HOW MANY CALORIES
REALLY BURNING?
ARE
YOU
Do you ever use one of the machines at
the gym and wonder if the calorie
indicators are accurate? Like many of
you, I like to know exactly how many
calories I’m burning when I workout
(is it a salad’s worth? A chicken leg?
Ooooh, maybe a nice big piece of
chocolate!
) ……so I decided to do
something about it.
Enter my Polar FT60 Women’s Heart Rate Monitor, pictured at
right, a super high-quality heart rate monitor that
(allegedly) accurately indicates calories burned. I would like
to beleive it’s pretty darn accurate because it takes into
account your individual VO2 max — how well your body uses
oxygen — as well as your height, gender, weight, and age,
unlike most machines which only factor in weight and age.
So,
while
people
looked
at
me
a
little
strangely
(seriously…..you never saw anyone wear a heart rate monitor
and hop on 5 different machines during a workout while
constantly checking their wrist?), I tried several machines at
the gym and here is what I found, starting with the least
accurate to the most accurate machine:
PRECOR EFX ELLIPTICAL – I always loved this machine:
non-impact, not hard on the joints and you feel like
you’re getting a great workout. What’s not to love?
Well, the calorie indicator for one thing…..my Polar
FT60 indicated I burned 192 calories in a half hour; The
Precor EFX wants me to beleive I burned a whopping 274
calories. MACHINE OVERESTIMED CALORIES BURNED BY 164
CAL/HOUR.
LIFEFITNESS 9500 HR ELLIPTICAL (WITH ARMS) – Let me just
say that I hate this machine…..I know lots of people use
it at the gym and love it, but for me the biomechanics
just seem all wrong; plus it hurts my knees…..hmmm,
maybe it wasn’t designed for tall people? In any case,
my Polar FT60 indicated 270 calories burned in a half
hour; the Life fitness showed 321 calories. One more
reason this peice of equipment bugs me: MACHINE
OVERESTIMATED CALORIES BURNED BY 102 CAL/HOUR
STAIRMASTER STEPMILL 7000 PT – This giant staircase is
one tough workout, any way you look at it, so you will
burn lots of calories regardless of how inaccurate the
calorie indicator is. That being said, my Polar FT60
indicated 288 calories burned in a half hour; the
Stepmill showed 327 calories. Once again, the MACHINE
OVERESTIMATED CALORIES BURNED BY 78 CAL/HOUR
STAIRMASTER FREECLIMBER – Well, this classic stairmaster
may not be totally accurate, but at least you don’t have
to worry about going home and eating an extra 100
calories thinking you already burned it off at the gym
because in all likelihood you will have burned MORE. My
Polar FT60 indicated 282 calories burned in a half
hour;
the stepper indicated 258 calories.
In this
case, the MACHINE UNDERESTIMATED CALORIES BURNED BY 48
CAL/HOUR.
PRECOR TREADMILL – If you know anything about me, you
know that I will do almost any form of exercise – I
step, cycle, hike, cross country ski, hell I’ll freakin’
hoola hoop and zumba dance and generally make a
spectacle out of myself in the name of exercise, but I
don’t run. I just hate running with a passion, although
before anyone gets offended, I do respect runners
immensely! So why am I telling you this? First of all,
because I fast-paced walked on this thing on a moderate
incline; and second, I wanted to hate the calorie
indicator on the treadmill….but I couldn’t.
It was
definitely the most accurate – my Polar FT60 indicated
237 calories burned in a half hour; the
Treadmill
showed 219 calories.
MACHINE UNDERESTIMATED CALORIES
BURNED BY 36 CAL/HOUR.
Now, obviously, it’s not the exact numbers that matter, as
each person is different and will burn a different number of
calories based on all the factors mentioned above. That being
said, this gives you a good indication that you can’t rely on
most machines’ calorie indicators if you are keeping track of
calories in vs. out.
Hope you
“experiment” as much as I did!
enjoyed
this
little