Need help understanding my Polarm400 metrics!
Myjourney2345
Posts: 116 Member
I recently stated tracking my heart rate during workouts. I am an avid cyclist and take spin classes at Flywheel. I was shocked to find out that I only burn 360 calories for a 45 minute session! Even though my "total power" score and the estimated calories burned according to Flywheel is around 1000. I get that it is impossible to burn that many calories, given my height (5'4.5), weight (143.2) and overall fairly good fitness level, but is there anything I can do to increase the calorie burn? Could the Polarm400 heart rate monitor not reporting accurate metrics? It just seems so awfully low and I am not sure what else I can do.
Also, if I am able to sustain a higher heart rate for a prolonged period of time does it mean that I am in good shape? Is my goal to increase the time spent in zone 4?
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Replies
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You don't say how heavy and tall you are. This has quite an influence on calorie burn, but 360 does sound quite realistic to be honest. I mean, it's just a 45 minute session. Another source of error: How did you determine your maximum heart rate? if you just used the 220-age equation then it might very well be off as this equation only works for a rather small number of people. Your maximum heart rate might be lower, and thus it appears like you're not giving everything.0
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Hi there, I wrote that I am 5'4.5, now 142.4 pounds and I am 27.0
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Sorry, I didn't see that. So how did you determine your heart rate zones? Did your spinning class ever do a maxHR session? But yes, for your size and weight 360 does looks quite realistic. Sorry.0
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I never got my max heart rate tested, but after reading your post I went ahead and updated the maximum heart rate settings on my watch to 183 (220- 88% of 27). Would my calorie burn change since my max heart rate is lower? I believe that now my heart rate zones should be a lot different and I should be working out within the top two heart rate zones (zones 4 & 5).0
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360 seems right for 45 min on a bike. The 1000 seems way way off. Sounds like flywheel or whatever is just trying to motivate you by vastly overestimating.0
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Updated my maximum heart rate settings. *0
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MultipleHigh5s wrote: »360 seems right for 45 min on a bike. The 1000 seems way way off. Sounds like flywheel or whatever is just trying to motivate you by vastly overestimating.
That is so disappointing and misleading! I wonder if my calorie burn will be any different now that I've updated my maximum heart rate.
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MultipleHigh5s wrote: »360 seems right for 45 min on a bike. The 1000 seems way way off. Sounds like flywheel or whatever is just trying to motivate you by vastly overestimating.
That is so disappointing and misleading! I wonder if my calorie burn will be any different now that I've updated my maximum heart rate.
Yeah, unfortunately that happens. I take Les Mills classes at my gym and they (Les Mills) like to claim that you can burn 700+ calories in Body Attack classes, and 600+ in BodyPump. I use a Polar M400 as well and I've never burned anywhere near that. It would be nice, though, righr? *sigh*0 -
I think you should double check that all your personal data entered into your watch is up to date and accurate.
While 1000 cals for the session is not likely at all, 360 cals seems rather low given the intensity of the session even factoring in you are light.
And yes, your ability to work for longer periods of time close to or at threshold does mean you are getting fitter. Your numbers are pretty sweet (well, other than the calorie burn
) 0 -
The first thing that jumped out at me on the machine reading is that the average speed did not match the distance so I ran your numbers through https://www.hss.edu/EstimatedEnergyExpenditure.pdf
Using the stationary bike (vigorous effort) and subtracting your bmr from the website MET, I came up with 487 calories burned. Not as impressive as the machine represented but definitely more (35%?) than the polar was allowing you. For reference, your weight is 65.09 kg (if you want to check my calculations)
ETA: I would also tend to distrust the speed and distance readings as these are above Tour De France time trial speeds. It may be time for your gym to get these recalibrated0 -
I think you should double check that all your personal data entered into your watch is up to date and accurate.
While 1000 cals for the session is not likely at all, 360 cals seems rather low given the intensity of the session even factoring in you are light.
And yes, your ability to work for longer periods of time close to or at threshold does mean you are getting fitter. Your numbers are pretty sweet (well, other than the calorie burn )
O yes, I double checked my data and even updated my weight ( I lost .8 pounds this week, yay!). I also went ahead and updated my estimated max heart rate (183 it was previously at 220). I took a pretty intense bootcamp class today and my stats were pretty good ( see attached)
. I am coming to terms with the fact that the lighter I get the less calories I will burn during a workout.
I will be taking another spin class tomorrow and I will update you if my calorie burned changed now that my max heart rate has been modified.
