Heart Rate Monitors- Only good for Running, Ellipitcal and bike?

raven56706

So i want to count some of my exercise calories but on here i keep being told that it wouldnt be good.

I have a polar chest strap H7 and i want to begin counting my Insanity calories. I was told in a different post that its pointless to do it. So does that mean that it will only count if you use it on machines or running and such?

IsaackGMOON

They're relatively accurate for steady rate cardio... I did use mine for Insanity and still lost weight consistently so I think you'll be fine if you eat back 75% of the calories burnt. 6

KittensMaster

They do tell you your heart rate.

For non steady state activities the calorie burns get goofy

But if you want to do deadlifts then jumping jacks to keep your heart rate up, it will help you do that.

I used to use mine to do that.

jacksonpt

"pointless" is probably overstating things a bit, but yes... their accuracy can be iffy depending what exactly you're doing.

But in the bigger picture, having a consistent way to estimate cals burned can be very helpful. There is no great way to estimate cals burned, but relying on one method is probably better than using multiple methods.

ScubaSteve1962

You can take advice from the non experts here who usually pull up some article 4 to 5 years old to prove their point. Or you can use your device for what it was intended for, to monitor your heart rate. When I use my HRM for strength training, it gives me the calorie burn, but doesn't count them because they are about the same as my BMR. Look at your chart on Polar flow, if you had a steady state heart rate during that training period count it, but if it's basic then probably wouldn't count it, everyone can give their opinion, but only you know the intensity of your workouts. People say running or steady state cardio, but if I have a steady heart rate that's only 50% of my max, while walking on the treadmill or elliptical, that's really a basic heart rate, . But at 80% is a steady state. If possible, use the profile that goes best with the activity that you are doing. I eat what I want to, and usually come in well under my calorie count from MFP I never attempt to eat calories back just because.

kami3006

Just take it with a grain of salt and eat back 50-75% and adjust as needed. Since it relies on estimating oxygen usage in aerobic states, I wouldn't use it for any anaerobic activities.

strangesoul79

I can say I used/use one when doing any of the cardio like Insanity. It seemed to work out to be fairly right as my first time around 2 yrs ago I lost 40 lbs in 4 months and logged everything. I am looking to get a new one here soon as the one I have likes to fight me to often to check my heart rate. I say use it man.

MeanderingMammal

raven56706 wrote: »

...and i want to begin counting my Insanity calories.

So using an HRM to estimate calories for something like Insanity will give an overinflated number. Calorie expenditure is a function of mass and distance, so using HR as a proxy for that depends on working in a way that using that proxy is meaningful and has a consistent relationship with what you're trying to estimate.

HRM derived calorie estimates s are based on research done using treadmills, cycling and rowing ergometers. The algorithms are going to be reasonably reliable for situations that are close to replicating those; steady state, aerobic range effort.

What causes the overestimation is transitions in effort, and HR being in a range where the relationship between HR and calorie expenditure breaks down; too low or too high.

So for something like insanity you're going to have lots of transitions, some periods where HR is too low to be meaningful, and some periods where its too high to be meaningful.

Noting the point upthread about consistency, I wouldn't even say that an HRM for something like Insanity would be consistently inconsistent.

What you frequently see on here is people wrapping themselves in knots to compensate, by eating back some random percentage of what the HRM tells them. If you're going to do that, just use the MFP calculation.

dlm7507

My resting heart rate when I wake up is in the low 50s (this morning 49). A couple minutes after I finished my workout (today, body weight calisthenics on rings) it was about 100 which is OK for a 65 year old man.

Low tech, no attempt to game it. It's too easy to obsess on numbers. I just go as hard as I can while keeping it repeatable for the long term. Took me years to figure that out. My next workout (I alternate) is kettlebells and sandbag. That will keep my heart rate up too. Since muscle loss comes with age, I kill two birds with one stone; strength training that has be breathing hard for about a half hour.

I think that this is all something that we don't need to overthink or buy gadgets for. My target weight loss is 2 lbs/wk and I've been maintaining it for 5 1/2 weeks since I started food logging (actually 14 lbs in 40 days). You are either getting the results you want or you are doing something wrong.