Excercise Trackers...Heart Rate Post Excercise Question

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DawnOfTheDead_Lift
DawnOfTheDead_Lift Posts: 753 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
My question is regarding exercise trackers that use your heart rate as part of calculating your calorie burn. Example is my apple watch.

I am training for a half marathon.

Before my run I did a nice 10 minute warm up walk, my heart rate was around 80 BPM and the calories burned was around 50.

I run 10 miles, and do the same 10 minute cool down walk, my heart rate is around 120 BPM and calories burned was around 200.

So my question is, how accuarte is heart rate in this instance? Is it over estimating because my HR is still high from the run or am i truly burning more do to the excercise before hand?

Replies

  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,728 Member
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    It's a HRM. It's telling you what your HR is.

    I think the question you're asking is calorie burn not HR. And the answer is no, the 200 calorie burn estimate is not accurate.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    Did you walk the same distance in those ten minutes? If so the calorie burn was about the same.
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
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    Your residual HR is giving you an unusually high-calorie burn. Some fitness trackers will take the distance you are moving into account and reduce the calorie burn for that distance following a high HR event.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    DawnOfTheDead_Lift wrote: »
    My question is regarding exercise trackers that use your heart rate as part of calculating your calorie burn. Example is my apple watch.

    I am training for a half marathon.

    Before my run I did a nice 10 minute warm up walk, my heart rate was around 80 BPM and the calories burned was around 50.

    I run 10 miles, and do the same 10 minute cool down walk, my heart rate is around 120 BPM and calories burned was around 200.

    So my question is, how accuarte is heart rate in this instance? Is it over estimating because my HR is still high from the run or am i truly burning more do to the excercise before hand?

    The issue that you've got is that Heart Rate is only a reliable proxy for calorie expenditure in a fairly narrow set of circumstances. For walking and running distance and body-mass are much better indicators:
    • Cals per mile running = 0.6*bodyweight in lbs
    • Cals per mile walking = 0.3*bodyweight in lbs

    That assumes flat ground, rather than significant ascent or descent, but the same principles apply.

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