Calories burned...machine vs. FitDay question

[Jace]

I have a question for all your avid gym goers.

I just started going to the gym at the Y and had my first experience with the stationary bicycle. This particular machine had a "calories burned" counter on it. After I had finished, the calories burned read "370" after half an hour with a distance of 10.8 miles.

However, when I input my information into FitDay, it reads 607 calories burned. Which should I believe?

~Far la bella figura!

[Brook]

Neither.

Your best bet is to wear a heart rate monitor that lets you enter in age/sex/height/weight - and even that is a rough guesstimate.

I've read that gym machines over-estimate by 15% or more. I don't know where Fitday gets its numbers from either.

All of it is a guess as it's a very basic formula that doesn't take your body composition into account at all, but an HR monitor is the one I trust the most (and I don't trust that one either. LOL)

Clear as mud?!

[liv]

I am not sure what you entered in fitday but in my fitday entering under biking (biking more than 20 miles an hour for half an hour) comes out to 396

[Jace]

Originally Posted by Brook

Neither.

Your best bet is to wear a heart rate monitor that lets you enter in age/sex/height/weight - and even that is a rough guesstimate.

I've read that gym machines over-estimate by 15% or more. I don't know where Fitday gets its numbers from either.

All of it is a guess as it's a very basic formula that doesn't take your body composition into account at all, but an HR monitor is the one I trust the most (and I don't trust that one either. LOL)

Thanks for the info! I figured the answer wouldn't be an easy one lol FitDay seemed far too high and I was concerned that the machine didn't take any vital stats into consideration when calculating calories burned. If I'm going to keep at this, I suppose the Heart Rate monitor would be a better judge!

Originally Posted by liv

I am not sure what you entered in fitday but in my fitday entering under biking (biking more than 20 miles an hour for half an hour) comes out to 396

I'm putting the same thing in my FitDay and it comes out over 600...perhaps their formula takes gender/age/height/weight into account when calculating? Whether it does or not, 600 seems awfully high.