---
title: 'The BEST and WORST Cardio for Fat Loss (SURPRISE!)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=QPtmGRsWMo4'
video_id: 'QPtmGRsWMo4'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 602
---

# The BEST and WORST Cardio for Fat Loss (SURPRISE!)

> Source: [The BEST and WORST Cardio for Fat Loss (SURPRISE!)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QPtmGRsWMo4)

## Summary

Gym cardio machines often display inaccurate calorie burns, overestimating by up to 42% due to assumptions like a standard 154-pound user and including resting energy. The video explains how machines calculate calories, why they inflate numbers, and how user form further reduces actual burn. It ranks machines by accuracy and offers practical tips to get better results.

### Key Points

- **How Machines Calculate Calories** [1:46] — Cardio machines often calculate calorie burn based on a standard 154-pound person using MET (metabolic equivalent). If you weigh less, you burn fewer calories than shown; if you weigh more, you burn more.
- **Inflation by Including REE** [2:46] — Many machines intentionally include resting energy expenditure (REE) in the displayed calorie count, inflating the number by ~100 calories per session to make the machine seem more effective.
- **Posture Reduces Burn by 50%** [3:43] — Leaning on handles or poor posture can reduce actual calorie burn by up to 50% because less body weight is being moved.
- **Short Steps Lower Efficiency** [4:30] — Short, choppy steps reduce range of motion and work done, leading to lower calorie burn compared to full hip extension.
- **Accuracy of Cardio Machines** [5:36] — Accuracy ranking: Stationary bike (~7% over), stairmaster (12%), treadmill (13–20%), elliptical (up to 42% over).
- **130-Calorie Error Adds Up** [6:50] — A 30-minute elliptical session can overestimate calorie burn by 130 calories daily, leading to ~14 lbs weight gain per year if eaten back.
- **Best Alternatives for Burn** [7:47] — Air bike, rowing machine, and ski erg burn 20–25 calories per minute and involve upper body, making them more effective alternatives.
- **Practical Fixes** [8:33] — Use breathlessness to gauge effort, input body weight if possible, or simply divide the machine's number by half to avoid overeating.

