Nation,
I was wondering your opinions on the accuracy of caloric expenditures on various pieces of aerobic equipment. For example, if I plug in my demographics on a treadmill vs. lifecylce vs. elliptical trainer vs. concept II rower etc…, is one more accurate in calories burned than another. I know this has probably been proposed before but, I’m all in a tizzy and need to get my little ones to the soccer field(Goldberg), before meeting the girls for watercress sandwiches and white wine spritzers. Mmm.
Thank you,
Kyle
Cardio equipment often uses American College of Sports Medicine formulas to estimate the number of calories burned. Generally, the machines come within 10 percent of the true figure.
I don’t know that one machine is definitely more accurate at this computation than another.
WTF?
your heart rate is much more important to momnitor.
are you a little one playing soccer goldie 
Mr. J. Floyd,
Guess I’ll have to spoon feed this reference to you. Dooch thread,12/19/03, 6:52 PM.
Thank you,
Kyle
I have almost 2000 posts on this site and you expect me to remember every little thing ive ever said. ha. and thanks for proving my point. Your question is the perfect example. Have fun eating your tea and crumpets or whatever it is that soccer moms do.
Tea and crumpets? More like juice boxes and fruit roll ups! LOL
I ignore the calorie burned readout entirely. Yeah, it could be accurate. But 200 calories busting ass on a treadmill vs. 200 calories burned on an elliptical trainer feel very different to me.
I’m not sure what your fitness goals are, but don’t be distracted by the gadgetry in the gym. Like P-Dog said, heart rate would probably be more valuable to measure.
Well if you insist, you can buy a heart rate watch (like the Polar I’ve got), and it’ll show you both HR and burnt calories - with much more accuracy than all the aerobic instruments (whose calorie count are based on average formulas and not on your HR & physical data). Anyway I’ll second what the folks here say - counting the burnt calories surely ain’t that important (to the point you’d want real accuracy).