Disparity in calorie burn estimate (Machine v Fitbit)

[DragonRider83]

Hi,

Today I did 20 minutes on the elliptical machine at the gym, at level 3. I entered my weight (150lb) before I started and by the end it told me I'd burned 94 calories. I was a bit disappointed it was that low, since it was a real effort and I was hot, tired and sweaty, but initially I figured it knew better than I did.

However, when my Fitbit Charge updated to show the workout (and it also knows my details - accurate height, weight, etc) it says that I burned 200 calories.

I know that no machine or app can ever be completely accurate, but that's a 100 calorie disparity which is quite a lot. Which is more likely to be accurate? I do usually eat back some of my exercise calories, as I use Nutracheck and am on quite a low basic allowance (around 1300) which I find very difficult to stick to, but obviously I want to be careful not to eat back too many, so as to stay in a good deficit every day. So can anyone shed any light on why there's such a difference in estimate between the machine and my Fitbit and which is more likely to be correct?

Thanks in advance!

[YachatsMike]

I usually trust machine calorie counts more than Fitbit because Fitbit undercounts the first 5 minutes or so as your heart comes up to speed.  That said, that 94 from the elliptical seems pretty low.   A really vigorous effort for me usually burns 10 - 12 calories per minute.

When I track an exercise I set the watch to track laps based on 5 minute lengths.  When I'm done I look at it in the Fitbit app for better than 50 calories per lap.  I correct the calorie count for the first interval to the average of the rest to make up for the early undercount.

[karlang]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for sharing your insights! It’s interesting to hear how you adjust the counts based on your experience. I get what you mean about the machines sometimes feeling off, especially during intense workouts. I guess it makes sense to average out those first few minutes since they can be deceptive.