining your max heart rate.  Once you hone in on your MHR, enter the "age" in your monitor that will result in the correct MHR.  This will allow your HRM to give you a better estimate of calories burned.

I know this post is half a year old, but wanted to say that this information on determining Max Heart Rate has help me immensely. After taking two of the SubMax HR Tests I was able to determine my MHR as being closer to 195 instead of the 170 that the 220 - Age gave me. The test are fairly simple to take and if, as with me, determine your MHR is different from the "norm" your calorie burn will be greatly affected. Now on my HRM I am inputting 25 for my age instead of 50 to correct for the deficiency of the normal formula.