exercise calorie discrepancy

stripedsocks

Full Member
Good morning all! :)

I have an elliptical cross-trainer at home which i'm wondering about... it has a little digi box thing for time, distance, cals burnt etc. I quite often do 30 mins at a time at full pelt, and yet it says i've only burnt 120ish calories. When i've looked at MFP it estimates 284 for 30 mins of elliptical trainer, and when i've googled i'm coming up with about 60 cals for 10 mins. I can't believe that I am burning as few cals as it tells me when in other exercise I burn so many at half the intensity!

What should I believe?? :-/

(I know a heart rate monitor is the answer here, but looking for an alternative answer as I can't afford one!)

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Yup, gotta be HRM lol I got mine last month from Llyod's Pharmacy - only £12.99! OK, I'm sure all the polars and Garmins 'do' more, but for basic CC, mine works just dandy :)

Do you input your weight/height/age into your machine? If not, I'd go more with MFP x
 
No there's nowhere to input any stats on there. Does a HRM tell you how many cals you've burned or do you have to work it out yourself? I may have to buy a very basic one at the start of the month....

Does anyone know if MFP works out the cals burned by taking your weight etc into consideration, or is it just a bog standard figure? Because for example, I at 139lbs would burn a lot less during half an hour of running than someone weighing 239, right?!

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Most HRM will need your body weight height age etc loading in then they use your actual heart rate to work out the cal burn. They are generally pretty accurate from what I hear? But you need to wear The chest band :)

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I could really do with buying a HRM...what model does everyone else have? I havn't got a clue about how many i'm burning, it's total guesswork from how much i sweat...i could easily be over/under estimating things which will probably affect my losses.
 
I could really do with buying a HRM...what model does everyone else have? I havn't got a clue about how many i'm burning, it's total guesswork from how much i sweat...i could easily be over/under estimating things which will probably affect my losses.

I'd be interested to know what HRM people have too, especially those whose have chosen the erm, budget end of the market which is where I shall be looking!
 
I bought mine for £20 from Tesco and it works great!
 
MFP works out your exercise cals based on your height, weight, sex etc. Most people who buy heart rate monitors say MFP is pretty acurate... I think... or correct me if I'm wrong...
 
I have a Polar FT4, it's wonderful! Sadly, it came with a M-XL strap instead of an XS-M strap, so the strap is going to need replacing very soon >< So if you order one, bear in mind that the straps can be one of two sizes - I didn't know this!
 
They canna come much cheaper than mine, at £12.99, and I LOVE it. I don't think I'd go toooo far wrong if I followed MFP estimates, but it can be quite surprising that sometimes I burn ALOT more than it expects, and other times, a good bit lower. But I daresay you wouldn't go too far wrong. But it's FUN to have your own, proper HRM :) - or is that just me being a total saddo!? lol
 
Well mine was a cheapski one off amazon lol only paid a few quid as I wanted to check what zumba came in at :) it's good for the exercises that have 'effort' levels on MFP lol coz my 'moderate' effort may be another persons high or low effort!! An before that I was going by sweat patch size to estimate it haha!!

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Oh but don't do what a mom at school does!! She wears it 24 hrs a day an 'alots' herself a calorie goal based on yesterday's total burn!! I think she has issues.......

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Legomom said:
Oh but don't do what a mom at school does!! She wears it 24 hrs a day an 'alots' herself a calorie goal based on yesterday's total burn!! I think she has issues.......

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Haha. I'm sure some of the weirdest people are be mums in the playground. Maybe they think I'm weird. And it's super daddy cycling trouser season, don't know where to look! Wish they'd get some baggy shorts it's not good when the face doesn't match the package! Anyhoo!
 
I've really wanted a heart monitor, especially for when it get to maintenance (woo!). Did you get it off the lloyds site or walk into a shop an get one?
 
I got mine from the lloyds web site.Only took 2 days to arrive :)
 
I'll get one ordered tonight - thanks for the recommendation. Where would I be without you all, eh? haha!
 
Yay, glad you went for it! Were they still £12.99? I bought mine in my local Lloyds - far too impatient to wait :p
 
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