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I am wondering how accurate exercise machines are at counting calories burned. I realize it is not an exact read, but is there any doubt in using the read on the treadmill to determine how many calories you have burned?

My personal trainer refers to the calorie counter on the machine when explaining the benefits of different techniques, so I guess it is at least relatively accurate.

He does however tell me to totally forget those little charts the machines have stuck to them.

Yeah. The heart rate carts are bogus. I mean, they are valid for beginners who should be mindful about their heart.

Anyone else? I swear none of my RJ posts show up. The man mustn't like me...

The Heart rate 220-age/70 are meaningless. If I followed them I could sing Opera BADLY when I was at 70%. I find on some cardio machines they do not let you get into the 80% range. When I do those ones I put in I am 35 not 50. otherwise I do not break a sweat

they are about as good as sticking a finger in the air unless you truly define yourself as an average man whatever that maybe

And tskkkkk what ya doing!!!!! Just eat less and work those muscles harder dont wanna see ya lose all the added beef!

I read a study not too long ago about how accurate exercise machine calorie counters are and it mentioned they could be off as much as 15% variance... if I can find the article, I'll be glad to post the link here.

I know that they don't tell you the EXACT amt of cals that you're burning
but they are a good rule of thumb just on the energy output you're doing

Me being a beginner and all I dunno if they are faulty, but they probably do give a good estimate. I prefer seeing the amount of power I generated...

If the treadmill has a true watt-meter like most exercise bikes, then the power output is directly couple with calorie expenditure.

Short answer is yes, power meters are accurate calorie counters.