No HRM?

shellfab

If you do not have a HRM, how do you count your exercise calories? I am seriously considering not eating them back at all until I can get a FitBit. I only try to eat 50% right now, but stuck in my loss.

queenliz99

If you are eating back 50% of your calorie burns and you are not losing then you are eating at maintenance or you are overestimating your calorie burns. I would look at your intake maybe it is inaccurate or eat back only 25% of your calories.

brianpperkins

HRMs are not calorie counters. Their calorie estimates are just that, estimates ... and for many activities completely inaccurate. They are neither designed nor programmed to accurately estimate caloric burn from lifting, yoga, low intensity activities such as normal walking, intervals, dancing, etc.

The Fitbits with HR built in have not tested well during exercise. Inaccurate readings and lags in catching up to changes in HR are the most common flaws noted in tests. They are all day activity trackers where the trendline is more important than the step count which is about +/- 5 to 10% under ideal circumstances.

sheldonklein

MFP gives you burn estimates. They're overstated, but a starting point.

GaleHawkins

dcrainmaker.com/2015/02/garmin-hrm-details.html

This is a good overview of how HRM's work. They are cool tools for the geek minded without question. As @brianpperkins points out they do not count calories but they estimate calories. Actually that is the case for all the tools out there including MFP numbers. That is true for my Health-O-Meter scales that estimates of my fat%, hydration, BMI and the daily calories I need to eat to reach a weight goal and for how long.

While we can never know our actual calorie requirements that we need to eat or how many we actually burn the scales that we step on from time to time WILL tell us the NET results of our eating and exercising.

At 64 I have learned the folly of using exercise to lose fat because from time to time doing exercise just is NOT going to be an option for most all people. Now just walking a quarter mile a day can be awesome exercise to build stamina and increase life span and is a great starting place for some of us.

Yes the electronics be it wearables or larger are cool tools yet the lowly set of body scales will give us the net results of our eating and exercise including factors beyond CICO limitations.

mwyvr

If were not a runner with a "let's see how far I can push myself" attitude, I wouldn't have invested in GPS/HRM tool.

The only activities I use the tool for is running and heads down vigorous cycling, and I'm not relying on the HRM functionality to count calories but am using HR data in real time to improve training effectiveness, not to mention real time pace and other metrics.

Don't waste your money buying a HRM for something it wasn't designed to do: count calories.

KittensMaster

HRM are over rated

I used to use one all the time. It overestimated calorie burns all the time

I eat back about 1/3 of exercise credit calories MFP gives and call it good

Been losing weight steadily at that method

An HRM is great for hitting s target heart rate, but aside of jogging or cycling it isn't a good calorie counter

And for cycling I use a formula off a cycling website.

shellfab

Thanks for all the info. That is disappointing.

jemhh

I just use the MFP exercise database. If I did an exercise that wasn't in it, I'd use another source from online.

mwyvr

shellfab wrote: »

Thanks for all the info. That is disappointing.

Don't be disappointed - you unlike thousands of others at least won't buy a HR monitor with the mistaken impression that it's good for calorie counting.

brianpperkins

HRMs have their uses. Calorie counting is not one of them.

middlehaitch

Never bothered with an HRM or fit it type calorie/ step counter.

I used to just eat back 50%. But last year I started losing, in maintenance, so worked out from my calories consumed vs weight lost what my average cal burn for a 60 min class was. I was doing 3 different ones at the time as well as weights, that is why it is an average. I didn't count the weight sessions in my calorie burn.
( I am smallish and older so my calorie burn is usually a lot less than any site posts)

You really don't need one. But I have heard they can be useful for steady state cardio.

Cheers, h.

Sued0nim

I used to do MFP exercise database - eat back half

For the last year I've done fitbit zip to step count and adjust my activity level (I don't like the HRM ones and nobody has convinced me they're not just a marketer's dream for those who don't understand HRMs to buy into...see Brian Perkin's post)

And used my HRM for specific workouts but as I do a mixture of steady-state cardio, HIIT, weights and calisthenics I take 50-75% of those burns

But I know because I monitor my calories against my weight on rolling 6-8 week basis ..if I'm losing too much I eat more and too little I eat less but I'm aiming for maintenance and I'm pretty stable with what I'm doing now which is shaving 100 or so off my HRM burn

MeanderingMammal

shellfab wrote: »

Thanks for all the info. That is disappointing.

The fact that you find you don't need something you don't have is disappointing seems odd to me.

An HRM is a tool, if it's used appropriately it's useful, if it's used inappropriately then it will give inaccurate information.

You'll see lots of posts from people using an HRM and claiming it works for them. Then later you see that what they're doing is taking the HRM figure, applying some random corrections to them to give an arbitrary calorie expenditure, and then tweaking according to their progress anyway.

Just cut out all the random numbers. HRMs are not some kind of panacea.

shellfab

Not disappointing that I don't need it, just disappointing that they don't work.

editorgrrl

shellfab wrote: »

If you do not have a HRM, how do you count your exercise calories? I am seriously considering not eating them back at all until I can get a FitBit. I only try to eat 50% right now, but stuck in my loss.

Activity trackers like Fitbit calculate your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. Depending on how long you've been plateaued, you may have already found your TDEE.

shellfab

I ate my absolute minimum yesterday and lost 2 lbs from yesterday to today. I don't think I should do that when I exercise, but I just want a more accurate exercise total. My minimum is 1200. I am small (5'3 and under 150.) I think I may have been overrating because of MFP exercise total. I have maintained for two weeks.

editorgrrl

shellfab wrote: »

I ate my absolute minimum yesterday and lost 2 lbs from yesterday to today.

My minimum is 1200. I am small (5'3 and under 150.)

I have maintained for two weeks.

Weight loss is not linear. Some weeks you do everything right but maintain—or even gain. Others you lose a whole lot in a "whoosh." 2 lbs. in one day is water weight fluctuations.

The less you have to lose, the more slowly it comes off. That's just the way the human body works. Set your gal to .5 lb. for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

The only way to gauge the accuracy of any burns is to trust them for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

In the meantime, learn to log everything you eat & drink accurately & honestly. Logging is simple, but it ain't easy. Logging works.

MeanderingMammal

shellfab wrote: »

Not disappointing that I don't need it, just disappointing that they don't work.

Oh they work, if you use them how they're designed and recognise that you're trying to measure something that's inherently not easy to measure.

I'd also make the same observation about fitness trackers like a Fitbit, despite the uncritical preaching that's endemic on here about how good they are. They can provide some useful insight, as long as you recognise the weaknesses. They're not going to be meaningful for some types of people. As an example I saw a checkout operator wearing one at the supermarket yesterday. She'll have counted lots of steps passing items over the barcode scanner. Equally my own will have under-read wen I was pushing the trolley.

Horses for courses...

Mezzie1024

The only reason I ever used a HRM was to track my heart rate while running. I was interested in seeing improvement in how quickly my heart rate dropped once I stopped running and started walking. It was neat to see the numbers, but how hard I was breathing was just as accurate a measure, it turned out. It never even crossed my mind to use it to track calories, though now that I participate on the boards, I see that's a common use.

I do just fine tracking my calories with MFP's estimates. Lots of people prefer to only record 50-75% of the reported burn. Do whatever gets you your desired results.