Fridays are always tough days to sneak in a workout. But this Friday I managed to get on over to the AFC with just enough time to spare before the weekend escapes began. So I hopped on an elliptical and BAM! In just 30 minutes I had supposedly blasted off 600 calories! And just like that I beamed with satisfaction, ended my cardio workout for the day and scrambled off into the sunset.
But is it true? Can it be that in just 30 minutes one cardio could blast away all the evenings’ double rails and late night pizza before it even happened? The answer is probably not. According to Dr. John Porcari from the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse, calorie counters on fitness machines can be as much as 25 to 30 percent over or under your actual burn rate. This is because there are a ton of factors that go into how many calories you burn. And while entering you age and weight helps, there are still a bunch of other assumptions the machine makes about the ‘average’ user that can produce error in that magic little calorie readout. For instance, one of the biggest determinants is muscle mass. A 125 pound girl with 20 percent muscle mass will burn less calories than a 125 pound girl with 30 percent muscle mass for the same workout intensity and duration. Also, don’t forget, average takes into account height, sex, muscle mass, workout style, etc. So although the calculations are all based on science, the variations and assumptions that must be made are what give the false reading.
Even though the little meter can be a big fat liar about what calories we’re actually burning, there are a few ways you can make sure you’re getting the workout you think you are.
- Enter a body weight lower than your actual weight.The crappy thing about weight loss is as you start to weigh less, you start to burn less calories too. So fudging a little bit on your weight will give an underestimate of the amount of calories you’re burning.
- Switch it up. Don’t stick to the same machine all the time. You want to utilize different muscles and different motions to force your body to work harder, strengthen a variety of different muscles and ultimately burn more calories.
- Add on an extra five minutes.Once you’ve reached your calorie goal for your workout, go an extra five minutes, but don’t count these calories into how many you’ve burned. This will hopefully make up for overestimations in calories burned and if not, the worst-case scenario is that you’ve burned a few more calories.
- Don’t lean on the machine.Sounds silly, but true. Bearing weight on the machine handles alters the workout intended by the manufacturer causing you to actually burn less calories. Stick to the handles for balance only.
- Focus on you.Another tip is to focus on intensity rather than the calorie number. Analyzing whether your workout is consistent or you are increasing your intensity can help you be more successful in your workouts than basing success off calorie read out.
- Compare and contrast. You know how many calories you burn on the elliptical in a typical workout. So the next time you hop on a similar machine, make sure you’re either meeting this goal or exceeding it. That may be a better way to make sure you’re getting the workout you intend.
The truth hurts sometimes. Wouldn’t we all love a magic machine that could blast away an entire day’s worth of calories in just 45 minutes? But since we have yet to find one of these, just stay aware. Use the counter as a guide, bust stick to monitoring your workouts based on intensity and your body’s response and you’ll be on the right track.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/heart/9909/07/cardiomachine.accuracy/index.html
http://www.livestrong.com/article/407186-are-exercise-machines-accurate/