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Are Calorie Counters of Treadmills, Stair-master & Stationary Bikes Correct?

Treadmills are the most used cardio machines at any gym. Treadmills are also found at many homes as compared to other work out machines. Even the gym trainers love to do exercise on the treadmill. This machine is used by everyone who is in cardio and want to lose their weight.

I reckon that you already know what a treadmill is, but if you don’t, you better go check out our article where we present a comparison between Treadmills and Stairmasters.

Treadmill is widely used around the world because they are the best cardio machine and best to burn your calories. And there is even a calorie counter on even every machine. Suppose you are working on the treadmill for about 20 minutes, and you look down to the machine and see that you have burned 300 calories, and it makes you happy…

but also makes you question,

Is this machine is showing the correct reading or not?

So, in this article, we will tell you that is the reading on the treadmill is right or wrong.

Other machines have calorie counter built in them so, we will also take a look at them.

Without any delay, let’s start.

How accurate is the Treadmill’s Calories Counter Reading?

Nowadays, all the treadmill is coming up with the calorie counter built on the treadmill. So, does it show you the right readings? It is a piece of excellent news for the treadmill user, experts say that most of the treadmill calories counter are  almost correct. 

If a treadmill asks you to enter your weight, then it is best and will show you the most accurate results. Because the machine is calculating the calories, burn by knowing your weight and knowing the speed of the treadmill and the time you spend running on it. And the most crucial factor is that you should leave your hand free don’t hold up to handrails if you want to know the correct reading from the machine. By knowing all of these factors, the treadmill can calculate the best and most accurate result.

If the treadmill does not ask for your weight, then it has a default weight of 155lbs set up in it.

Suppose if your weight is 135lbs, then it will give you reading with 15 percentage of error. That’s means that if your machine is showing you then reading of 300 burn calories, then the actual reading will be about 255 calories.

And now of you are grabbing on the handrails of the treadmill, then readings will be up to  40 % wrong.  Suppose if the machine shows you the burnt calories of 300 than the actual reading would be about 180 calories. So, if you want to know the exact number of calories burnt, then please buy or use a machine that has a feature to ask your weight before let you start your exercise.

There are a number of affordable treadmills available online. But if you want to buy the best one out there, you can check out some of these expensive treadmills under $1000.

So, almost many of the treadmill shows you the accurate reading, but the 0ld treadmill with less feature would have up to 30% of chances to tell you the wrong readings.

PRO TIP
To burn more calories, make sure that you should not grab on the handrails of the treadmill. And try to keep in a good posture to keep the back pain away.

“Slumping over can have a major impact on your oxygen intake, making your workout harder,” Cardiello

If you’re the person who enjoys running outside, not on the treadmill, then let me tell you that running outdoor is more difficult as compared to running on the treadmill. Treadmill keeps you away from the joints injury and lets you run longer as compare to running outside under the sky.

Calories Counter on other machines

There are a lot of other cardio machines as they also have calories on them so are, they right like a treadmill or not. Now let us study some of the most common cardio machines available in the gym

Stair Stepper or Stair-Master

As the counter on the treadmill, the calorie counter on the stair stepper is also correct (especially in the latest version), but there are some things to notice when you are using stair stepper, or otherwise, the reading will be ineffective.

You must have seen that some people use stair master while leaning forward and running, this is a thing which can make the reading wrong because your body would be burning fewer calories when you are leaning forward as compare to the reading on the stair stepper.

Stationary Bikes

Stationary bikes are also loved by many people. There are sperate from other cardio machines. If a stationary bike is calculating calories based on technical data such as MET’s, watt, and power output, then it will show you the most accurate reading of burnt calories as compared to other cardio machines.

Burning more calories involve increasing the intensity and start cycling the bike in the climbing position as compared to a sitting position. If you work out for 15 minutes in the climbing position, then it will burn 15% more calories as compared to the one who is in a sitting position and is riding the bike.

PRO TIP
Try to use every cardio machine in the gym mainly because they are made to prove beneficial for different areas of your body and can help you get in a lean shape real quick.

Benefits of Treadmill

Now you have known about the calorie counter on the treadmill so, now let talk about the benefits of the treadmill and how it can affect your cardio training and can improve your lifestyle.

1- Weight loss

Weight loss using treadmills

  •  If you plan to reduce your weight at home without going to the gym and want to buy a treadmill for yourself, then it is the right and first step toward fitness and for losing calories.
  • For losing weight, you need to burn more calories per day than normal people and eat less after exercise. We discussed above how you can burn more calories. Work intensity is the essential thing in losing weight, as you train more intensively, you burn more calories, leading to weight loss.
Generally, it is said if you eat 500 fewer calories than needed, you can lose 0.5kg in a week. (For men, 2000 calories per day are needed, so you will have to take only 1500 per day)

Source: healthline.com

The treadmill is a safe place to exercise. When you are running outside under the sky, then there is more pressure on your joints and knees due to the friction. But you are running on the treadmill then there are fewer chances of a knee injury. There is no such friction and wind pressure on your body so, your body can run freely without any danger of getting hurt,

3- Cardiovascular Muscles

cardio vascular muscles benefit of cross trainer

Cardiovascular muscles grow stronger if you run more every day. While the slope of your heart rate increases, which is useful for cardiovascular muscles. Normally a person's heart rate increases slowly so that they have to increase the speed of the machine, which is not good for the patient for weekly joints and knees.

4- Best for Burning Calories

The treadmill can prove to be your best friend if you want to burn more calories, but not every person burns the same calories as the others. Here are some factors on which the burning of calories depends.

  • Think everyone knows this, the more intensive your workout, the more calories you burn. Intensive training makes the heart pump faster, and the lungs also start working more quickly, so you burn more calories.
  • I have discussed the slope from the beginning of the article. So, the more slope you have, the more calories you burn. Read more about treadmill incline and its benefits.
  • You hold the treadmill's handrails, you will lose calories because the bar also carries part of your weight on the machine/treadmill, so your body's movement is not free, and you burn fewer calories.

Conclusion

So, in this article, we have learned about the calorie counter on the cardio machine, and the result was that they almost count correct if you are doing the exercise in the right position or at the right angle. Please let me know your thoughts on this article.

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