I’ve been wondering how accurate those calorie monitors are on the machines (elliptical and treadmill) as I’ve been using the data to plug into MyFitnessPal to monitor my calorie budget. My husband said that lots of those machines will not take into account your age, gender and weight, and are typically based on a 150 lb male. So, naturally I was curious what the correction was… am I burning more or less than I think? I know that I could just purchase a simple heart rate monitor, but it seemed logical to me that I could just monitor my own heart rate and do the math. I did a simple search and found a useful link on Livestrong.com that answered my question, with some surprises.
It turns out that if you are a women, you can calculate the calories you have burned by using this simple formula (with references to the Mayo Clinic and the Journal of Sports Sciences):
Calories Burned = [(Age x 0.074) -- (Weight x 0.05741) + (Heart Rate x 0.4472) -- 20.4022] x Time / 4.184
If you are a male, you use this formula:
Calories Burned = [(Age x 0.2017) -- (Weight x 0.09036) + (Heart Rate x 0.6309) -- 55.0969] x Time / 4.184
So, the results? Well, during my workout this morning on the elliptical, I monitored my heart rate regularly and on average it was around 160 – sometimes higher, sometimes lower. The machine I use is nice as it gives your overall average at the end of the workout in the event that you weren’t paying attention. When I plugged in my data to the formula, I had some surprises! The machine told me I burned 309 calories… but the formula told me that I burned MORE! 339 calories. This was a surprise indeed. However, I think that the numbers are close enough for me to assume that the elliptical machine I am using (True Fitness) is giving me a fairly accurate data output, and even allotting me a little wiggle room in case I slip on a devilish snack later in the day :)
If you try this, please let us know how your results turn out! I look forward to trying this formula out again tomorrow on the Treadmill I’ve been using.
To access the Livestrong article, click here: : http://www.livestrong.com/article/221621-formula-for-calories-burned-during-exercise/#ixzz2KWQN52q8
Considering this information, now take a look at the infographic below. Is this information accurate for you?
