Polar Flow Fitness/Heart Rate Monitors. How accurate are they?

neely47

I do a bootcamp workout 5 days a week for about an hour. I recently started wearing the Polar A300 Fitness/Heart rate monitor with both the wrist monitor and the chest strap for the last 2 days during my workout, and it's been stating that I've been burning about 800 calories for about 1 hour. That seems too good to be true, and I am questioning whether or not how accurate these monitors are. Here are the stats from the Polar Flow A300:

Oct 30
Duration: 00:46:18
Calories burned: 855 kcal
Avg Heart rate: 167 bpm
HR min: 79 bpm
HR max: 195 bpm
Fat burn % of cells: 12%

Oct 31
Duration: 00:55:49
Calories burned: 841 kcal
Avg Heart rate: 149 bpm
HR min: 93 bpm
HR max: 172 bpm
Fat burn % of cells: 23%

Also, is my average HR at a "good" level during the workout? Thanks

NorthCascades

I bet the HR statistics (min, max, avg) are accurate. But the calories number is "for entertainment purposes only."

Azdak

Heart rate drives the calorie numbers. If your HR is “artificially “ high, it will skew the calorie number.

In your case there are two likely reasons: a) your actual max HR is significantly higher than the age-predicted max Hr programmed into the Polar. That means that your exercise HR will also be higher than avg so the Polar thinks you are working much harder than you actually are. (BTW, if this the case it is nothing abnormal—quite a few people fit in this category). the nature of the movements in a typical boot camp class tend to push heart rate higher in comparison to oxygen uptake. This results in the same thing—the HRM thinks you are working at a higher aerobic level than you are and it significantly overestimates the calories burned.

This is not a unique flaw with Polar products-the A300 is a good device. It’s a built in issue with HRMs in general and it is why they have limited benefit for estimating exercise calories, especially non steady-state exercise.

sijomial

It's been stating that I've been burning about 800 calories for about 1 hour. That seems too good to be true.
Wholeheartedly agree.

I am questioning whether or not how accurate these monitors are.
For heart rate, yes should be pretty good, for calories during an inappropriate exercise - nope.

Duration: 00:46:18
Calories burned: 855 kcal
Look forward to seeing you in the next Olympics! That would be a phenomenal level of fitness.

Also, is my average HR at a "good" level during the workout? Thanks.
For you? For me? For a mythical average person? For what goal or purpose?
Time in a particular HR zone might be (somewhat) relevant for steady state cardio but average could be a mix of low and high or close to holding steady. What do you think its value would be as a metric for a boot camp workout?


My min/max HR is 48/176 with a matching comparatively low exercise HR. Can you see how HR isn't really a great indication of calories across a whole population?