So you’ve just spent an hour on the elliptical, and the number on the screen tells you that you’ve burned 685 calories. Do you believe it? How did it get that number?
Your elliptical got that number by having a great deal of of people to workout on a elliptical (all sizes, and genders), then used that to estimate the amount of calories were required to do the effort. Then they got an average over the sample and put that average into the elliptical, which spits out a number based on how much you weigh and how fast the drums of the machine were turning. This being said, the numbers are not really accurate, they are based on the average.
Some questions I would like to ask are, do they weigh what we weigh? Did they have their hands on the hand rails, are they moving hand railings or did they pump their arms? Do you have the same ratio of fat to muscle? Did you work as hard per minute? These are all good questions because that would help us be more accurate when determining the calorie expenditure.
Now talking about the other favorite machine, which would be the treadmill. This also can give you a false output for calories burned. On average, most people burn about 100 calories per mile walked or ran, elliptical can be up in the air since they are all different and have different strides. If your cardio machine’s calorie count registers way more than this, then err on the side of calorie caution when planning your meals for the rest of the day. In general, all machines and online calculators offer estimates of calories burned, so never take them as fact. A better and more accurate way to estimate your calories burned for any workout is to invest in a good heart rate monitor that estimates calories burned based on your actual workout intensity. I love my Garmin, VivoFit. I have had many other makers but they always have died on me within a year.
The more we think we exercise, the more we eat. So don’t let the number on that treadmill or elliptical fool you. I have heard this many times, “I exercised so I deserve this_________.” Which is one of the most dangerous thoughts you can have if you are trying to lose weight. So all in all, don’t trust the calorie counter on the machines, and pay attention on how hard you are working out, making sure you change up your workouts because with change you will change your body, and really dial in the nutrition. Just remember if the calories burn on the machine says you burned 600 calories in 30 minutes, it’s wrong. If you have been wondering why your weight has stalled, change up your workouts and start throwing (not literally) some weights around, and track your food with that you will soon notice a change in your body.
In conclusion, what I want you to remember don’t use exercise to cancel out a bad diet, keep nutrition in check as your first priority and if you are really focused on the numbers I recommend getting a heart rate monitor watch to track how hard YOUR body is working.