Question about Cardio Machines

[leahjz]

Hi There,

I'm wondering how accurate cardio machines are when displaying calories burned?

I started going to the gym at my school about a month ago and doing cardio on the bike for an hour at a time. I would burn on average 700-800 calories. I found the bike easier than the eliptical (which is what I used to do), and I would burn more calories per minute. The machine did ask for my weight so I know it was calculated based on that.

They took the bikes out of the gym since then, and I have been trying to find a new routine. I tried the gym in the apartment building I live in, and the bike was much harder. The equipment in this gym is pretty old. I had it on the lowest level (it said I was burning 400 cal/hour) and I couldn't stand to do it longer than 10 minutes.

Ultimately, i'm just wondering if there are cardio activites that are easier to do for longer, or if the original bike workouts I was doing were giving me incorrect calorie information. It's frustrating going to the gym now and burning half the calories that I was on the old bike!

 

[maleficent]

I'm wondering how accurate cardio machines are when displaying calories burned?

they aren't...

and do spend some time reading around the forum -this isn't the first time this question has been asked

 

[leahjz]

Well thanks for the helpful reply... I guess only completely unique questions that have never been asked in the history of the forum are allowed, i'll note that for future reference!

 

[austin_88]

It's frustrating going to the gym now and burning half the calories that I was on the old bike!

But your not burning half!

The other calculator was wrong. You even said yourself that you feel like your doing more work on the elliptical than the bike - which is true. An elliptical burns far more calories than the bike.

You probably burn 400 calories per hour on the bike (in an outdoor setting, probably less at the gym).

What you should do is either track distance or time. Those calorie counters at the gym are usually wrong.

Or even how you feel? You should always be pushing yourself. To be honest its not that smart to think that you are burning more calories just cause the little screen says you are, if you aren't working very hard chances are you aren't doing that much, you are just fooling yourself.