## Transcript

You burned 463 calories.
You burned 641 calories.
You look so handsome.
>> Yes, you. You sexy beast. That beard is
ravishing.
>> So, I got some bad news for you. This
machine right here is lying to you. But
it's not just this one. So is this one
and this one and even this one. You see
guys, if you're using a treadmill or any
cardio machine right now to determine
the amount of calories you're burning to
help you in your goal to lose more
weight, you're not getting the right
math. The number of calories that you're
burning are just not accurate. It's time
for the truth. But the first truth that
needs to be told is if you're using your
cardio as a way to create your caloric
deficit to lose weight, you're making a
big mistake because you're never going
to be able to outrun a bad diet. We talk
about it all the time. Even just one
slip up in a meal is enough to erase an
hour's worth of effort at the gym. You
need to make sure that when you're
trying to lose weight, your efforts are
focused first and foremost on cleaning
up the foods that you're eating right
now. Make your caloric cuts there and
use the additional cardio to supplement
those efforts. and that's when the real
results will happen. So, the first thing
you have to be on the lookout for is how
these things are actually asking you for
the information because if they're not
asking you for your weight directly,
then they're not giving you an accurate
result. Because we know that cardio
machines need to know how much you
weigh. A heavier person has to work
harder to move their body through space
and therefore can burn more calories
whereas somebody that's lighter is going
to burn less calories for the same
activity. Well, what happens with these
cardio machines is they calculate that
calorie burn based off of something
called a MET, me, which is a metabolic
equivalent. And essentially, one MET is
the value of you sitting on the couch
doing nothing. The calories that you
would burn by literally just sitting
down watching TV. And anything you did
that increased your activity beyond that
is going to be some multiple of that
number. So, if you went for a jog, you
could have, let's say, a three or four
met burn, which is three or four times
harder than sitting on your ass. That
being said, it's always calculated by
one body weight number, usually 154
pounds. So, if you don't weigh 154
pounds, you're not getting an accurate
calorie output read back to you. If you
weigh less than that, then you're
actually overestimating how many
calories you burn. And if you weigh more
than that, you're actually maybe
underestimating by a little bit. But
don't worry, there's a lot of other ways
that these machines are screwing you.
I'm going to show you those, too.
>> Wait, isn't this your towel? H.
>> Oh, that's disgusting. And one of them
is by actually maybe fudging the math
intentionally. You see, a lot of times
the number that you read in terms of the
caloric burn is based on including
something called the RE or the resting
energy expenditure, the calories that
you would burn normally at rest. So,
let's say you're on the treadmill and it
tells you that you burned 420 calories.
Well, what if it's also including the
fact that you would have burned 100
calories if you did nothing at all?
Well, that's just inflating the overall
number. you only burn 320 extra
calories. You're already likely using
that number in your base calculation to
determine how many calories you need to
burn during the day. It's just not fair.
So, you might be asking yourself, why
would they do such a thing? Well, maybe
to make you think, this machine is
amazing, and I would love to do all my
workouts on this machine. And a matter
of fact, I might want to buy one of
these and put it in my house because it
makes me feel good about the number of
calories I'm burning. Just throwing it
out there. But let's not just blame the
machines entirely. Because if you're
doing what I'm doing right now, you're
screwing yourself. If you've ever ridden
a bike leaning this way, your posture is
creating less caloric burn. How? Because
you're doing less work. Leaning on the
machine, unweing some of your body
weight is costing yourself some
calories. Amazingly, so up to 50% less
than what you thought you were burning.
And that causes problems. You could do
it even on a treadmill. You've probably
seen it a million times or done it
yourself. You hold on with your hands or
worse, you lean forward or even on a
stairmaster. Any attempt at all to try
to unweight any of your body weight is a
good indication that you're actually
looking for a way out. If you're going
to do your cardio, make sure you stand
up straight and do so with good posture.
You're going to get a lot closer to the
number that you actually thought you
were burning in terms of calories. Can I
ask you a question? If you ever do a
bicep curl, do you think you get better
results doing this or actually taking it
through a full range of motion all the
way down and all the way up? Well, it
should come as no surprise the form
range of motion is better. But then why
are you doing this when you're doing
cardio? You're cutting your range of
motion short often. For instance, if you
use a stairmaster or in this case a step
mill, allow us to take the option of
taking short choppy steps. We don't
drive the step all the way down through
full hip extension. What that means is
less work being done. And for you, less
work means less calories and less
calories means less weight loss. And
look at even your choices like the
elliptical machine. It's locking you
into an abbreviated range of motion. You
can't extend your leg further back even
if you wanted to. And then even this,
I'm sure you've seen people who stand up
while they're pedaling on a bike. Now,
this is not just some fancy Pelaton
trick. It's increasing the range of
motion. You're getting more hip
extension, also unaweing your body.
Remember, the more of your body weight
that you're bearing during the exercise
you're doing, the more calories you're
burning and therefore getting better
