Estimating calories with the Jawbone UP3

emilyrtanner

I frequently take studio exercise classes such as Pure Barre, Barre3, pilates, and yoga. Since these classes can vary so greatly in intensity depending on the instructor, the method, or just my general energy that day, I bought the Jawbone Up3 to assist in measuring calories burned. It was my understanding that because it has a heart rate monitor, it would be able to more closely estimate calories burned.

So I wear it this morning during barre class and I was going as hard as possible, hoping to max out calories burned. When I open the app, it turns out it hasn't been tracking my heart rate during exercise at all. I had to manually choose an activity (I selected pilates, which is close as barre as they offer) and how intense I felt it was. Told me I burned 386 calories "based on published MET values.

Is this for real??? Obviously this has no basis in my personal effort at all. I feel like I was duped. I am sure knowing my resting and passive heart rate can be helpful, but if it has the technology to do that, how can it not measure during exercise?

Any recommendations for alternatives that actually use heart rate for the purposes of tracking calories would be greatly appreciated!