Elliptical Cal Count Wrong?

I own an elliptical trainer, just a cheap one though but it tells me my calorie count. I can't adjust it to my weight or different resistants, or anything like that and i'm wondering, could it be wrong? In 30min it says i burn about 220cals and i have looked this up and thats considered light effort. I am 100% sure i am not exercising "lightly". After about 10min i have sweat dripping off my face, by the end of it my face is red and i'm puffing (i'm not over weight and i'm not unfit) Even my boyfiend tells me to "be careful" because he thinks i'm going to hurt myself because i'm going fast. Also, it tells me my heart rate and that seems to always be around 112 bpm once i have got my momentum up (usualy it says 72). At the speed i go, i would be too embarassed to go to the gym because i would look like a crazy person because of my speed.

I have seen other posts where people say they burn 400cal in 30min and it makes me wonder, could my calorie count be wrong and should i go by CC activity guide?

I personally worry that the calorie count amounts overestimate the workload. I always put down what the machines say (although I use the ones at the gym so I think they're fairly good). I usually do around 200-220 calories in 28 mins of fairly vigorous effort. My heart rate goes up to around 170-180.

Maybe you should check your heart rate by using a clock/watch with a second hand, and counting the pulses? Usually you can find a pulse in your neck or wrist fairly easily. One suggestion is to use your first two fingers rather than your thumb to feel for the pulse, because the thumb has a strong pulse in it or something and that can confuse you.

Count how many heart beats you get in 10 seconds and multiply by 6, that gives you your beats per minute.

If you're going really fast on the elliptical, you might be burning more calories, especially if the machine isn't counting your heart rate properly. It might think you're doing less than you are. Although not all machines are sophisticated enough to take heart rate into account, they just estimate the calories burned by how many steps you take (I think). Anyway hope this helps.

I was told once by someone who has a masters in sports medicine that they are not very accurate, but are a nice guideline.  She said that it's way more important to measure your heart rate and stay within a reasonable range.  Here's a link I found that talks about elliptical calorie counters: http://www.allellipticals.com/elliptical-trai ner-calorie-burn.html

That's a pretty high heart rate.  I am 26 and my BMI says I am overweight.  I've been using the ellipticals at my gym for 10 months.  My heart rate is usually around 72 to 75.  Any higher than that and I get light-headed and sometimes dizzy. 

Here's a link to what your target heart rate should be: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml? identifier=4736  She told me that there are no benefits to excersizing above your target rate.  It does the same about of good for your body, but just leaves you even more exhausted.  Good luck!

edit: I meant 172-175

Personally, I'd prefer to underestimate the amount of calories I'm burning and overestimate the amount I'm eating, so I err on the side of creating a deficit.

I can log 100 calories per 8 minutes on the elliptical at the gym, but it's by pushing it up to resistance of 13 (it begins at 1) and I have to work really hard.  This machine also has the handles that move with your feet, so it's arm work also, not just legs.  (I'm 5'1" and weigh 136 for comparison purposes)

I always wondered this... My elliptical says I burn 300 calories in an hour... And that is if I'm doing moderate, sometimes vigorous (then the calories go up a bit) effort.

Is it nuts? O.o CC says it's like 600 calories or something...

Original Post by alisha_m:

I was told once by someone who has a masters in sports medicine that they are not very accurate, but are a nice guideline.  She said that it's way more important to measure your heart rate and stay within a reasonable range.  Here's a link I found that talks about elliptical calorie counters: http://www.allellipticals.com/elliptical-trai ner-calorie-burn.html

That's a pretty high heart rate.  I am 26 and my BMI says I am overweight.  I've been using the ellipticals at my gym for 10 months.  My heart rate is usually around 72 to 75.  Any higher than that and I get light-headed and sometimes dizzy. 

Here's a link to what your target heart rate should be: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml? identifier=4736  She told me that there are no benefits to excersizing above your target rate.  It does the same about of good for your body, but just leaves you even more exhausted.  Good luck!

edit: I meant 172-175

Oh FYI I'm only 23 so I think it's safe for me to have that high a heart rate. But, I have been thinking lately that I'd be better off working a bit easier and not exhausting myself so bad. I don't really like the feeling I get when my HR is that high anyway, I feel really out of breath and maybe a bit light headed too.

Yeah, I think your heart rate that high is okay there too - unless you have heart problems or something like that.  I agree that getting that out of breath and light-headed is bad.  If you get light-headed enough, you could loose your balance or pass out and really hurt yourself!  I used to push myself so hard on the elliptical - up to 179/180 - and I felt like crap when I was done.  If I'm feeling too tired around 172, I just go where I feel I'm pusing myself, but not too hard sometimes around 165 or so.  As long as you're excersizing, that's the important part, I think.  When she told me that there's really no benefit to pushing yourself that hard, I've never done it since.  Maybe it would be a good idea for you to get a good heart monitor - you never know if the one on your elliptical is not getting a good reading.

I have a cheaper elliptical at home, as well...got it from Walmart.

I have found that my calorie reading on that is way OVER what CC says. If I'm taking it easy, I can do 100 cals in 10 mins easily according to it. But when I come to log it and chose the light it gives a way lower number than my machine does....I kind of tend to split the difference a bit....or I'll enter moderate for part of the time.

But you say you've seen ppl say they had 400 in 30, so maybe mine is not that far off.....

Today I did 40 mins on the elliptical on level 8 (it goes to 10), and I logged it as moderate. I think CC estimated somewhere between 550-600 calories burned, but the machine (which takes your weight into account, but not heartrate) said 950 calories!!!!! What a difference.

