Calories burned according to cardio equipment...?

So I work out at the gym 4 times a week, and I've been curious about something. The cardio equipment (treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical machine) all tell you the calories you have "burned" during your workout. However, I've read several articles and spoken to different people, and they have all agreed that the equipment can't be an accurate reflection of your true calories burned because it doesn't have information about your body (age, weight, height, etc).

I think you may be able to program that stuff in somewhere, but I prefer to use the manual setting so I can control the workout rather than using a pre-programmed setting that varies the inclines and speeds at random, and plugging in your personal information isn't an option under the manual setting.

I'd just like to know how close the "calories burned" meter on the machine is, especially since when I enter the activities on my activity log, CC shows more calories burned than the machine did. Any thoughts?

Usually the machine shows a higher number than this website, so I am surprised by your results. I would suggest using common sense - if one machine gives you a readout that is much higher than another at a similar level of perceived exertion.... something is probably inaccurate.

If the machine doesn't let you put in at least your weight, then I would go with CC.

Catgirl - really? That's interesting. When I'm on the treadmill, for example, and I do a half hour at an 8-9 incline, at 3.2-3.5mph, the machine says approx 240 calories. When I select "Walking, 3.5mph, uphill" on CC, it shows 747 per hour (or 373.5/half hour). That's a difference of over 100 calories. Perhaps I'm not selecting the right activity on the CC list? Although the rest of the activities under "walking" or "treadmill" are all on a flat surface, or while carrying something. Interesting. Well, I'm happy to use CC as amethystgirl suggested, since it tells me I'm burning more than the machine does...but I also don't want it to "fool" me into thinking I need more calories in order to keep my deficit at 1000 per day. Well, thanks for your thoughts! I'll keep reading about it and see what I find out. Maybe I'll try one of those pre-programmed settings and enter my info just to see what it says. :)

I believe that I've heard that if you don't get to enter in your weight, most cardio machines will assume 150lb. If you weigh more than that, chances are you are burning more than the machine tells you.

Alternatively, you could log it as 300 calories, to split the difference between the two estimates.

Do you know if the activity log on CC uses your stats you have entered into your account to calculate the calories burned on each of the listed activies? Or is it just a generic figure based upon random stats like the cardio machines use if you don't enter your personal info? 

CC definitely uses your stats to calculate.

But the drawback is that it is limited in not knowing exactly how fast you were going at all times.  So if you were going between 3.2mph and 3.5mph, but you log it as all 3.5, CC overestimates by a little.

That's true. Good call! Ok, thanks!

I read just recently that the gym equipment can be up to 20% incorrect meaning giving you a higher read out than actual burn.  I know mine is always a few calories over my heart rate monitor so I factor in a 20% difference over my goal and in order to ensure I meet my goal.

I know that people when using cardio equipment, will often hold on to the handles in front of them. This can also cause an incorrect higher estimate than actually burned. If you let go and use your core to stabalize yourself you'll notice your heart pumping a lot harder and therefor burn more calories. Those handles are only there incase you loose your balance. This is a very common mistake I see at my gym all the time.