Calories Burned Discrepancy with HRM

krepanie

I have the Crane heart rate monitor chest strap from Aldi. Nothing fancy, on the low end expense-wise. I have been using this to calculate my calorie burn during workouts. Today I used it for the 20 minute Turbo Jam workout with it connected to both the Crane Connect app and the MapMyRun app (only because it works with MMR and syncs with MFP). By the time I finished the workout the Crane app showed I had burned 180 calories with an average heart rate of 75 (85 max), the MMR app showed that I had burned 300 calories (no HR avg provided).

These two numbers are SO different. I know for a fact that my heart rate did not average 75, or max at 85. However, I am hesitant to use the 300 numbers. Any feedback on why they would be SO different? I ended up just logging whatever MFP had for kickboxing for 20 minutes, which turned out to be right in the middle of the two.

mperrott2205

Here's the truth: HRMs are useless and don't really offer you much if you're an average user looking to lose a bit of weight.

Don't worry about it. As long as your calorie limit is good, you're working out consistently and thoroughly you will lose weight. Don't be put off by some fancy watch.

heybales

In the case of an iffy brand that is probably using research study formula's to calculate calorie burn (which could be alright) but doing it poorly - I'd trust MMR better.

Actually, the formula for calorie burn for running and walking is more accurate than the best HRM with default settings anyway.
As long as the weight is right.

The problem is - those formula's only apply to walking and running, and I'm wondering if MMR even used the HR data to estimate calorie burn.
And your workout wasn't walking or running.

I'd just manually log calisthenics in the database for the actual time - don't include warm-up and cool-down and stretching time.

Then you can use the HRM for what it was actually designed for - to monitor your HR.

It should improve over time, like doing equal intensity for that workout, HR should lower.
Or you can go higher intensity with the same HR.