Heart rate = amount of calories burnt?
Jayj180894
Posts: 286 Member
Does your heart rate contribute to how many calories you burn? I.E if you're on the treadmill and your heartbeat is 150 are you going to burn more calories if your heart rate is around 120 doing the same exercise and same intensity? I'm asking as I am on beta blockers which slow your heart rate down as I suffer with anxiety
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?? Anyone0
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yes, some go by anaerobic zones, however my h7 normally says at 170 im working to hard. 140-160 is nice fat loss burning1
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That's annoying! It doesn't matter how hard I work it seems to stay at 120-130! Before I was on them it was 170-1800
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chloehallam180894 wrote: »That's annoying! It doesn't matter how hard I work it seems to stay at 120-130! Before I was on them it was 170-180
Thats the beta blockers doing their job to control the heart rate and keep it lower. I have a friend who is on Beta Blockers and the highest her heart rate gets during intense exercise is 135. My heart doctor told me you will reap the best benefits with your heart rate being 75% of you maximum heart rate. But even with your heart rate being 130 your still burning calories and still getting the benefits of improving your cardiovascular health. I wouldn't worry about it to much since weight loss is mainly from a calorie deficit.
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Thank you! I was just a bit worried I am losing weight ATM but was wondering if I up my intensity more whether it would make a differnce. But thank you ☺1
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Heart rate is an indicator of increased calorie burn, but it isn't one to one. When you burn calories you use more oxygen, so your heart has to increase the rate at which it pumps blood. But temperature is another thing that can increase your heart rate because you pump more blood to cool your body. On a cold day, your heart rate may stay lower, even though you are burning quite a few calories.
The best indication of calorie burn is how much you are breathing. The more air you require to perform an activity the more calories you are burning. In fact, if you have a way to measure the volume of air you are exhaling you can calculate the number of calories you are burning.3 -
I definitely burn more calories when my HR is higher. I'll burn 500ish calories in Orangetheory (where my heart rate can climb into the 170s) vs. 450 calories in spin (where I am a nice, steady 145-150 the whole time.) Same length of time class!0
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It's an indicator of how hard you are working, but lack of fitness (which a higher heart rate at the same activity will indicate) does not mean you are burning more. For something like walking or running I think weight and miles and time, plus incline, tell you more than heart rate. If you (hypothetically) could run 8 miles in an hour with your heart rate staying at 130, you'd still burn whatever someone of your weight burns doing that.0
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chloehallam180894 wrote: »Does your heart rate contribute to how many calories you burn? I.E if you're on the treadmill and your heartbeat is 150 are you going to burn more calories if your heart rate is around 120 doing the same exercise and same intensity? I'm asking as I am on beta blockers which slow your heart rate down as I suffer with anxiety
In this case, NO, it doesn't. I've looked over this thread and you have gotten a lot of wrong information, which could be discouraging.
Your calorie burn is based on the workload you are performing and the amount of oxygen it takes to maintain that workload.
During aerobic exercise, heart rate is an INDIRECT indicator of intensity. In other words it goes up and down based on intensity. However, the actual heart rate itself does not "cause" the calorie burn.
The oxygen cost (and calorie burn) of an aerobic workload is relatively constant for that workload.
When you take a beta blocker, it changes the HR response to exercise, but NOT the calorie burn. That is because you are still doing the same workload and burning the same amount of oxygen. The beta blocker has just reset your HR "scale".
If your treadmill speed/incline raised your "unblocked" HR to 150 and you burned 400 calories an hour, and now with the beta blocker at the same speed/incline your HR is now 120, you are still burning roughly 400 calories an hour (maybe slightly less because beta blockers can reduce oxygen uptake by 3%-6%).
So do not think that the beta blocker is significantly lowering your calorie burn. It is not.
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Heart rate is used to guesstimate your calorie burn, but this can be altered (such as with meds), that doesn't negate or reduce the calorie burn that you are getting. I can artificially increase my heart rate using caffeine, that doesn't guarantee an increased calorie burn. Although it may give me the energy to go harder, faster, longer which would increase the burn.0
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Kind of sort of not really.
Your heart rate is a factor of how hard you're working, and how hard you're working is a factor in determining your burn. BUT other factors influence your heart rate also, like your fitness level. And other factors influence your burn, like your size, gender.
So ultimately: there is more to it.0 -
chloehallam180894 wrote: »Does your heart rate contribute to how many calories you burn? I.E if you're on the treadmill and your heartbeat is 150 are you going to burn more calories if your heart rate is around 120 doing the same exercise and same intensity? I'm asking as I am on beta blockers which slow your heart rate down as I suffer with anxiety
There is no direct relationship between heart rate and calories burned...your heart rate is just used in an algorithm that also assumes a steady state aerobic event to give you an estimate of calories burned. If your HR was higher before beta blockers then your burns would actually be inflated...you're not working any harder, your heart is just beating faster.4 -
chloehallam180894 wrote: »Thank you! I was just a bit worried I am losing weight ATM but was wondering if I up my intensity more whether it would make a differnce. But thank you ☺
I wouldn't stress over it. Just because your heart rate only gets up to 130 doesn't mean your not burning the same amount of calories you did before when your heart rate was in the 170's. It's the amount of effort your putting in.
I would keep doing what your doing.
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chloehallam180894 wrote: »Does your heart rate contribute to how many calories you burn? I.E if you're on the treadmill and your heartbeat is 150 are you going to burn more calories if your heart rate is around 120 doing the same exercise and same intensity? I'm asking as I am on beta blockers which slow your heart rate down as I suffer with anxiety
The first part is backwards. Your heart rate is your reaction to the work you're doing and the calories you're burning.
