No surprise: Cardio machines overestimate your calorie burn
March 11, 2010 · Filed Under Reviews
It may not come as a huge surprise that treadmills, elliptical trainers and other fitness machines overestimate the number of calories burned. But you might raise your eyebrows at the margin of error — especially if you’re relying on a machine’s calorie counter for your weight-loss strategy. According to a recent segment on Good Morning America, treadmills and stair steppers overestimate by about 12% each. That might not make a huge difference if you’re only walking for a mile or so. But it starts to add up. If you’re walking for an hour and the machine says you’ve burned 450 calories, you’ve really burned 400. But even that isn’t too bad compared to elliptical trainers, which in the GMA study proved off by a whopping 42%.
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