bang for your buck. So remember, if it
feels easier, often times it is easier.
Instead, look to make it harder.
Increase that range of motion. And with
that increased range of motion and work
done, you're going to find better
overall success from your time spent in
the gym. All right. So, if all these
cardio machines are lying to you, are
there at least some that are lying to
you less? And the answer is yes. And it
starts with the stationary bike. It's
the most accurate, overestimating by
only about 7%. And the reason for this
is often times the way that we calculate
the calories burned here is through
mathematical formulations and based off
of power output. In other words, watts.
And we do that and we combine it with
our body weight, which most of these
machines will ask for, we get a much
more accurate judgment. However, next up
on the list is going to be the
stairmaster. Here, we're looking at
about a 12% overestimation on the number
of calories that you burn. But you got
to make sure once again that you're not
leaning on that machine, like I said,
and that you're taking those nice long
full range of motion steps. Next one up
down the list in terms of accuracy is
going to be the treadmill, which really
isn't such good news because so many
people use this machine. And the problem
here is twofold. Number one, the
accuracy is now off by 13 to up to 20%.
And even if you do what I told you and
keep your hands off the handrails,
sometimes you're still fighting a losing
battle here because the calibration of
the machine is a requirement to maintain
its accuracy. And most gyms just don't
calibrate the machines often enough. So
that's something you can't even do
anything about. And then finally, the
most inaccurate of them all is the
elliptical machine. Sometimes off by as
much as 42%, mostly due to the fact that
the range of motion varies greatly
between even different models. Now, to
put this all into real world
perspective, imagine this. If you spent
30 minutes on an elliptical machine, you
might be overestimating the number of
calories burned by 130. Now, think about
that. If you're trying to create your
overall deficit for the day, and you
think you burned 130 calories more than
you did, therefore, you can eat more
food, you're kind of setting yourself up
for disaster. Extrapolate this out for
the entire year. If you were to take 130
calories in extra over your baseline
rate every single day, that's a 14 lb
weight gain by the end of the year.
Let's face it, we need to figure this
out. Or do we really? Because there's a
few things you can do right now that are
actually going to just nullify the
inaccuracy of these machines and still
help you to get back on track in terms
of your weight loss. And the first thing
is just to choose a different machine
because there's some that are just way
better at burning a lot more calories.
So even if they're off, you're still be
burning a lot more than you are right
now. And the main key here is to
integrate one that has working arm
movement. Not just going along for the
ride like on an elliptical, but actually
working and working hard. And one of the
easiest ways to do this is with an air
bike. You could burn about 20 to 25
calories for every single minute that
you're on this. The other option is to
use a rowing machine. Again, resisted
upper body movement as well as lower
body movement here. Obviously, when you
use these guys, you know how much more
difficult they are. The difficulty is
going to be a dead giveaway in terms of
the effectiveness of the exercise. And
finally, you could use something like
this ski erometer or the ski erg. The
point is you have alternatives to the
standard cardio options that are
ultimately going to do a better job of
helping you burn calories. Yeah, I know
they're not the most pleasant, but at
the end of the day, what matters is the
work that you do. And the more work you
do, the more calories you burn and
ultimately the more weight you'll lose.
So, you got to consider it. But even if
you decide that you just want to stick
to the machine you're using right now,
but want to find ways to make it more
accurate, what can you do? Well, the
first thing, as I mentioned, is to try
to find one that at least allows you to
input your body weight. Because when you
do, you're going to have an infinitely
closer accuracy when it comes to the
number of calories burned. But the other
thing I like to just recommend is throw
a towel over it and stop looking at the
calories. Instead, go off of your
respiratory rate. The more difficult it
is for you to carry on a conversation
during exercise, the more indicative it
is of the amount of effort you're
putting forth. So, aim for more
breathlessness. In other words, whatever
cardio machine you're using right now,
if you're more breathless the next time
you use it, you're likely working harder
and therefore increasing your calorie
burn. Or make it easier for yourself and
do what I advise my athletes to do.
Simply take the output that the machine
gives you and divide it in half and use
that to calculate your intake amounts
for the day. Oh, and by the way, don't
rely on the wearable devices to try to
improve your reporting on your calorie
output. They're actually not much more
helpful. As a matter of fact, the best
of them has shown only a 20% inaccuracy
with the worst one being actually 96%
inaccurate. Yeah, even a blind squirrel
finds an acorn once in a while. So
remember, if you're looking to lose
weight and cardio is part of your
equation here, at least make sure you're
getting the right numbers back. In the
meantime, if you're looking for more
proof that trying to outrun a bad diet
is a bad idea, you're going to want to
watch this video right here.
>> No, not that video.
>> That video right there. If you're
looking for a complete program, you can
find it over at athletics.com. If you
haven't done so, click subscribe. Turn
your notifications so you never miss a
new video when we put one out.
>> Oh, Jeff, can I tell you a lie?
>> Sure.
>> You're the best boss ever.
>> You're so funny, Jesse. I think I love
you.