I plan on getting a HRM for christmas, but what do you think is more accurate; the machine or CC?? I have been logging CC but if the machine is right than I am seriously undereating. Any advice???

I've noticed that it can vary greatly between machines. There's 2 different models of the same type of elliptical from the same manufacturer at the gym I go to. One's just an older model. The newer one goes up to level 25 while the older one only goes up to 20, so it seems that there's less of an increase in resistance with each level on the newer one. Anyway, the newer one will tell me I burn roughly 360 calories in a 1/2 hour at level 13, and the older one will seriously tell me that I burn around more than 500 in a 1/2 hour at level 11. That's just crazy. I'm more inclined to trust the newer model, as it also seems to be pretty on-par with other cardio machines when I'm putting forth the same amount of effort. What I usually do anyway to try to make sure I'm not overestimating my burn rate is deduct 5-15 minutes worth of calories burned from my total, depending on how long my cardio session is. I usually do about 75 minutes, and I'll log my calories burned as though I only did 65.

Does anyone use stepmills (the stairmaster that looks like an escalator)? I'm pretty stumped about how those things come to their estimates, because I've literally almost passed out on one while it was telling me I was only burning about 8 calories/minute (even though my heart was about to explode through my chest). Weird.

I'm working on my personal training certification right now and one of the things they mentioned at my workshop was the "calories burned" is very inaccurate and not to follow it...the heart rates monitors on the machines aren't that great either...oh yes and when you hold on and lean on the machines your burning fewer calories because your not doing the elliptical with your full body weight.

jj767-I LOVEEEE the stepmill! With the estimates...my HRM says I burn around 160 cals for 20 mins level6 in the "calorie burner plus" setting...the screen says around 180. A bit of advice for these...don't hang on them!!!! I don't even hold unless i feel like I need to then I lightly hold on...just like all the machines you will be doing the same amount of work but you will be burning less calories because you are moving less body weight..this goes along with energy expenditure using METS which is dependent upon bodyweight and you can calculate caloric expenditure as you burn 5kcal for 1L of oxygen...I won't show the calculations but I hope I didn't confuse you lol

Original Post by stevielyn:

I'm working on my personal training certification right now and one of the things they mentioned at my workshop was the "calories burned" is very inaccurate and not to follow it...the heart rates monitors on the machines aren't that great either...oh yes and when you hold on and lean on the machines your burning fewer calories because your not doing the elliptical with your full body weight.

jj767-I LOVEEEE the stepmill! With the estimates...my HRM says I burn around 160 cals for 20 mins level6 in the "calorie burner plus" setting...the screen says around 180. A bit of advice for these...don't hang on them!!!! I don't even hold unless i feel like I need to then I lightly hold on...just like all the machines you will be doing the same amount of work but you will be burning less calories because you are moving less body weight..this goes along with energy expenditure using METS which is dependent upon bodyweight and you can calculate caloric expenditure as you burn 5kcal for 1L of oxygen...I won't show the calculations but I hope I didn't confuse you lol

 When you say that you shouldnt hang onto the machines, do you mean that you shouldnt use the handles on the elliptical that move with your feet, or that you shouldnt hold onto machines like a treadmill?

keb1984-well...all exercises that involve you using moving your bodyweight, so yes to both...during weight-bearing exercise the amount of bodyweight determines the amount of work being performed because of resistive forces that must be overcome to perform the exercise. So any weight you alleviate by leaning on the handles or whatnot is not contributing to work against the resistive forces needed to do the stair master or to run whatever you are doing (you're doing less work).So if you take 30% of your bodyweight from your leg's resistive forces, the calories displayed on the machine are 30% higher than the actual number burned.... (when you enter your weight the machine converts it to kg and uses the time entered and intensity level to calculate METS and calories)

There are similar issues with non-weight bearing machines like the bikes. The MET value is selected by training level and based on a default RPM..if you chose a level that is too high, you compensate by peddling slower which in results negates the workload and most machines do not identify the change and do not recalculate the value.

Think about it simply..If the exercise becomes easier by 'cheating' then it must not burn the same calories as it would have if you didn't hold on. But most people acknowledge their work rate consistent with the data display, which is often an over-prediction.

I know that's a lot..hope I didn't confuse and hope it helps

Original Post by stevielyn:

keb1984-well...all exercises that involve you using moving your bodyweight, so yes to both...during weight-bearing exercise the amount of bodyweight determines the amount of work being performed because of resistive forces that must be overcome to perform the exercise. So any weight you alleviate by leaning on the handles or whatnot is not contributing to work against the resistive forces needed to do the stair master or to run whatever you are doing (you're doing less work).So if you take 30% of your bodyweight from your leg's resistive forces, the calories displayed on the machine are 30% higher than the actual number burned.... (when you enter your weight the machine converts it to kg and uses the time entered and intensity level to calculate METS and calories)

There are similar issues with non-weight bearing machines like the bikes. The MET value is selected by training level and based on a default RPM..if you chose a level that is too high, you compensate by peddling slower which in results negates the workload and most machines do not identify the change and do not recalculate the value.

Think about it simply..If the exercise becomes easier by 'cheating' then it must not burn the same calories as it would have if you didn't hold on. But most people acknowledge their work rate consistent with the data display, which is often an over-prediction.

I know that's a lot..hope I didn't confuse and hope it helps

 

 Thanks so much for the tips. Very appreciated. I always use CC's burn estimate which is always lower than the machines, but I want to get the most of my workout, so no more handlebars.

keb1984-no problemI wish I could tell everyone I see doing it because I know how hard they're working and they aren't getting the full benefits of the exercise!Good Luck!