I'm wondering how accurate the elliptical and treadmill machines are at counting the calories spent while working out when you input your weight.

Is there a better way to determine how many calories we burn?

How do you calculate how many calories you use during workouts?

Is there a better way to determine how many calories we burn?

How do you calculate how many calories you use during workouts?

Heart rate monitor - I use a Polar Wearlink + that talks to an app on my smartphone which displays current heart rate, calories burned, avg calories burned per min, and other stats.

From what I've seen, all the machines way over estimate calories burned. A good HR monitor is your best bet.

Yep, I'm pretty sure most, if not all, over estimate as well. Some probably way over estimate in my opinion.

I agree that the machines overestimate, but not nearly as much as My Fitness Pal does!

I have a bodymedia fit and they claim they are 90% accurate. I find the machines are lower than the bodymedia fit says, but that is for me at a really high weight right now. If I was at a goal weight it might be the other way around.

I have yet to see that these numbers are as low as they should be. They all seem to overestimate.