I ski cross country. Skiing up hill is a lot of work (it burns a lot of calories quickly) and skiing down hill is basically rest time. But my highest heart rates are always when I ski down a big hill. Because my skills are only medium, I see the hill and think "oh poop!" and my fight or flight reaction spikes my heart rate. I'm not actually burning many calories at that point, even though my heart rate would make you think otherwise.
You said you're on a treadmill. Most of your calories are being burned in your leg muscles, not in your heart.2 -
The first part is backwards. Your heart rate is your reaction to the work you're doing and the calories you're burning.
I know this. That's why I am asking as I'm doing the same amount of work at the same intensity but my heart beat is lower. The treadmill was just an example
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chloehallam180894 wrote: »The first part is backwards. Your heart rate is your reaction to the work you're doing and the calories you're burning.
I know this. That's why I am asking as I'm doing the same amount of work at the same intensity but my heart beat is lower. The treadmill was just an example
Your calorie burn is the same for the same amount of work...nothing to do with your HR...that's what people are telling you. There is no direct relationship between HR and calories burned.
I take a beta blocker as well for hypertension...2 -
I am pretty sure the answer is no but I'm not a doctor. Calorie burn is a physics and thermodynamics equations.
It takes X amount of energy (calories) to perform X amount of work (exercise). Your heart pumps and provides oxygen and nutrient rich blood to the muscles performing the work and the vessles take the waste blood away. You're heart rate will go up with exercise BUT the more efficient it becomes the fewer contractions or beats are needed to supply blood to the muscles performing the work. SO it is possible for your heart rate to go down but still burn the same number of calories.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »chloehallam180894 wrote: »The first part is backwards. Your heart rate is your reaction to the work you're doing and the calories you're burning.
I know this. That's why I am asking as I'm doing the same amount of work at the same intensity but my heart beat is lower. The treadmill was just an example
Your calorie burn is the same for the same amount of work...nothing to do with your HR...that's what people are telling you. There is no direct relationship between HR and calories burned.
I take a beta blocker as well for hypertension...
Aye! I'm glad that's how it works lol
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No, there are lots of things that can cause a spike in HR which but do not increase calories burnt (pressure response, fear, etc). As said above, HR is used as an indicator of calorific burn but it is not a primary indicator.1
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Let me simplify this. You are on a beta blocker which lowers your heart rate. However, if you are concerned you are sabotaging your weight loss by taking a beta blocker then you don't need to worry.1
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chloehallam180894 wrote: »
Because, as several have already said, your heart rate has nothing to do with weight loss. Read Azdak's post upthread.2 -
To throw more information into the mix, the people who burn the most calories are often the people who have the lowest heart rates while doing it. Many professional cyclists have resting heart rates in the 40's and even when they are putting out power that seems impossible to most of us, their heart rates don't go excessively high.
Now beta blockers won't do that for you. It is more like it will put a limit on how much you can exert yourself.2 -
It's about a workload. It takes this much energy to move X weight Y distance. Take the beta blocker.1
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From the Fitness subforum ...
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10506547/heart-rate-monitors-are-not-calorie-monitors#latest2 -
chloehallam180894 wrote: »
Because, as several have already said, your heart rate has nothing to do with weight loss. Read Azdak's post upthread.
Correct. If it did, I would have lost a lot of weight with anxiety which causes high heart rate.
I'm also on beta blockers which I take before lifting and after cardio, and to manage anxiety.2 -
I deal with this issue constantly with members and clients. I am surprised at how few doctors ever explain the HR blunting effect of beta blockers when prescribe them. I'd say this is the case in 85% of the people I talk to.3
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chloehallam180894 wrote: »
Because, as several have already said, your heart rate has nothing to do with weight loss. Read Azdak's post upthread.
Aye, but I still don't understand his statement0 -
I deal with this issue constantly with members and clients. I am surprised at how few doctors ever explain the HR blunting effect of beta blockers when prescribe them. I'd say this is the case in 85% of the people I talk to.
They don't educate, sometimes they really don't understand themselves.
I was on 100 mg of atenelol for years RHR of 55.
After about 15 years I felt bad, dizzy all the time. Finally go to the ER with chest pain(probably mild panic attack) and falling down dizzy. Spent a night in an ICU bed, for observation. One person mentioned my heart rate while sleeping was in the 30s, but no problem. Discharged feeling the same, a really bad next year! Finally got so bad at work I end up in a different ER. Now my heart rate was in the 30s with a whole crew working on me. They took me off atenelol.
Point is there were telltale signs all along, if someone really understood how much beta blockers impact heartrate. I'd complained for many appointments with my then dr. about how bad I felt if I was an hour late for a dose. To this day I believe that the dose was too high for me.0 -
TimothyFish wrote: »To throw more information into the mix, the people who burn the most calories are often the people who have the lowest heart rates while doing it. Many professional cyclists have resting heart rates in the 40's and even when they are putting out power that seems impossible to most of us, their heart rates don't go excessively high.
Now beta blockers won't do that for you. It is more like it will put a limit on how much you can exert yourself.
It's not a hard limit either, I've been on them for a couple of years now and they don't limit my exertion noticeably. For the first few months I'd feel weird if I exerted myself, I think because the heart rate wasn't elevating enough, but I adapted and now feel normal and can do as much as before.
Beta blockers don't affect my weight loss. They just stop the fight/flight reaction being triggered constantly for no reason. When that's happening you are not burning extra calories - you're like car revving in neutral.
Heart rate is not a direct indicator of calorie burn, it's related, but the relation is not simple. At the end of the day, you burn energy by doing stuff, not by achieving a certain heart rate.0
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