accuracy of calorie counters on exercise bikes?

[jhberria]

I've been doing some cardio work on my stationary bike for the past 3 weeks, in addition to cleaning up and limiting my diet. I've lost about 12 lbs so far and would like to continue to drop a little more wieght. I do around 35 minutes of fairly intense cylcing every night, 7 days a week, and according to the calorie counter on the display, I'm buring about 700 calories doing this. I was wondering if, traditionally, these counters are accurate? Or am I putting my faith into a flawed machine? Any help would be appreciated, thanks

 

[deschain]

http://http://training.fitness.com/personal-training/tredmil-calorie-counts-25469.html#post195771

 

[jhberria]

thanks for the response, but the link doesn't seem to be working for me? any other input?

 

[AmberJune01]

This is what that links says:

deschain
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Not very. There are a lot of variables that determine the caloric expenditure of an individual, and a piece of cardio equipment is not usually going to get it right.

Many will usually ask for your wt/ht/age to help determine, but keep in mind, the number is still just an estimate.

Rather than focus on caloric expenditure of your cardio workout, focus on duration and intensity (how long and how hard you work).

Think about how how long you worked out (duration), and your heartrate/sweating/ breathing heavier than normal - (can indicate intensity).

That is a better indication of the quality of your cardio session.

 

[jhberria]

makes sense, thanks for the help

 

[DivaInPink]

I was wondering the same thing about the treadmill. It says I I burned 400 calories after a hour of half jogging half incline walking. It does ask for my weight input but not my age. I get off the machine feeling pretty good about burning 400 calories but was not sure if that was truthful or not.

 

[theGOOCH]

I have a Schwinn 418 Elliptical. After an hour on a high level (13 of 16) with rpms in the mid 50s which keeps my HR about 140 it says I burned over 2000 calories. Is that even possible?

 

[dougp25]

I have a Schwinn 418 Elliptical. After an hour on a high level (13 of 16) with rpms in the mid 50s which keeps my HR about 140 it says I burned over 2000 calories. Is that even possible?

Not likely. But wouldn't that be awesome! To burn a full day's worth of calories in just an hour!

 

[theGOOCH]

Not likely. But wouldn't that be awesome! To burn a full day's worth of calories in just an hour!

Not a day's worth of my calories!