Silly question

sherrik10

I got a polar loop for Christmas and love it! My question is about calories. It tells me that I burn quiet a few by not doing anything or very little. How does that fit in with total calories burned (for example when you exercise you may burn 500 calories depending on the type of workout you do). I'm a little confused about this (and hope I haven't confused anyone else)!

47Jacqueline

I'm not sure what you're asking. I use my Jawbone tracker to log steps, but an HRM to measure calories burned in a workout because the tracker registers far more and isn't as accurate. I used to log my workouts with the tracker until I realized I was getting an inflated count.

Kevalicious99

Don't worry .. zillions of people have the same question. It is your BMR (basal metabolic rate) .. cause your body burns calories just by existing. It is based on your statistics. It will add more for your actual exercise it detects, and that is the number you are seeing. Google it if you need to, but BMR is what you would burn if you did absolutely nothing ..

On and unlike people here believe (there is some sort of "they are perfect aura" about HRM's here at MFP, which is very wrong). A HRM can very much over estimate your calorie burns and often do. I tend to use about 60% of the number.

sherrik10

Thanks Kev. I think I understand. You can actually burn calories by "doing nothing" but would burn the right calories if you were exercising. Is that right?