Logging in workouts

misspecanrican
misspecanrican Posts: 14 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
When I do strength training and log an hour in MFP it shows maybe 200 calories. I wore my polar FT4 watch today and it had me at 600 calories burned. What have any of you done in this situation? Should I just adjust the time until the calories burned matches?

Replies

  • alyssagb1
    alyssagb1 Posts: 353 Member
    If you're strength training (lifting weights etc) I wouldn't log the calories from a heart rate monitor. Your heart rate will go up/down too much to give a decent estimate of calorie burn. Not to be mean, but I highly doubt there was a 600 calorie burn with an hour of strength training. Also, when you log strength training it normally doesn't show calorie burn (IF you use the add strength training option - not the cardio option). It would be easier on the eyes (seeing high burns in your log) to manipulate the time to match the calorie burn reading, but in the long run its not the best idea, as it's not accurate.

    I have a polar ft4 as well, but use it strictly for steady state cardio -running, running in place or high impact aerobics (those being my only options atm)


    Good luck!
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    edited January 2016
    HRM are not accurate for strength training. Yes, your HR is elevated and you do burn calories but it is not that same as doing cardio, which HRMs calorie estimations are based on.
    http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=you_asked_how_accurate_is_my_heart_rate_monitor_for_strength_training

    600 is a HUGE calorie burn for an hour, even for high intensity cardio constantly for the whole hour. Strength training will not burn that much for sure.

    I always used MFP's suggestion, which was also right around 200 calories per hour, and lost weight accordingly.
    For me, 200 was enough to give me some extra food but not high enough that if it was inflated, it would severely impact my calorie deficit.
    In other words, I'd go with MFP's number.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Heart rate monitors are designed for steady state cardio. Those are the only workouts I would trust with it.

    Strength training is so hard to estimate calories burned. So many factors involved (that have nothing to do with heart rate).

    I would take the lower number, test it out awhile. If weight loss slows, then it's still too high.

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