Does this sound about right?

candacefausset

So we've been having dance parties with our kids in order to up the fun factor of getting some extra activity in. I had been logging it as dancing- modern/twist which was giving me somewhere around 200 calories burned for a 20 minute session on most calorie calculators. Well my husband recently got me a HRM and it has good reviews but it clocked me in at 409 calories burned for a 30 minute session today. I will totally take it if it is accurate but it got me thinking and I am curious if anyone else has had similar results and can confirm this could be accurate. I am 5'6", and currently weigh 207 and lead a fairly sedentary lifestyle. Up until a couple weeks ago, I had been inactive over the past year to the point of often laying in bed every moment that I wasn't attending to our children. I was suffering from some bad depression and laying around and sitting all day made me very weak. I am changing my sedentary ways every bit that I can- started running even. But I want to be accurate on logging my exercise so that I don't mess up on my diary.

I should also add that at point in our dancing sessions, I pick up one of the kiddos (weights are 30 and 20 pounds) and swing them around/carry them/dance with them often. We aren't doing any specific dance but we get really goofy and I do big movements that will entertain the kids while I get my calorie burn. Don't know if that makes a difference.

oncem0re

Your HRM should be accurate... I logged all of my work out using my HRM but I dont know for sure if it supports "dancing", I guess if your heart fluctuates while doing it that it will be accurate? so don't quote me on this.

I used to date a DJ back in the days and I will sweat my butt of dancing even for 30 minutes so... I supposed 400 maybe accurate. I work out daily and usually burn 10 calories per minute... so maybe if in doubt average it out? good luck!

grimendale

HRMs are only really good for steady state cardio. For other things, it can over-predict calorie burn. Something like dancing, with a lot of stops and starts, could be anaerobic depending on how you do it. I'd probably take the lower of the two numbers, were it me.