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The first thing that jumped out at me on the machine reading is that the average speed did not match the distance so I ran your numbers through https://www.hss.edu/EstimatedEnergyExpenditure.pdf
Using the stationary bike (vigorous effort) and subtracting your bmr from the website MET, I came up with 487 calories burned. Not as impressive as the machine represented but definitely more (35%?) than the polar was allowing you. For reference, your weight is 65.09 kg (if you want to check my calculations)
ETA: I would also tend to distrust the speed and distance readings as these are above Tour De France time trial speeds. It may be time for your gym to get these recalibrated
Thank you so much for this! I gave it some thought and if I don't see a difference in calories burned now that I have modified my maximum heart rate I will still go by what my HR is telling me. I'd rather underestimate my calorie burn, than overestimate. As for this gym, I decided to move to another boutique fitness studio, since this spin studio provides the most inaccurate metrics. I found out that the estimated calories burned are based on the weight180 pound man ( a spin instructor that used to teach there confirmed this).0 -
I think you should double check that all your personal data entered into your watch is up to date and accurate.
While 1000 cals for the session is not likely at all, 360 cals seems rather low given the intensity of the session even factoring in you are light.
And yes, your ability to work for longer periods of time close to or at threshold does mean you are getting fitter. Your numbers are pretty sweet (well, other than the calorie burn )
O yes, I double checked my data and even updated my weight ( I lost .8 pounds this week, yay!). I also went ahead and updated my estimated max heart rate (183 it was previously at 220). I took a pretty intense bootcamp class today and my stats were pretty good ( see attached)
. I am coming to terms with the fact that the lighter I get the less calories I will burn during a workout.
I will be taking another spin class tomorrow and I will update you if my calorie burned changed now that my max heart rate has been modified.
Top banana.
Incidentally, your max HR clearly isn't 183 when you recorded a 187 in today's class...
There's a couple of ways to could go about establishing what a better number for your actually is but for ease of reference I would set it at around 190 and the periodically check your data to see if you record anything higher.0 -
I think you should double check that all your personal data entered into your watch is up to date and accurate.
While 1000 cals for the session is not likely at all, 360 cals seems rather low given the intensity of the session even factoring in you are light.
And yes, your ability to work for longer periods of time close to or at threshold does mean you are getting fitter. Your numbers are pretty sweet (well, other than the calorie burn )
O yes, I double checked my data and even updated my weight ( I lost .8 pounds this week, yay!). I also went ahead and updated my estimated max heart rate (183 it was previously at 220). I took a pretty intense bootcamp class today and my stats were pretty good ( see attached)
. I am coming to terms with the fact that the lighter I get the less calories I will burn during a workout.
I will be taking another spin class tomorrow and I will update you if my calorie burned changed now that my max heart rate has been modified.
Top banana.
Incidentally, your max HR clearly isn't 183 when you recorded a 187 in today's class...
There's a couple of ways to could go about establishing what a better number for your actually is but for ease of reference I would set it at around 190 and the periodically check your data to see if you record anything higher.
Awesome, I modified my max heart rate to 190. Should I get my max heart rate professionally tested? Or what other methods are there to find out a more accurate max heart rate?0 -
I think you should double check that all your personal data entered into your watch is up to date and accurate.
While 1000 cals for the session is not likely at all, 360 cals seems rather low given the intensity of the session even factoring in you are light.
And yes, your ability to work for longer periods of time close to or at threshold does mean you are getting fitter. Your numbers are pretty sweet (well, other than the calorie burn )
O yes, I double checked my data and even updated my weight ( I lost .8 pounds this week, yay!). I also went ahead and updated my estimated max heart rate (183 it was previously at 220). I took a pretty intense bootcamp class today and my stats were pretty good ( see attached)
. I am coming to terms with the fact that the lighter I get the less calories I will burn during a workout.
I will be taking another spin class tomorrow and I will update you if my calorie burned changed now that my max heart rate has been modified.
Top banana.
Incidentally, your max HR clearly isn't 183 when you recorded a 187 in today's class...
There's a couple of ways to could go about establishing what a better number for your actually is but for ease of reference I would set it at around 190 and the periodically check your data to see if you record anything higher.
Awesome, I modified my max heart rate to 190. Should I get my max heart rate professionally tested? Or what other methods are there to find out a more accurate max heart rate?
Nah, you don't need to get it professionally tested.
Do you race at all? If so, look for the highest recorded reading when you pushed yourself with "omg - I swear I am going to throw up" effort.
Or something like this:
Stress Test
Best of luck.
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