calorie counters on treadmill

[neuby34]

my gym has the lifefitness treadmill's the newer kind wondering how accurate these are for seeing how many calories you burned during you run

 

[p60]

In general I would not abide by these.

It really depends on your current level of fitness but a lot of times they are programmed on the basis of what an average (out of shape) person would burn using them.

The more you do a certain exercise, the more your body adapts to it becoming more efficient,

thus for the average in shape fitness fellow these machines will usually overestimate the amount of calories you burn by a lot (since its programmed for an out of shape guy to be using the equipment), and aren't very reliable for usage.

 

[DanielBishop]

Yeah, too many variables, my friend.

I guess they've calculated how much calories the "avergae" person would burn by walking at that speed and incline. But average is a pretty loose term.

It gives you a very general idea, though.... if you're not sure whether you've burnt 10 or 1,000 calories, the treadmill will probably point you in the right direction.

 

[anthrax]

no it is not accurate

even the speed is not reliable

 

[DanielBishop]

No kidding.

There's two treadmills at my gym.... using the same incline, I can walk quite comfortably at 7.5km/h on one of them.... but at 4.5km/h on the other treadmill, after a few seconds I'm sprinting and then I get thrown off the end.

It's fucked.

 

[Vixi]

Intensity is more important than anything that calorie counter might say. If your treadmill workout is intense then your metabolism and calorie burning capacity will be elevated much longer through the day than those numbers indicated on the treadmill readout.

 

[javaguru]

I prefer to use time and perceived exertion over what the calorie counter/ speed indicator says. I saw a news special where they tested calorie expenditure in a lab vs what the machine said and they found them to be off between 15%-20%.

 

[=w=]

I still like to use them as estimates to make sure my overall calorie balance is in the general area of where I want it to be. However, they do overestimate expenditure. In order to partially remedy this inaccuracy I set the machine at a BW of 100lbs when in actuality I weigh around 170. All things equal a smaller body burns less calories then a larger one so it will give me an estimated caloric expenditure smaller then what it may have, had I used my true weight.