How acurate are calorie counters on cardio machines?

Question:

Answer: Not too accurate at all. The machines use your heart rate to estimate oxygen intake. Oxygen intake is an excellent measure of calories burned, but heart rate depends on your level of conditioning, as well as your age, weight, etc. So even if you enter all the parameters, your true calorie usage can vary wildly from what the machines predict. Just imagine two people, same height, weight and age doing exactly the same exercise on adjacent machines. But one is a smoker with emphysema and his heart rate shoots thru the roof as he tries to keep up with the other. Still they are burning exactly the same calories because they are doing the same work. However, for a given person, the machine can be useful for comparing today's calories burned with yesterday's. Even so, it is not a good comparison over extended time, because your heart rate depends so heavily on your level of conditioning and changing your level of conditioning is what you are there for. In a sense, you can almost use the calorie burned number as a measure of your conditioning for the same exercise. When it gives you a lower number for the same exercise, you know you are in better shape.

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