Elliptical Confusion

I use a Life Fitness Elliptical machine during my lunch hour at work and I am confused on the calorie count.  Today, according to the elliptical, I did 2.7 miles in my 35 min and kept my heart rate between 165 and 171, which is high intensity, the entire 35 min and it calculated my calories burned at 310.  I use 2 different websites to calculate my food and activites.  This site says that a high intensity elliptical workout is 877 calories an hour which would put me at 480 calories for 35 min, while the other site I put in my heart rate and the mileage and it came out to 406 calories.  This makes so sense when compared to the  310 the machine calculated.  I am not sure whethe to trust the machines because we have 7 ellipticals in the gym and I have had some tell me that my heart rate is 185 and then the next day get on a different one and I can barely keep up 165 so I don't know whats right. Can someone give me some insight on this.  Did I burn 310 or 410??  That a huge difference.

does the machine ask your stats? wieght age and/ or gender, ect? if it does- count on that, if not id just use the site you trust the most, as long as the site calculates the activity for your stats, not just a general calorie burn. if i have a dilema like that i use an average between what i find. sometimes i use the lower guess just to be safe

I would suggest getting a heart monitor that counts your calories and stores the information about your workouts.  I looove my Polar heart rate monitor.  I use the elliptical also and my calories actually burned are always different from what the machine tells me.  I usually burn MORE calories according to my heart monitor.  I don't trust the accuracy of the machines.

Yes, the machine asks for for age and weight.  The livestrong.com site lets me input my heart and mileage to get more accurate calories burned.  I still think 310 calories for 35 is great so either way is okay with me.   

Even with adding in your weight and height, it doesn't have your exact heart rate constantly like a heart moniter does and even if you place your hand on the bars the entire time, its not always entirely accurate because you can move your hand or not have it in the right position and it will affect your calories burned. I really suggest a heart moniter. i LOVE my polar watch and i'd say 99% of the time I burn more calories than the machine says and I can put an exact number of calories burned rather than trying to guesstimate with websites! for example I have a treadmill at home and I walked for one hour with hill intervals and according my treadmill i burned 405 calories however according to my polar heart montier i burned 517 calories!

Original Post by vtomlin13:

Yes, the machine asks for for age and weight.  The livestrong.com site lets me input my heart and mileage to get more accurate calories burned.  I still think 310 calories for 35 is great so either way is okay with me.   

I use a life fitness machine at work too. Elleptical. It can read my Polar HRM and the elliptical calories burned is WAY off. Today the machine told me I burned 750 calories in 50 minutes, when my HRM told me 480... I'm 25, 120 pounds, and my heart rate averaged 177.

So take what the machine says with a grain of salt, and at least reduce the calories it says by 1/3. The one I use asks Age, Weight, Time on Manual Mode and then keeps track of your heart rate from the handles. I'm pretty sure the machines are similar.

Ya?

But I do suggest getting a Polar F6 if you're into seeing how many calories you burned during a cardio workout. I don't know why I went without for so long! Plus it's SO motivational.

I use the Elliptical machine regularly at high intensity. Like yours, it asks for my stats and like you, it tells me that I'm burning around 300 calories in 20 minutes. When I enter the time into the CC activity database it tells me that my 20 minutes are worth half that. I go with the CC numbers. I figure that best case, I have a bonus deficit at the end of the day and worse case the CC numbers are closer to reality but at least this way I don't go OVER my burn for the day.

If you really want to know your calories, you need to wear a heart monitor.