Hrm and fitbit

Mia_RagazzaTosta

I would not waste your money on a fitbit. My husband and I both purchased them. The fitbits made "funny" little comments, which made it seem more like a toy than a serious exercise tool. Support said we could turn that off if we wanted. It tracked my steps, but not calories burned for doing things like strength training. We found it to track our calories burned while we slept, but one night I did not wear it and I still "burned calories." It is definitely NOT a hrm and does not say it is, but we just felt like it was more like a gimmick and didn't feel that we could trust its output.
We sent both of them back and demanded a full refund, which we received.

So because you didn't use it the way it was intended someone else shouldn't waste their money on it? And if you thought it would track your calories from weight training then you definitely were using it wrong. As for tracking during sleep.. it' supposed to do that even if you aren't wearing it... it is your TDEE so it estimates based on your activity.


I have both the Fitbit One and a Polar HRM and love them both. The Fitbit gets me moving (and helps me figure out my estimate daily calorie burn) and the HRM is for cardio activities.

This.

I love when people make a blanket statement on something sucking when they didn't even know how to use it.

schnarfo

DeCided to give it a go and ordered a flex!

rhonderoo

I use a Polar HRM and a Fitbit One, and I love them both. I like to track my HR when I do weights, even though I'm not getting as many "steps" in. I wear by One while I'm doing cardio and just let MFP tell me the calories I've burned. I probably should enter my cardio into my fitbit dashboard, but it gets confusing and I'm scared it will double count? :ohwell:

Shoechick5

We found it to track our calories burned while we slept, but one night I did not wear it and I still "burned calories."

Hilarious! do you actually think you stop burning calories when you sleep? you're not dead.

To the OP, I have both, Fitbit One all day and the HRM when I'm doing a new activitiy and want to know how much it burns. I had the HRM alone for about a year (polar FT4) and found it very useful. Loving my fitbit though and find it's quite accurate for the same activity as my HRM. Now that I have my Fitbit though, I'll probably get less use out of my HRM.

rjbkain

I think you are missing the point, which is HRMs might give decent estimates of calorie burn for cardiovascular training, but they fall short (as does every device for that matter) when it comes to weightlifting. Sure circuit training turns your strength training into a cardiovascular activity but even the manufacurer of these HRMs will tell you they are not intended to measure calorie burns for that type of activity.

What? So, HRM gives a decent estimate of calorie burn for cardiovascular training. Circuit training is cardiovascular training. But HRMs aren't good for circuit training? I fail to understand the logic.

heybales

I think you are missing the point, which is HRMs might give decent estimates of calorie burn for cardiovascular training, but they fall short (as does every device for that matter) when it comes to weightlifting. Sure circuit training turns your strength training into a cardiovascular activity but even the manufacurer of these HRMs will tell you they are not intended to measure calorie burns for that type of activity.

What? So, HRM gives a decent estimate of calorie burn for cardiovascular training. Circuit training is cardiovascular training. But HRMs aren't good for circuit training? I fail to understand the logic.

It's the steady-state nature of the cardio. HR stays within about 5 bpm range for 2-5 min in steady-state, where best estimate of calorie burn related to HR can occur.
Any type of lifting is as bad as intervals in regards to steady-state. If you used a Garmin and uploaded your data later, about the only time you'd find steady-state is if your rests were 5 min between sets, and maybe about 2 min would be at low end.

Many people will also hold their breath in the lifting part of the circuit training (as well as in lifting), for maintaining good form, whatever reason, just showing that breathing isn't even required during the actual lifting. Well, breathing and HR is the only connection to trying to calculate calories on HR when it's aerobic. Hold your breath, oxygen obviously not required, therefore anaerobic.

So while circuit training is half lifting half cardio, that just means it's a great calorie burner during the workout compared to lifting, but not nearly as good fat-burning post workout as lifting is, and it means the poor HRM formula's have terrible ability to estimate calorie burn.

Don't worry, there are many other reasons even those doing the best steady-state aerobic cardio can have terrible estimates too.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/773451-is-my-hrm-giving-me-incorrect-calorie-burn

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/459580-polar-hrm-calorie-burn-estimate-accuracy-study

rjbkain

Just saw this and would like to point out that you should never hold your breath when you're lifting! Exhale on the lift. Always! If people are holding their breath, they're doing it wrong!

heybales

Just saw this and would like to point out that you should never hold your breath when you're lifting! Exhale on the lift. Always! If people are holding their breath, they're doing it wrong!

Very very incorrect.

Squats and deadlift and many others where the back should be locked, you should hold your breath the entire time to maintain good form, until lockout or release or touching ground, ect.

Just review some youtube video's from experts on many of the lifts. if not specifically stated, you'll see them do it.